Bittersweet Acceptance

I'm excited to announced that Kirk was accepted to BYU. I'm sad that it was not the acceptance we were hoping for. Because of multiple snow days, the high school was delayed in sending off Kirk's official transcripts. BYU didn't receive them until after their deadline and apparently they don't make exceptions for weather. So Kirk has been accepted, but for Winter semester and not Fall. This will put BYU completely out of the running in Kirk's mind. I'm feeling very disappointed and let down by both BYU and the high school guidance office. Kirk did his part and is being penalized for things beyond his control.

Looks Like We Made It...Home!

As predicted, it snowed overnight and was still snowing when it was time to leave for the campus. Chicago does a great job of plowing and salting. Even though we left early (after checking out and securing Starbucks hot chocolate) the roads were very drivable for the eleven or so miles to the Bartlett Building where we were to be by 8:45 am.

Right next to the Bartlett Building are the freshmen dorms. There is a great deal of controversy over these bright orange, purple and pink buildings in contrast to the gothic and traditional archtecture of the rest of the campus. It was simply said that they wanted something cheery for the students to come home to on a snowy day...like today. It certainly is that. With Greek houses across the street, it actually reminds me a little bit of UCBerkeley.

We met with the coaches and did a question & answer session. That was followed by breakfast with the boys before leaving for home. Brian and Kirk wanted to get on the road but were tolerant when I delayed us to change into sweats for the long ride home. I also took a muscle relaxer for my back and crawled into the back seat where I could lie down and not think about the snowy roads. While I trusted Chicago and Cincinnati to plow the roads, I didn't have as much faith in Indiana and the 500 miles of nothingness between us and home. Brian and Kirk were less tolerant with me when I insisted on multiple potty stops in the first hour of the trip. They weren't so upset with me later when we were diverted off the I-65 north of Indianpolis. Most of the trip to this point I was trying very unsuccessfully to ignore the blowing winds and snow, to not think about the ice and being grateful it was Brian driving rather than me. I HATE driving in any kind of bad weather. I'm a true Californian in this. We later learned that had we been on the interstate earlier, we might have been involved in the accident that shut the freeway down.

Southbound lanes of Interstate 65 have reopened south of Lafayette, following a four-vehicle crash this morning that killed two people. According to State Trooper Nathaniel King, a northbound Ford Focus collided with a northbound U-Haul box truck about five miles south of Indiana 38 at 11:11 a.m., sending the truck across the median, where it struck a southbound passenger car in the driver's side of the car. The southbound car then struck the rear of a southbound semi, King said. The U-Haul truck landed on its side. All the other vehicles ended right side up. Two adult women in the southbound passenger car were killed in the crash, he said. One was driving the car; the other was in the backseat.Their identities were being withheld this afternoon pending notification of relatives, King said.Two adult men in the same car suffered minor injuries. An adult female passenger in the U-Haul was slightly injured. Nobody else was injured. Everyone in all the vehicles was wearing seat belts. Road conditions on the snowy morning could have been a factor in the crash, King said.

Still about an hour from home, it started actively snowing again. This plus large trucks kicking up snow on the two lanes we had access to made for very slow and frustrating driving. Still, thanks to Brian and answers to prayers we made it safely home. I was never so happy to pull into my funny shaped driveway! Kirk's got a lot to think about now.

Busy, Busy Day!

After breakfast at the hotel, we drove along Lake Michigan to the UChicago campus. The city was just as big and impressive in the daylight as it was last night upon our arrival. Our day started in the athletic center. The first thing you see when you walk through the doors is the first Heisman Trophy ever awarded. We learned a bit of trivia about this prestegious award. Apparently when college football coach John Heisman retired, he moved to New York and was the athletic director of the Downtown City Athletic Club. He created an award for the best college football player and awarded it for the first time to Paul McDonald of UChicago in 1935. (They were a division one team in their early years.) John Heisman died in 1936 and the award was re-named the Heisman Trophy in his honor. So techincially the first Heisman winner was Larry Kelley who received it in 1936. Paul McDonald won the Downtown Atheltic Club Trophy, but was the only player to receive it from John Heisman.

First on our agenda was watching the team's highlight video from last season. They do have a turf field, but it was evident from the films that they play in plenty of snow and the famous wind of the windy city. For this reason they are a strong running team. Good for Kirk. Not so good for Kirk is that this year's OAA Rookie of the Year was UChicago's running back. We went to lunch following the highlight film. I have to say, of all our campus visits, Chicago has the best food by far. I'm sure for Kirk that is it's own selling point. Following lunch we did our campus tour.

We began our tour by entering the gates that mark the "underclassmen" section of campus. These gates were also where the beginning scene of the movie "When Harry Met Sally" was filmed. I never paid attention, but they were students at UChicago and left on thier infamous road trip through these gates. That of course is strictly in the movies. Cars aren't actually allowed onto this part of campus.

