Iowa State adventure

Well, another child will head off to college this fall and another orientation is done.

Meghan will be heading to Iowa State in August. They require the student and parent to attend a two-day orientation program. With the size of the campus, two days is a necessity.

For someone that doesn't take time to exercise, that much walking - including up and down and down and up steps everywhere - I am lucky I am still alive.

We took advantage of the bus system to get around in many cases - I even ventured off alone by bus while Meghan was in an all-student meeting and got to where I needed to go and back to our meeting spot! I was so proud of myself! (I did tell the bus driver where I needed to get dropped off. If I hadn't, I may have been still driving around with the bus driver.)

Being "mature" came in handy on one over-crowded bus trip. A nice young man sitting stood up and pointed to his seat. Good thing - I feared having to be a pole dancer until our next stop.

Our overnight accommodations were in one of the dorms. Maintenance must have been told the penguin convention was in town, because room temperature was set to "Antarctica." That would explain the frozen fish snack left sitting on the desk.

After we got bundled up, exhausted from a day of exercise (and eating to heart's content at the cafeteria which, I am told, any student will grow tired of after the first week of school) we settled down on our single beds. Thank goodness, no bunks. Every movement created the most excruciating creaking sound... with each creak I heard - DDIIIEEETTT.

My constant turning woke Meg across the room.

Finally I got to sleep but was awakened at 3 a.m. by my phone ringing. Austin? What in the world? No one on the other line would normally have made me nervous that there was a problem but I had seen this before - I figured it was a phantom call - and it was.

"I called you?" is what he asked when I called - not immediately - later in the morning.

I told him his punishment was going to be a new Iowa State t-shirt. (Yes, a Cyclone shirt for a die-hard Hawkeye fan...a perfect punishment.) The first thing he asked when I came in the house was, "Did you bring me a shirt?" and not in that excited voice when someone is looking forward to something new, either! When I told him no, he showed a sign of relief.

Meg - our adventurer - is very excited to be going to such a large school (coming from a graduating class of 12) - and I am looking forward to see all that she can accomplish there. Her sister and I may be the only ones from the family that will ever want to set foot on the campus, however. Darn Hawkeyes.