Leaping From The Box

What a busy couple of days we spent in Evansville. We left home Thursday around 10:00, which was the game plan. It’s a 600-mile round trip. Factoring in a gas stop, a lunch stop, and a rest area stop, it took about 6 hours. Our first stop was on campus to find out where David was bunking. We delivered his gear to his room and then left campus to locate our motel and unload our gear. We all then had supper at Smokey Bones, which was very good and only just a wee bit on the pricey side. After supper it was back to the campus with David, as the evening “mixer” activities were scheduled to start at 7 p.m.

Friday morning we met back up for the first session after breakfast. We had to call David on the cell phone to see where he was. We finally found him and discovered he had not saved any places for us and was sitting with his new friends. His first words were, “Do you mind if I don’t go to supper with you?” It seemed that one of his new friends had a car and they had all made plans to go to the mall for supper. So much for any worries that David might not make any friends. Not only that, but his friends were Eric, Ashley, Autumn, Heather and . . . Do you notice a trend there? I think Ashley was definitely the leader of the group, as later on she was the one insisting that David and Eric WERE going to the evening dance.

After the first opening session, we parted ways with David. His schedule sent him to various placement tests (David had to take the math placement test) and then several interest sessions and to the security building to get his student I.D. We parents could chose 3 of 5 different sessions in the morning and then 3 of 5 different sessions in the afternoon. We did meet back up with David once in the afternoon when we attended the Harlaxton College Overseas Exchange Program session. At 3:15 we met up again for the beginning of the Academic Registration session for a short time. Then the students went to meet with their advisors and we parents got to listen to a long session titled “Letting Go” given by the Dean of Students Dana Clayton. After all this, we did get a two-hour break for dinner on our own, then to meet back for another session in the evening. And then the Dessert Reception (loads and loads of ice cream) where we did get to see David again for a brief bit! Then we went to our motel room and David went on to the Student Dance and to play Snooker in the Underground (modeled after a London Pub).

Saturday morning we did meet back up for breakfast on campus and a brief session together again. Then the students went on to receive the results of their placement tests and to register for their fall classes. The Engineering department (of which Computer Science is a part) had given their students all the scheduling info they needed (class numbers, times, etc.) and so David was able to complete the registration process fairly quickly and painlessly. Bill and I finally finished our last sessions about 10:30. We found David outside the registration area and then headed to the Bookstore and Smoothie Shoppe with two of his new friends. By the time we covered all those bases, got back to his dorm, packed up and checked him out, and loaded up the car, it was after noon. The trip home was uneventful, but long, long, long. Everyone was tired. I know we’ve rested a lot today, just recovering from the previous three days. In fact, I think I’ll head for bed and finish this up tomorrow!

I won’t be posting much for the next few days. Bill (hubby) and I leave tomorrow morning with David for the University of Evansville. It’s SOAR weekend, Summer Orientation and Academic Registration.

Evansville, Indiana, is about a five hour drive for us, so we’ll leave mid-morning and arrive sometime late afternoon. David will be staying in a dorm, while Bill and I get to spend two nights alone in a motel room! Oh my!

From the looks of the schedule laid out for both student and parents on Friday and Saturday, we’re going to be busy, busy, busy. David gets to meet his advisor, take a math placement test, and register for his fall classes. There’s even a student dance Friday night. Bill and I get to go to presentations with such titles as “Letting Go” and “Now For College” and “Parenthood UE Style.”

We’ll be back home late Saturday night, so maybe I’ll have a chance to post an update on Sunday. Wish us well!

Today, while I was reading another blog, my daughter told me I should begin my own blog. I’ve thought of it. I even began one a couple of years ago on my own website, but it was a lot of work to write something, put it in html format, and then upload it to my website. I enjoyed the freeform writing and it did spur me to write other things, but the mechanics slowed me down and it’s been too long since I even looked at that first blog.

I named my first blog “The Writing Well” and I almost named this one the same. Here’s the very first entry from “The Writing Well:”

March 1, 2003

Why “The Writing Well” you ask? Because I am a well of writing that needs priming. I know I have writing ideas and material just waiting to be brought to the surface, waiting to be put on paper, but for some reason they are just not coming to the surface.

When I was a young girl, my grandmother’s home was the most magical place. Even though it has been over fifteen years since I was last there, I can still smell and almost taste the unique perfume of Grammy’s house: molasses cookies, fresh wildflowers, and that musty, damp smell that comes from a house that is closed up all winter. Outside her flowerbeds were in colorful bloom, the grass always needed mowing, the maple trees spun their helicopter seeds, and the profusion of lilacs scented the air for weeks.

What I remember the most, though, was the water well and its pump, an area conversely fraught with danger and delight, fear and fulfillment. The well pump was on a small shady knoll. As I would walk up the path to the well, I had to be careful not to slip on the moss covered stones that surrounded the well’s wooden platform. Even more dangerous to me, though, was the possibility of snakes. On any day there could be several snakes enjoying the cool shade and dampness of the well platform. They were nothing more than green garter snakes, but for a child petrified of any snake they might as well have been boa constrictors or rattlesnakes. The mere sight of them would cause me to freeze with fright, back away slowly, and run for the house. And the next time around I would be doubly apprehensive about going to the well. And yet, go I would, because there was nothing better on a hot summer day than a drink of cold well water!

Some days, though, the water didn’t come simply by moving the pump handle up and down. It needed priming, which meant that I had to go back down the slippery stone path, keeping an eagle eye out for snakes, get a glass of water from Grammy’s house, make my way back to the well, and then pour the water down the pump while moving the pump handle up and down. If I was lucky, one glass of water would do the trick and I’d cup my hands to catch the cool, sweet water. If not, I would have to run back inside and get another glass of water and prime it again!

You might wonder why I didn’t just drink the water from the house instead of going through all that effort to get the well water. After all, it was the very same water! As a child, though, I knew there was a difference. The well water from the pump was sweeter and colder, more refreshing. Or maybe it was just that the danger and excitement, the sense of accomplishment, made the water taste sweeter and feel colder.

My writing needs priming … a few common words trickling down the well to get the steady flow of cool, sweet words flowing again. Ahhh …how welcome that would be!

We’ll see if this blog fulfills it’s purpose better than my first effort. Quite honestly, I’ve not written much in the past couple of years other than lots of e-mails. Maybe I should spend less of my energy on the homeschool e-mail lists and more on my own writing!