Unlike other schools, our tour was conducted by the Offensive Coordinator. I probably shouldn't have worn heeled boots, but then I didn't know we'd be walking all the way around the one mile square campus. Our first stop was the Barlett Building. Long ago it was the athletic center of campus...well the men's center. I had to laugh at he midevil mural and inscription above the door as you enter the building.

To the advancement of Physical Education and the Glory of Manly Sports this gymnasium is dedicated to the memory of Frank Dickinson Bartlett. No offense to Mr. Bartlett *snort* but the glory of manly sports?!

Next we walked to to the Rockafeller Chapel.

It's currently undergoing a lot of rehabilitation. Rockafeller gave the inital 30 million grant to start the university. It is a universty rule that no building on campus can be taller than the bell tower of the chapel. At least one new building had to go six floors underground to accomdate this rule.

Inside the chapel is where they filmed "My Best Friend's Wedding" with Julia Roberts. The stained glass and wooden pipe gallery are stunning.

We toured more buildings, lirbaries, saw gargoyles and stained glass and were appropriately impressed. Then we returned to the athletic center for a presentation by the head coach. He is the university's biggest cheerleader. We heard a lot about the university, not so much about football. Still, it's evident that he loves what he does and will talk about it all day if you let him.

At that point, about 3:00 pm, Brian and I were "dismissed." Kirk was taken on a tour of the city and got to go down on the field of Soldier Stadium. Then he returned to campus for a one-on-one with the coach. Wish we had been invited to that. Then he had dinner, attended the basketball game and hung out with the players. We went back to the hotel to rest before dinner. I can't wait to hear about the dorms, the players and the rest of his day on the trip home.

We ended the day by having dinner at a little Italian place with my friend Rummanah Aasi. We met in an on-line book club for Twilight by Stephanie Meyer and have been chatting on-line about books for over a year. She brought her brother along and I dragged Brian with me. It was good food and good conversation. So fun to finally meet her in person!

Today we left for a visit to the University of Chicago campus on a football recruiting trip. Thankfully the drive up was uneventful with clear, dry roads. Brian got us safely to Chicago in under six hours with only one stop for dinner and gas.

Kirk's first glimpse of the Chicago skyline was priceless. He was born in the San Francisco Bay Area and has flown in and out of San Francisco, but he's never lived near a really large city. Brian and I grew up going "into the city" on weekends and school field trips. The biggest city Kirk has ever really known was Cincinnati. He didn't understand our laughter as we suggested to him that he really didn't understand what "big city" meant. We pulled up along I90 well after dark and the skyline was stark against the sky. Kirk was wide-eyed as he looked out his window. His first comment was, "It looks like the Machine City from Matrix 3." He was absolutely correct. I thought that was a great description. I don't think he's a real city boy, but we'll see. He gets a tour tomorrow as part of his campus visit.

After we checked into our room at the Marriott, Kirk took pictures out our 12th floor window. He just kept looking up. I can only imagine what his thoughts were. I know whenever I'm in the city, any large city, my mind starts doing the math. I think about all the people represented by the lighted windows in just one of those buildings. I wonder how many are newly or happily married. How many are late for a child's concert or sporting event? How many are hoping for a promotion and how many don't know it, but they're going to be "let go" tomorrow? Is there anyone who's going to leave work early to buy shoes on sale? How many have lived their whole lives in this city? What holds them here instead of somewhere warmer? Do they really like the Cubs or do they feel pressured into it? Then I moved from that one building to the people on the street. Driving buses, driving snow plows, hailing taxis, driving taxis, working the register at the 7-11 across the street. Who's going into the club below me that has "live jazz." Am I missing some great jazz or is it only "ok" jazz on a Thursday night?

I'm thankful the bed is really comfortable. Hopefully my mind will be quiet and let me go to sleep because tomorrow I have a lot of questions for the coach and I will finally get to meet an on-line book club buddy.

Another Acceptance!

Yea for Kirk! He received a letter today with his acceptence to Ohio University. That is in Athens, Ohio.

Graduation Cake

Today was Kirk's last day of physical therapy following his shoulder surgery last November. He "informed" me in his usual teenager way that it was tradition to bring in a cake on graduation day. Therapy graduation? Ok. I'll bite. The boy has had a long road back from this surgery and will be gone in a matter of months. I made the dang cake. Dark chocolate fudge. Mmmm...

Of course, as Kirk finishes, Jake starts. He saw the orthopedist yesterday who approved his healing, removed a stray stubborn stitch in his foot, and sent him off to therapy. We start next week. I say "we" because unlike Kirk, Jacob can't drive himself. *sigh* At least someone still needs me.

A Visit to Hanover College

Hanover...Hanover was lots of potential in the morning and had lost some of it's luster in the afternoon, literally. On the drive down, it was cold. Really cold. -5 F degrees cold. A large part of the drive paralleled the Ohio River through Kentucky where last Tuesday they had ice instead of our deep snow. Every twig of every branch was covered in ice. The vistas of the hills around us as we drove were visually stunning as the sun came up. First pink and yellow were reflected, then turning to storybook white.

