Blue Ridge blog

A nightmare...

Indeed the house fire which killed 7 college students on Ocean Isle, N.C. Sunday is truly a profound tragedy. The students were mostly from the University of South Carolina where my eldest daughter goes to school. She is safe and wasn't at the beach this weekend. However, many of the victims lived in her dorm.
Before she left for school in August we had talked together about trips to the beach on weekends and different scenarios. This wasn't one of them...
The Daily Gamecock has started a blog called Courage Under Fire to help their staffers, some who not only knew the victims, but who have also never covered this type of news story before, deal with the emotions of their job. All I can say is it is never easy.

Hay!

We deposited eldest in Columbia, SC Saturday morning. The move in was neither as complicated nor as hot as everyone had warned us about. I'm beginning to believe that Columbians wear a 'hot' badge of honor the same way Boonies talk about surviving winter up here...
Regardless, eldest did jump from the freezer into the frying pan, and I am mildly amused by that...

I wandered around Valle Crucis yesterday and found someone had baled hay in the land behind the Mast Store.

Sealed with a kiss and a few tears...

Today I mailed eldest a letter to her P.O. Box in Columbia. She hasn't left for college yet, but I wanted her to reach into the mailbox for the first time and get a prize.
The idea came to me earlier while shopping at Bare Essentials. I saw a card with a quote by Eleanor Roosevelt. It contained a positive message for my daughter knowing full well I would be at a loss for anything wise and witty to say when it came time to actually put pen to paper.
I was more accurate in my predictions than I had wanted to be.
I sat in my Jeep in front of the Boone Post Office and scribbled off a few blubbering sentences to eldest. I licked the envelope and sealed it with a kiss.
Enter the tears.
I rarely cry, but for the past couple of weeks there has been this undercurrent of tension that only a hard core boo-hoo is capable of curing.
And buddy, if I had known ahead of time, I would have called the Town of Boone's public works department and had them send a bucket. Collecting my tears had the potential to also fix the town's water problems.
Instead, I simply made a foolish public show of emotions as I ran into the post office to post the letter.
I retreated to my Jeep and drove to the Kmart parking lot next door where I sobbed loudly for a few messy moments.
All's better now.

When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.  ~Kahlil Gibran

The photo is of a Joe Pye leaning over Herb Thomas Rd in Valle Crucis...

Electrifying!

Up here in the Blue Ridge we do experience rain storms, but nothing nearly as exciting or visual as y'all get down off the mountain. Tonight was an exception as a passing storm popped off flashes faster than papparazzi at the sight of Paris Hilton (wink wink, Amy ;))
My eldest daughter and I experienced southern showers and such as she oriented at the University of South Carolina in Columbia these past two days. She had just finished a round of placement tests and we were headed towards the hotel merely blocks away, when the clouds released copious amounts of moisture. Yes, we did see the approaching storm, but made a slight miscalculation which resulted in seriously wet consequences for the two of us.
My hillbilly little girl witnessed the importance of storm gutters (something we don't have much of up here) while her puddle jumping skills were put to the test. But at least now we know to add an umbrella to her list of 'needs' for college.I could write much more about her first real college experience, but frankly, I'm tired. Again. It was a positive time for her and the faculty and staff at the university were professional and comforting. I'm thinking these folks, like most of their collegiate peers, have this whole freshman experience thing down to a science. My main duty is to sit quietly and patiently in too small of seats and listen to The Bursar while being damn careful not to bugger him. ...as tempting as that may be...

We hail thee Carolina...

Me to Eldest: "May I blog about you going to USC?"
She to Me: "Sure. I guess it is official now that I bought the t-shirt and car decal."
Me to Eldest: "Ummm. I'm not sure exactly what to write. So tell me again why you did choose USC?"
She to Me: "Well, it sure wasn't for the 89 degree weather in March. And, it wasn't because garnet and black are particularly good colors on me. Absolutely nothing in my wardrobe works with garnet."
Me to She: "What? You don't like things Hot Hot Hot?"
She to Me: "LOL. That was funny."
She to Me: "Tell your blog I chose USC mainly for it's strong Dept. of Exercise Science. That will sound mature, but what really hooked me when we visited was The Strom.... and I knew USC was for me when I took the mock class on the anatomy of the upper arm on Scholars Day. Now that was impressive."

I have already paid the tuition and housing deposit via the internet. So, I reckon it is official. My daughter is going to be a Fighting Gamecock and for the next four years of my life I'm going to have to endure endless jokes about the possibilty of seeing my daughter on national tv yelling THIS or wearing this. It is going to be either that or explaining to folks here in the Tarheel state why she is not attending the Other Carolina.

But, I don't care. USC is an excellent school and we are delighted with her decision.

**Update**
Rob on the What's hAPPening blog linked to interesting survey results about parents of college-bound students.