Tuesday, February 27, 2018

Happy 17th, Coco!

Happy Birthday to my youngest son.  You are growing into a fine young man.  You have come a long way in the last year.  Your health is under control.  School seems under control.  Good for you.  And have an excellent day!

Thursday, February 22, 2018

College Tour 2.3 - UGA

Coco was scheduled for an 8:30 am campus tour.  Fortunately, we did not have far to go.  We parked and walked over to the visitor center. 
     We got the standard informational tour.  We found out that we were not the only Massholes visiting that day.  A family from Pembroke was their too.  After getting all the information about UGA, they loaded us up on buses. 
     UGA is a long campus.  It's probably ever bit as large in area as Auburn and FSU.  But it is very narrow and runs North/South.  It is also a very hilly campus.  The bus makes several brief information stops before dropping the tour off at the high point on the North edge of campus.  Coco had already noticed yesterday, that UGA did not have the emergency stations with the blue lights, which are so common on college campuses today.  That actually concerned him. I don't think the tour's explanantion for that phenomenon, did anything to reassure him.
     I actually though UGA was a nice looking campus.  Coco was not impressed.  I don't think it is in his top 5 now.  And even though they say it doesn't matter where to you live when you apply, 85% of students are from GA. 
     Well, it was still a good trip.  This is how you find out what you like and what you don't like.

Wednesday, February 21, 2018

College Tour - Travel Day 2

Today, was another long drive.  It is 5 hours from Tallahassee to Athens, GA.  We left at a decent time.  I din't make Coco get up too early.  I figure we would stop for lunch in Macon, GA.  I had talked Coco into letting me stop at the Big House Allman Brothers Museam in Macon.  He didn't hesitate in answering yes.
     Of course, as things tend to go with the best laid plans, my side trip was not meant to be.  As I went to turn into the Big House, I noticed the gate was closed.  And locked.  I couldn't even pull over on the main road.  I parked at the first side street.  I walked back and took as may pictures as I could.  Then I punched in a search to Google Maps to find lunch.  We found a great little sandwich shop actually.  A hidden gem.
     We reached Athens early/mid afternoon.  After checking into the motel, conveniently located by a frat house and an adult video store......Coco and I walked to the UGA bookstore.  Coco really didn't want to walk but this kid needed to move his body.  We hoofed it over and found the bookstore, no problem  We even got a peek inside the football stadium.
     We had dinner at The Place.  If you ever go to Athens, I highly recommend it.  The food was terrific.  The chicken and waffles were life changing.  I mean, candied bacon?  How can you pass on that.  Dessert was amazing as well.  After dinner, we walked it off by check out some of area.  It is a really nice downtown.  It's bigger than Auburn.  A lot more choices of places to eat and things to do.

Tuesday, February 20, 2018

College Tour 2.1

Coco was scheduled for an 8:30 tour of FSU.  We got up and out of the house before 8 am.  As fate would have it, the FSU Visitor Center is in the Doak Campbell stadium complex.  Visitor Parking is located right next to the Unconquered statue, which he wanted to see.
     "How hot is it?" asked Coco.
     "70."
     "It feels so hot!"
     I responded, "you do know you wanted to go to school in the south, right?  You know it is only going to heat up as the day goes on.  And most of the time it is hot and humid?"
     "Yeah."
We had the standard informational session.  It was actually very good.  FSU now has fall, spring and summer acceptance.  Those are great programs.  It should help Coco's chances of getting in.  His grades will be a hindrance but his SAT's scores will bail some of that out.
     Coco noticed that besides bricks being used on the buildings, they were used on the walkway.  It was like FSU was taunting him.  He seemed fine with it, despite his aversion to brick.  The beautiful landscaping and palm trees helped.
     Coco was also fascinated that football tickers were included in the tuition price.  He expected it to be like Auburn, where football tickets were purchased separately.
     In the afternoon, we took in a FSU baseball game.  It was $2 Tuseday.  $2 to see a top 5 ranked baseball team.  The stadium was beautiful.  It rained most of the time.  By the 8th inning, Coco had finally had enough (which was far later than me, but I was not going to admit that), so we left a 1-1 ballgame.  FSU went on to win, scoring 5 runs right after we left.  This trip only cemented FSU as the leader in the clubhouse for his list.

Monday, February 19, 2018

College Tour 2.0

It's Coco's turn to tour college campuses.  No sooner do we watch the oldest son go off to college, than we turn around and we prepare the youngest son to follow suit.  Coco has a leg up on his older brother.  We took Coco to most of the campus tours that Caz went on.
     This has already paid dividends.  Coco already has a good concept of colleges.  He understood that not all colleges are made the same.  He really has a grasp on what is a big school and what is a small school.  He knows what a city setting looks like and what a rural setting looks like.  He knows that some school are strong in one major, while others are strong in a a different major.
     Coco also knows that he wants to go South, just like his brother.  He will not be applying to any schools up North.  So now we are off to see 2 schools which he has not seen before, Florida State (FSU) and University of Georgia (UGA). 
     Today was a long day of travel.  We left Duxbury for the airport at 6 am.  We landed in Atlanta around 12:30 pm.  Our rental car was not ready.  We had to wait 90 minutes.  We then had to drive 4 hours to Tallahassee.  We finally rolled into my aunt's house around 7 pm.  We knew we would have to turn it around quickly, so we could head out for dinner.  Coco slept the whole plane ride.  He slept the whole car ride.  And yet, he still fell asleep at 8:20 pm.  Teenagers sure can sleep.

Monday, February 5, 2018

Super Disappointment

Yes, the Patriots lost.  My loss though?  That was not having Caz for the viewing.  I missed having him around for the big game.  Demi did another amazing job with putting out a feast.  Coco had his specialty cream soda.  It wasn't the same without sharing all that with Caz.  He was fine.  He had a viewing party at Auburn.  He probably didn't bat an eye over the fact that this was our first Super Bowl not being all together.  But I knew.  I felt it.  It made the outcome even more upsetting.  This is how it goes though. It's part of the circle of life.  The kids grow up.  They go off on their own lives, their own adventures.  I hope eventually that seed of family, that sense of being part of a unit, that Demi and I have tried to instill into the boys takes root.  It blossoms into a longing to be a part of that again, when they start their own families.  Time will tell.