So far, so good...

[acmespaceship]

Our son has been in DeKalb for two days.  The planet still rotates. 

He volunteered to be an NI Guide, which means he moved into the dorm two days early, attended a bunch of "leadership training" events that seem to have involved bowling and snack foods, and today he is helping other students move in.  His motivation was twofold: 1) the same theory that says you should gopher at your first convention, and 2) he had to be in DeKalb for a meeting on Tuesday anyway.  And herein begins My Rant of The Eight Pilgrimages...


Trips from Chicago to DeKalb since last October:

1.  Let's drive out to DeKalb and look at NIU
2.  Official tour of the university and the School of Music
3.  First classical audition
4.  Second jazz audition (first was in Hyde Park and doesn't count)
5.  Placement test for English core requirement
6.  Orientation Day
7.  Center for Access-Ability Resources (CAAR) Orientation
8.  CAAR intake interview

To this we were supposed to add:

9.  Move-in day

Now I realize that 90% of the NIU student body is in-state, and 75% of them are from the Chicago area and it's not all that long a drive, but really now.  If the University, the School of Music, and CAAR could get their acts together and tell applicants (or at least admitted students) everything they have to do right at the beginning of the summer, we could have combined some of those trips.  Does NIU get kickbacks from the Tollway Authority?

We may yet drive out to DeKalb over the weekend to clear up some loose ends and convince our son to get his computer hooked up so we can nag him via email which is cheaper than telephone.  Yes, eventually we'll investigate Skype.  Videoconferencing will help to get the cats and the ferret even more worked up than they already are.  I wish my nest were empty.  (Post edited because LJ cuts and paragraph formatting appear to be incompatible.)

Comments

[rmjwell.livejournal.com]

"leadership training" events that seem to have involved bowling and snack foods

He is clearly Blake's son.

[acmespaceship.livejournal.com]

Indeed. Some fathers present their sons with a car upon high school graduation. Or an heirloom watch. Blake took him out to get a custom-drilled bowling ball. I, being the nurturing parent, installed a fresh set of Aquila nyl-gut strings on his ukulele. Thus we prepare him to become a party animal. Seven years of college down the drain...