June 27, 2007

• Freshman orientation is one of those events, like showers or baptisms or graduations, that is important and something you want to be there for, without actually being very entertaining or even interesting. We spent a lot of time standing in line. Parents on the right, students on the left, in this case.

  I learned some things, actually. My kid is going into horticulture, and was the only one in his orientation group who was. That meant that we got a one-on-one meeting with his prof, and that was good. My son said the prof was "goofy," but it was a positive comment. He had an irrepressible love of plants. He would get all excited and twinkly over the thought of a plant, and he and #1 son had a jolly little talk on local carnivorous specimens, at the close of which the prof raised his arms and sighed, "I'm a plant geek."

  But before this there was a group meeting with the entire group going into the college of agriculture.

  There was a preponderance of blondes. There was one guy in overalls who kept making cell phone calls about his hogs, and a couple of fellows doing pre-vet studies. Then there were all these glamorous blonde girls. I am sure that they were all very individual and different from one another, but in a group they ended up seeming all alike: a dozen artificial blondes in shorts and baby doll tops, with lapel tags showing androgynous names and Texas hometowns.

  I assumed they were there for poultry science.

  This was based on math -- poultry science is the big program in our local college of agriculture, the one people come a long way to join, so the largest number of students must be there for the chickens.

  Not so. I had a faulty premise. I had no idea, till the adviser for the department told me, that we have a famous fashion design program. It is the largest department in the college of agriculture. I don't have the right term. The word "apparel" is supposed to be in there somewhere. But, really, what a surprise. If this had been a question in a game -- which town is the one to study fashion design in, Dallas or fibermom's little town? -- I would unhesitatingly have chosen Dallas.

  Three of the girls were actually from Dallas.

  Yes, well, that was the most interesting thing about orientation. Except that when it was all over and #1 son picked up his student ID, he turned to me with an enormous involuntary grin. He always tried to be inscrutable, and rarely smiles except for politeness, but he couldn't help it.

  I raced in to work and got there just before opening time. Cleaning, entering the mail orders into the computer, planning for the next event ... I checked up on the online press releases I had done on Saturday. It's kind of like a game now. I imagine what someone might google for, and then a few days later I google it and see whether I succeeded or not. In this case, yes I did. Four hits on the first page.

  This will work as long as I guess correctly what people will look for.

   I came home with leftovers from The Empress which I was able, with very little effort, to turn into a dinner the boys were actually happy with, and then Partygirl and I went for a walk in the park. I finished Soapsuds -- a very disappointing ending, by the way, and the book was not worth reading just to get to an ending like that -- and picked up Saturday by Ian McEwan again.

  I have been trying to read this book for the past month, and can't get into it.

  Here is a covert picture of a place where I was reading, for the Summer Challenge. I was waiting in this spot for #1 son, and glad that I had brought a book along.

  Saturday is for today's book club meeting. It is one day in the life of a neurosurgeon, and is filled with gore. I'm not enjoying it much, but I keep thinking that my mother would like it, so I will pass it along to her.

  It has some moments, but I doubt that it will be on my list of favorite books.

  My husband had to get up at 4:00 this morning, which meant that I did, too. I tried to go back to sleep, but with no luck, so I lay in bed and listened to the rain and read about the neurosurgeon.

  I have a teeth cleaning this morning, which will give me further opportunity for reading, and then is book club, so I will get to hear why the others really liked the book. This is one of the many good things about book club: you get to hear why someone else loved a book that you didn't like. It is very rare that we all like the same book. But hearing someone else's positive response allows me to rethink my negative response and perhaps to see the book's good side.

  • 7:01 am
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