What is the "Wet Possum" deal?

Wet Possum!

Well, it all started out Sophmore year when we were all living at the Mosher-Jordan Dormitory (MoJo for short). Dani and Helen lived down the hall in the co-ed section. I lived in the boys section. And Right next door was a girls section. While there was a woman's room in the coed section, apparently it was not maintained very well. SO, Dani and Helen preferred to walk from their section, through my section, to the girls section to use the much better shower facilities there. This happenned every night, and so over time we'd banter a bit as they passed on through; I made it a habit of teasing them about their daily trek, and they'd just tease me in general (I've got a lot of faults apparently).

Reclining Dani

One day it happenned that I caught them on the way back from the shower, and for some reason I can't explain, Dani just struck me as looking like a wet possum. And so that's what I've been referring to her for the past two years, at least until a better name comes up. Nobody (including myself) really understands any of this. (Tall and blond are not the first things you associate with possums).

Lungfish!
"What happenned to 'Wet 'Possum'?", you might ask, and rightly so. But there are plenty of stories with Dani, and many of them have to do with the fact that she's an EcoWarrior. Well, while she isn't on the forefront of the movement (she's yet to spike a tree or chase after navy cruisers with Greenpeace), she's doing her little part by not eating meat or meat by-products. Well, airbreathing meat in any case. For some reason, if it's from the sea it's OK to kill it. Nothing wrong with that, it's just a little arbitrary. And so, one time when a bunch of us went to Chicago, I decided to confront her about it.

Working hard during chem lecture.

For the next two hours (a hellish experience everybody else tells me) I tried to find the magic animal that would break the pattern. A marine animal that breathed air that she would eat without guilt. Whales and dolphins were too obvious. but in the end, I had it. Lungfish. It's a fish, AND it breathes air! But, sadly, this too failed to qualify since we had just seen lungfish at Shedd Aquarium, and they looked too "yucky" to eat apparently. And so, while I still call her "Wet Possum", Elliott (who was there) has taken to referring to her as "Lungfish".

Mexican "Research"
The newest and oldest and perhaps most fishy of Dani's projects is her annual trip to Mexico, to the small island of ... well, I can't recall, but it's small volcanic, abandoned, and very sunny. She's there to do humpback whale research, and considering the other researchers she goes with, it seems like quite the exciting and prestigous thing to be doing. Except, of course, that there are very few papers coming out of this project with her name on it. We (by we, I mean mostly me) suspect she's really just escaping the harsh Michigan winters to tan all day long in her own private triopical oasis. And who wouldn't if given the opportunity? It's just that I've also got a BS in Biology, and yet when winter comes along, I'm always stuck shovelling snow. I've got to get on this whale "research" bandwagon methinks.

Quick Dani, ties those shoes! We're late!

There are plenty more stories of Dani to tell, but alas my time is short. However, as soon as I get the magic magic slideshow (It's been two years in the making now), there'll be plenty of new stories (or at least pictures) to go here.

Take a stroll to my friends, or back to the homepage.