Senior Projects

Tuesday 4/16:

Tuesday was just not my day! I was feeling kind of down and upset the whole day. I think there was some stuff that had been an issues with me for the last few weeks of regular classes that I thought I was over, but got dredged back up with my mom this morning, and I just felt pretty bad. When I am feeling down about something in my personal life, it usually makes me try to have a better day at school or work, so that’s what I did. I worked museum babies, which we had a good turn out for, then storytelling which didn’t have many people today, and then hung out in the clubhouse until 12:00, it was pretty slow today. Then I just did some office work for Kat and Suzi. Finally, myself along with the staff from education got to see a sneak peek of the World’s Fair exhibit, I had already seen it, but it was still cool. The icing on the cake to my not so great day was that I went out in our backyard to play with the dogs. I was blowing bubbles for them and had walked over to grab the other container of bubble solution. Unfortunately, I stepped in one of their holes they dug, twisted my right ankle, scrapped my left knee pretty bad, and bubble solution spilled all over me! We are also out of bandaids, LOL!

Wednesday 4/17:

Today was much better, but still very slow. I worked as the greeter for the kids clubhouse, then in the afternoon, I worked with VEX as a desk greeter and floated around the galleries. Julie also sent me information on me potentially leading my own story time, which will either happen May 3 or May 7. I am very excited and it would be cool if our lower school could come out for it!

During these last couple of weeks I have noticed Im both crazy busy as well as having more time to myself than usual. Thanks to my experience with three jobs, I took upon the front desk with ease; greeting customers as well as walk-ins, conversing with the artists as well as creating a clean and safe environment to the best of my ability. It dawned on me just how much Chelsea (our store owner) felt comfortable with the amount of tasks she’s given me- including my first day nonetheless. Due to my health, getting up later and having somewhat shorter days seem to be whats working for me at the current moment; though I still get an incredible amount done.

Chelsea surprised me on Thursday with paying for a CPR and BBP certification course- ones I proudly aced. Those courses were incredibly helpful and already puts me one step ahead than the majority of future tattoo artists and apprentices; as it delt with burns, cuts, blood borne pathogens, sterile and contaminated items, choking, CPR, how to deal with shock patients, seizures and so on. Using a device that cuts wounds into willing clients comes with a numerous amount of risks, the client could go into shock, blood sugar drops, suddenly start choking, faint as well as any blood contaminating someones face or other body parts. I’m very grateful Chelsea took time out of her own busy schedule to pay for these courses.

The rest of the week was rather uneventful, I did venture to their south city location which I loved and realized I’m much more comfortable with the city than I initially realized.

Today I went with EJ to the Court of Appeals downtown at the Old Post Office. We sat in on a hearing I looked into before today. The case was a man that was found with methamphetamine, fentanyl and a pipe with meth residue in it. He was charged for possession of a controlled substance – fentanyl (Count 1), possession of a controlled substance – methamphetamine (Count 2), and possession of drug paraphernalia (Count 3), The defendant was sentenced to 15 years for count 1, 15 year for count 2 and 1 year for count 3. Today, the defense attorney claimed that the sentencing judge was convinced the defendant was a drug dealer and ‘bad guy’ which led prejudice when the jury came to a decision. There were also text messages used as evidence from weeks before the cops found the defendant with the drugs. There were a few other points the defense attorney tried to make but it was evident the judges didn’t buy his reasoning because they interrupted multiple times to question his argument. The court room itself was the first one I’ve been to that looks like what is shown in movies and TV shows. It was build 140 years ago so the ceilings are super high and the designs on the inside as well as the architecture of the entire building is really unique.

On Friday I drafted more demand letters for about twenty files. This time it took about half of my day, only because the letters had multiple people on the file so there were more demands than files. The process was the same but the computer had some difficulty a few times which also slowed down my time. Drafting these collections letters wasn’t the most interesting thing in the world, but it was interesting to see what people are in debt for and how much money they owed.

Monday: Allergy sick didn’t do anything. My aunt got a Solar eclipse goggle from her community college, so I didn’t go blind when watching solar eclipse.

Wednesday: Nina was sick and Chris had to take care of her. So I did nothing either.

Tue, Thur, Fri: I started the Coursera programming course.

I finished Coursera finance weeks ago but didn’t cancel the subscription on time so it charges me another 79 dollars. I thought it cancel automatically when I’m done with the course. And Coursera didn’t send me any notification email for the subscription fee renew. I have to say Coursera knows how to make money based on people’s “I thought..” mentality.

On Thursday afternoon, I followed a different litigation attorney to court where he held a trial with a witness. The case is about a couple who leased a car and took out a loan from Alltru Credit Union to pay for it. The couple got a divorce and could no longer pay the money back, so they stopped making payments and kept the car. Now, Alltru is suing the individuals for the rest of the money on the loan. The Account Resolution manager at Alltru was on the witness stand during the trial where she was questioned about case. The trial went much longer than anticipated because the defendant’s attorney objected to just about everything he could. When it was his turn to cross-examine he wasn’t able to make any arguments against the evidence. The trial settled and they will meet again in 30 days to further discuss anything necessary for Hon. Nicolette Klap to make a judgement.

Here are the rest of the pictures since the last post was getting crowded!

This was one of the best events of my life and I had so much fun! The guests were also able to bid on the actual clothing items during a live auction as well as other experiences like a lake vacation, private jet ride, and a meal cooked by private chefs. From the donations $40,000 was made (one woman gave $10,000). From the auction around $30,000 was made, and from tickets, which cost $250 a piece, but I got to go for free since I am an employee and worked the event, was around $80,000.

