The Evolving Face of D'CALC

As you might remember from reading a past post, before my roommates and I moved in together we were already talking about what kind of place we wanted D’CALC to be. We joked about putting bar codes on all of our possessions. We talked about quote walls and turning the hall into a collage of pictures of things we liked. At one point we even talked about making T-shirts. After all the talking and joking, however, there was one thing we agreed on: as much as we wanted a fun apartment that showcased our personalities, we wanted a living room that was warm and inviting and wouldn't scare people off.

Unfortunately, we weren't quite sure how to do that.

So we went to town, decorating the kitchen, bathroom, and our individual rooms however we wanted, but the living room was left mostly bare. As time went on, we slowly added things. Now, a year later, behold the final result:

A ceiling decorated with glow-in-the-dark bats and skeletons. Imagine if you can how pretty it looks with the lights out.


The top of the TV is our place of honor, where especially meaningful items that hold great sentimental value are kept.


How does one go from a warm and inviting atmosphere to a Halloween-lover’s paradise? Slowly. Very slowly.

The skeletons and bats were put up for a Halloween party. I knew Control and Ferskner liked the ceiling decorations, but I had no idea how much until I asked if I could take them down. They looked hurt and shocked that I would even suggest such a thing. To them, the skeletons and bats were the essence of D’CALC. They had to stay.

When we got back from Christmas break, a new sight greeted our eyes. Meet furry pumpkin.


Ferskner had been given it for Christmas. At first, we had no idea what to do with it. For about two months, it wandered through the house, popping up in the most random of places. A person would get off the couch to get a drink in the kitchen, and when they got back the furry pumpkin would be sitting in their spot. We lived in fear.



Finally, furry pumpkin found a spot on top of our TV. Ferskner added the reading monkey jewelry box when her mom came to visit in April.


Time passed, Control and I graduated, and Control moved. We got a new roommate, Melyngoch, and we joked that we were now D'CALC 1.5.

Melyngoch and Ferskner had history together. They had teamed up two years before to make a Viking ship christened Ragnarok in the branch cardboard boat regatta. As you can tell from clicking here, even though Ferskner had made a lovely papier mache dragon head for their Viking ship, Ragnarok was not a sea-worthy vessel. Now that Ferskner and Melyngoch were reunited, they decided to enter the contest again, this time with Ragnarok II: The Redemption. We got so caught up in making Ragnarok II sea-worthy that we didn't have much time to make it look pretty. The day of the race, Ferskner went to Goodwill and bought a teddy bear. Here's what my roommates did with it:


Yes, they severed a teddy bear's head, gave it duct tape fangs, and attached it to a cardboard boat. When Ferskner and Melyngoch returned home victorious from the race (they got second place), Severed Teddy Bear Head was added to the place of honor on top of the TV.

My, how far D'CALC has come. From an empty, barren wasteland with no decoration, to a place with glow-in-the-dark bats and skeletons hanging from the ceiling and a furry pumpkin, a reading monkey, and a severed teddy bear head sitting on top of the TV. And still no pictures on the walls.

In a few weeks, D'CALC 1.5 will turn into D'CALC 2.0, and Ferskner will have a new set of roommates. I wonder if they're going to let her keep the tradition going, or if they're going to run away in fear. While part of me is relieved that I will never live in an apartment decorated thusly again, I'll kind of miss it. Our living room is probably not the warm and inviting place we once imagined it to be, but it has character and memories. And that's important too.