“It was to have fun,” said Maria Vitória Moura Cabrera ’24. “Our door was really simple, like every other door, so I was like ‘Hmm, I’m gonna print some memes about my roommate and me.’” She notes that she also printed some memes for a friend in Munger, saying she wanted “to do something funny for [her friends].”
Focusing on her roommate’s interests, she displays a lot of “biology and environmental biology” content and some feminist references. She points out some of her favorite memes, one being the Wikipedia page of the “bongfish” and the other a feminist Leonardo Decaprio meme pictured.. She says the printout on her door that best encapsulates her is one that reads “Due Tomorrow, Do Tomorrow,” laughing and saying it serves as her “motto.”
Cabrera describes another favorite she gifted to her friend in Munger: “I printed this meme for her, and it’s like a picture of this cleaning product that is like ‘30% thicker, and cleans 3X better!’” followed by the caption “‘When you change your wife for a Latina!’”
What she likes about her door is that “it gives everybody a laugh.” “I’m a TA,” she says, “so I work with a lot of students” and they say “‘Is that your door!? … I see your memes, they make me laugh!’”
Cabrera urges others to put up decorations of their own. “Whenever [there is] something, I stop to read, and I think people do the same — It’s really fun — if you want to decorate your door, just put memes!”
Not too far from Cabrera lives Sophia “Fee” Puertas ’23, who uses her door to share Noodle the pug’s “Bones” or “No Bones” forecast.
For those not familiar, Noodle the pug gained internet fame on the platform TikTok in late 2021. Each morning, Noodle’s owner, Jonathan Graziano, lifts him out of bed, and if Noodle decides to flop back down the day is declared a “No Bones,” or lazy day. If Noodle stands, it is a “Bones Day” and high productivity and energy is to be expected.
Puertas recalls, “When I first found Noodle the pug on tiktok I got kind of obsessed because I have a pet pug at home, my family has always had pugs … I was following along with the daily TikToks … and I wanted a decoration on my door somehow to say whether it was a bones or no bones day. I’m on Twitter and people have actually made a lot of these different signs, so I printed a cute one off and just put it on my door at the peak of Noodle TikTok.”
Though she has not been keeping up to date recently, Puertas said she got many positive reactions on what she aptly called Noodle’s “horoscope”:
“I can hear people outside my dorm sometimes comment like ‘oh my gosh it’s a Bones day!’ … I’m right across from my dorm kitchen and there were some people that would check it every day when they were making food.”
Puertas closes the interview with information about her own pug back home. “She is named Velma, she is two years old and likes to wear clothes and she’s just adorable!”
Though not quite a substitute for her Velma, Puertas likes that her sign “reminds me of [my pug] at home.”
Roommates Araceli Muñoz ’25 and Dani Gonzalez ’25 take a different approach. Instead of memes or forecasts, they spread joy through holiday decorations and candy.
Gonzalez describes how they first got the idea, saying “It was Halloween. We were at CVS — that’s when we found the spider webs.” “We hung spiderwebs all across our door and hung up candy and put up little spider rings” continues Araceli. “Back home, I did this to my fence … and I was like we gotta do it!”
Muñoz recalls an exciting interaction after the decorations were put up. “I was in my room and I heard someone go ‘Oh my god!’ I heard them go away, but then I heard them walk back and they brought someone to come with them! You could hear them taking pictures. … It was really cool! … That’s why we keep putting up candy, because it’s kind of nice to know people walk by and go ‘yeah, I love this door!’”
After their initial success, Muñoz and Gonzalez continue to decorate their door for different holidays. When asked which their favorite to decorate for, both cried out in unison “CHRISTMAS!”
“We had a big ass bow on our door … like the size of our heads. And we had streamers, and tiny little elves on the shelves hanging on,” says Muñoz. Gonzalez adds that they put stuffed animals on their door frame, as well as stockings, snowflakes, and peppermints for people to take.
In addition to their candy and decorations, the pair often writes witty polls on their whiteboard for students to respond to.
Muñoz remembers “being so excited to see everyone interacting, because we didn’t know if people would actually do it!” Gonzalez shares some memorable responses to the poll, such as “knowing the couple will eventually break up” as a response to “What’s the best part about Valentine’s Day?”
As the interview came to a close, Muñoz and Gonzalez began discussing potential St. Patrick’s plans, which will not be spoiled here. They asked that we include their emails in this article — [email protected] and [email protected]. Anyone wanting help decorating doors or planning parties is welcome to reach out! And while we ask you not to disturb them, they said people are welcome to check out their door, Cazenove Hall room 203.