Even though I did a lot of stuff Friday, I will quickly try to explain it, since there was a lot of special stuff going on Saturday. I am making an effort to keep my posts between 250-500 words, but if you would like to read the extended version (Ella’s Version, get it like Taylor’s Version?) feel free to check out my Substack under Ella Alt, username @jollyranger867 where I will be posting those shortly.

Friday 4/12:

We had our family’s history exploration day, so I worked that. I just helped wherever needed like setting up, storytelling, working a booth, or hanging out at the time traveling station, the theme was transportation so there were lots of trains, plans, & automobiles, etc. Then from 2:00 to 5:00 I worked the desks as a greeter; this was a little unexpected because originally I was supposed to leave at 2:00, but I didn’t mind! Julie also talked to me about being able to possibly lead my own storytime event, so that is cool!

Saturday 4/13:

Oh my goodness, I just got back home from Threads, and it was AMAZING!!! Everyone’s outfits were awesome, and it was so much fun. I worked the North Check In Desk with Lydia P., Mary (Suzi’s daughter), and Katie. This was fun because I got to greet people and see everyone’s outfits, while doing this I also met Travis Cummings, who is one of the lead anchors on KSDK Channel 5 News and also recently had a small part in a movie! Then I got to watch the fashion show and just hung out pointing people to rooms where we had other events for the night. It was really cool, I got to say hi to two of the designers and models after. I also met Chelsey Hanes, the MC (not main character *eye roll emoji*), she does a special program on FOX 2 News about STL stuff, and she complimented my outfit. I also met the ex-wife of a famous Cardinals player, Jim Eddmonds, her name is Meghan O’Toole King, she sells real estate, but also has appeared in reality TV shows. I also got to talk with Jason from the Historical Society, who was volunteering, and his wife Tomakio, I believe. Lastly, Jody, the president of the museum was wearing a fabulous sparkly black suit, we passed by each other at one point and he told me, “We compliment each other so well!” in reference to my jumpsuit. I ended the night with a cherry coke nightcap and chicken tenders with ranch from Wally’s.

Pictures:

*Look 3, designed by Mikkel Burnside, a senior fashion student at Lindenwood. Encouraged by his mother and love for making wrestling costumes, he began fashion design. He drew inspiration from a Drag Queen Costume worn by Candy Principle, a St. Louis based Drag Queen, ca. 1995.

This week was my last week; I was there for three weeks. I enjoyed it a lot, and I learned more than I thought. As a member of this country club since 1999, I was not born yet, but it was cool to see everything that happens as a worker at this club. It was funny because head director Joe Schwent had been working there for nineteen years, and I am now eighteen, so he watched me grow up. That was cool, and I was fortunate to grow up there and belong there. So what I did this last week was Tuesday through Friday. Well, on Tuesday morning, I got to the golf shop. It was bright and sunny that morning, so a decent number of members were heading out onto the golf course to play. Still, as I said in my last post, we do Wednesday memos every week, so I went out with Jessica Fox and Joe Schwent onto hole number 9 on Lewis and Clark to shoot a video. I learned a lot about how to shoot a professional video and get the right angles, along with Joe teaching me how to fix ball divots, essentially removing a piece of turf from the ground with the head of the golf club when hitting a golf ball. Anyway, I learned about that. Then we had lunch, and that afternoon was just the usual paperwork: unloading shipments and assisting members. As usual, it was a slow day.

Then, I am trying to remember if it rained on Wednesday, but a lot got done around the golf shop. Golf Pro-Brooks actually shipped some clubs that were going to Arizona for a member through a shipping company called Chopsticks, which is a company that explicitly ships golf clubs. Then we packed some orders and went to lunch. Then, in the afternoon, I vacuumed with the best vacuum I have ever used in my entire life. Like guys, I was so amazed by this vacuum. It sucked everything right up, and it’s cordless, which is a game changer. So yeah, I learned how to do invoices for golf clubs and unpacked shipments of orders to sell in the golf shop of a brand called Peter Millar, which is a best-selling golf attire. Then, on Thursday, it was a fun day because when Curt, head pro, was gone, we didn’t get as much done, but of course, we still got a lot done. In the morning, I ran some remembers on golf carts over to the hitting range back and forth and cleaned the shop. Let’s say it was a fun day. Then Friday was my last day today, so everyone was working. It was the busiest day because it was Friday’s fun day, and many members and their guests wanted to play golf, including my father.

Anyways, in the morning, I helped answer the phone, assisted members with things, and helped with paperwork and shipping boxes, same as usual, but it was a fun day. I also just remembered that on Wednesday, Brooks, Ryan, and Jim ran a 9-hole ladies’ putting clinic, and I also helped, which was pretty cool. Anyway, I learned a lot these last three weeks:

• How to do practical work like invoices.
• What goes on behind merchandising?
• What makes a good merchandiser?

It was proven because Head Pro-Curt won an award for its merchandiser of the year, which was pretty cool. I also had a lot of fun. Some phrases that were used that were so funny to me is the golf pros would say “Me not Know,” “A whole lot of Boo hooin,” and Lots of singing Christmas songs by Curt. He loves Christmas, guys like way too much. There were lots of jokes, and we had the best dress contest each day. I judged each day; let’s say Paul won twice. I had an excellent experience at the CCSA! 

My employers gave me today off since they had family business to attend to. The break was well needed though since I had back to back meetings yesterday… That’s about it for this week.