The river itself was shrouded in swirling, eerie fog. When we reached Milton, Kentucky and had to cross the Milton-Madison bridge, it was like driving into nothing. The only thing you could see was the bridge iteself immediately around you. Not even a car length ahead or behind. Even though I could feel us climbing up, it felt more like floating. This two lane bridge has a main span of 600 feet and total length of 3,184 feet. It has a deck width of a mere 20 feet, and above the deck the vertical clearance is only 16.8 feet. Most big rigs can't even use it.

We were rewarded on the other side of the bridge with historic Madison, IN. It's so cute it hurts.

We made our way through town, stopping for hot chocolate and scones at a local coffee house and eventually made our way to the campus. The campus is high above the Ohio River and tucked back into the woods being what Jane Austen would refer to as "happily situated." We wound our way down aptly named Scenic Drive when the most amazing thing happened. The sun was just begninning to warm the trees and an ever so slight breeze was beginning to whisper through the branches. Without a cloud in the blue sky, ice began to flake away from the trees. It wasn't snow, it wasn't chunks, it was flakes of ice that sparkled the way snow just cannot. It swirled all around us, floating, dancing. By the time we reached the brick buildings and iron lamp posts of the campus, it wouldn't have taken much to convince me that we'd arrived in Narnia.

Kirk wasn't very good at reading the campus map and building names were obscured by the piles of snow cleared from walkways. We ended up at the administration building instead of the admissions building and everything just lost it's appeal from there. We back-tracked to the admissions building, were lucky enough to get a visitor's parking space in the poorly plowed lot and were greeted with a competent secretary, a warm fire, and no guide for our campus tour. Our guide eventually showed, but late. Bundling up we headed out into the bitter cold which rendered the etherial ice crystals less romantic while our perky sophomore guide tried to make her numb lips move. Some more history about the school would have been nice, but when you can't make your lips move, looking at old pillars just doesn't hold your attention. We did our best to stay indoors as long as possible. The science building was good for examining wooly mammoth tusks and the enormous skull of something prehistoric called a "Terminator Pig." I think its technical name is "dinohyus."

Because it was so cold, we power-walked through the tour rather than meandering and getting a good feel for the campus. We arrived at our appointment with the football coaching staff twenty minutes early. They were accomodating and toured us through the athletic facilities, which were impressive for a division three school. We watched a highlight video that reminded me more of high school ball than college ball and Kirk thought their players looked slow. Next came chalk talk with the offensive coordinator. This was completely lost on me. Kirk seemed to understand it, but I may as well have been listening to a physics lecture in Sanskrit. I tried to at least look alert and interested. I appreciated that it was readily apparent the coach had viewed and anaylized Kirk's film. Finally the head coach came in, to interview Kirk really. It was kind of stiff, but frank and honest. We left with a feeling that they wanted to know "what can you do for us" rather than "we think you're a great player and want you to be part of our team."

Next came lunch with the players. Our hosts were the quarterback and a wide receiver. Several of the players made a point to introduce themselves to Kirk while we ate. Food was decent, not as good as some of the other schools we've toured. The players seemed to spend more of our lunch talking to me than to Kirk.

After lunch was Elvis.

Lunch went quickly and we arrived back at admissions a full thirty minutes early before our next appointment. The competent secretary informed us that our assigned counselor was still at lunch, but she called to let him know that we had arrived early. He kept us waiting for 45 minutes, 15 minutes past the time we were scheduled to meet...with no apology. Kirk has already been accepted by Hanover so I was puzzled as to why they had even scheduled an interview with admissions. The competent secretary assured me it was mostly informational for Kirk's benefit. He could ask questions and so forth. Kirk had to spend a lot more time with the counselor than I did so it was a good thing he had a cold. I swear, the man had to have bathed in his cologne. It wasn't even an unpleasant cologne, but there was so much of it I wanted to gag. It permiated his office and clung to everything it touched. When he shut the door behind me I felt trapped with it like it was alive. I was antsy to leave, sure that I would end up smelling like him the way you leave a campfire smelling of wood smoke. You just can't help it. His hair was all one shade of black like it had been dyed. He even had longer sideburns. I vaguely recall him talking a lot about financial aid and trying to impress us with the fact that he was the second most senior admissions counselor at the school. He didn't look more than 24 and I don't think there was more than three counselors in the directory. He quoted a lot of statistics that did more to push my feelings away rather than endear me to the idea of my son attending the school.

When we were finally able to leave, Kirk and I drove by the stadium and paused at one of the best views of the river from the school to mark our trip.

I was so happy to finally be on the road home. We stopped for fudge at a little shop in Madison that was cuter from the outside than on the inside. The fudge was rendered quite unremarkable when we had to sit in construction traffic for 45 minutes to get back across the bridge. We were happily home before 5:00 pm. Kirk was invited for an overnight stay. I don't know if he'll go. Its biggest appeal is it's affordability among small private schools. If he gets accepted to them, there are other schools he'd rather attend. For my part, the best part of the day was getting to spend it alone with Kirk. We even drove home without the radio on, chatting about nothing important and complaining about Elvis.