Parents Weekend

Chizz and I recently participated in a time-honored ritual - parents weekend. For those of you not in the know, its where parents of college students visit their children at college and get an idea of what the kid's life is like now that they aren't living with you 24/7. My mom gave me some very good advice. She told me this is what she used to do. Instead of worrying about what evil influences Kiki might be exposed to and wondering where she is late on a Saturday night, I have to convince myself that she is always at the library - studying. Hmmm. I think I can do that. Maybe. Actually, I think I like being a bit ignorant about what is going on at college in that way but those aren't the things you find out about at these Parents' Weekend events anyway, so off we went.


UCLA puts forth a good effort educating the parents on what programs are available to the kids, what it is like to live on campus, giving tours of campus (if you somehow managed to get through the application and acceptance process without going to one, I don't know how you did it. I think I have been on at least 6 campus tours of UCLA), eating in the dining hall, special lectures and parties where you can rub elbows with the chancellor and other important people. You can sign up for just about all of the events or pick and choose your way through. We signed up for a few but avoided anything that looked suspiciously like it would be a hold-up for money. I can't blame UC, all the campuses are looking for dough in this atmosphere but we already give UCLA $27,000+ a year. We don't have anymore money. They need to be talking to Snake! He has all the money in our family.

We also got to go to a football game. Auntie L & Auntie S, being alumni, are season ticket holders for football games so we were definitely interested in catching up with them at the game. Kiki is pledging a sorority. I am not going to say which one to keep her anonymous but let's just say one or more of the names includes the Greek letters, Gamma, Chi, Delta, Alpha, Phi, Rho, Kappa, Episilon, Pi, Iota, etc. So there were activities involved with that. Most of the sororities had a "Dad's day" where the dad got a t-shirt. We went on a tour of the sorority house (where Kiki may live next year) and then to the football game. It was fun. We sat with Auntie L, Uncle S and Dew. The next day there was a ceremony at the sorority house, where the new members are presented to the rest of the members and their parents. Kiki needed a white dress. I think finding a white dress in fall was harder than getting her accepted to the college to begin with!!

It was a very nice time and now when I speak with Kiki on the phone about this person or that building, I can use my imagination to picture what she is talking about. The trick is turning off your imagination so you don't see what she is NOT talking about!! Library, Library, Library, Library.