College Tour Time

Robbie's a junior this year, so you know what that means . . . it's college tour time!

We started last summer, during Iowa Private College Week, and have visited five colleges.  We're focusing on colleges that are within a 3-hour drive and are in the Associated Colleges of the Midwest consortium.  Coe is part of the ACM consortium and most of the colleges offer a tuition exchange.  Meaning:  Robbie can go to them tuition-free. One of the perks of being a PK!  (Professors' Kid)

So here's the wrap-up, in chronological order.

Coe College

Coe's take-home message:
"We love you!"
(The tour guides cheered and clapped when the prospectives and their parents went out of the building to go on tours.)
Cool thing about this college:  "I know a lot of people who teach there already," says Robbie.
Memorable moments:  Robbie meets Robbie Benson, who works in the digital music lab.  Also, Robbie wins a door prize, a Coe water bottle.

Cornell College

Cornell's take-home message:
One course at a time--students take just one course at a time. It meets for 4 hours a day, 5 days a week for about 3 1/2 weeks.
Robbie is intrigued by this.  He likes the idea of not being distracted by too many classes, and getting to focus just on one.  But he's not sure about how it would work out.
Cool thing about this college:  Picturesque campus and a cute small town.

Grinnell College

Grinell's take-home message:
Self-governance
"We can make it happen."  (Grinell boasts a $1 billion endowment.  Yes, billion!)
Cool thing about this college:  Awesome new science building financed by one of the Intel guys.  It's where our friend Jean went to college.
Memorable moment:  Discovering the "treehouse"-style carrels in the library.

Luther College

Luther's take-home message:
The Luther Community cares.
Math, science, and music--Luther is known for excellence in those.
Cool thing about the college:  "Luther: it's chill," says Robbie.  I think that means he likes it.  He also liked that it is "north" and has an unusual setting (on a hill, bluffs surround it, there's a local waterfall and caves).  "Can I just skip my senior year and go straight to college?" Robbie asked after our day at Luther.
Memorable moment:  Robbie going to the Jazz Orchestra rehearsal and sitting right in the middle of the trumpet section.  The FT (first trumpet) was a Wash grad.

Knox College

Knox's take-home message:
A glorious past.  (established in 1837 by abolitionists; Lincoln-Douglas debate here . . .)
Creative Writing. (one of their most popular majors. I got some awesome publications with student work!)
Cool thing about the college:  Beautiful old buildings, excellent cafeteria, history.
Memorable moment: Robbie got to attend a Jazz history class, which he enjoyed very much.

Which does he like?  I asked Robbie on the way home from our last visit, Knox.  He said he liked Luther and Cornell best so far.  So we'll find out more about those, and probably send Robbie for overnight visits at both.

And me?  By far, I felt most "at home" at Luther.  It reminded me so much of my college, The College of Wooster--

• the somewhat isolated location that leads to a tight community, and lots of cultural events on campus, 
• the socially-conscious students who make things happen (at COW, our "Soup and Bread" night; at Luther, serving locally-grown food and erecting a wind turbine), 
• commitment to academic excellence--the Luther tour guide was often saying "this is a great place to study," 
• importance of music
• spiritual grounding.  Yet, the tour guide at Luther assured us that despite the religion course requirement, she never felt coerced to participate in religious activities on campus. "And I have friends of different faiths, and some who are atheists," she said. "They don't feel pressured either." This last comment was good for Robbie, my agnostic boy, to hear.  I told him he would enjoy the (required) religion courses because he could study religion/bible from a scholarly perspective.

I asked Robbie if he wanted to visit the state schools, University of Iowa and Iowa State University.  Most of his friends are planning to go to state schools.  "Um, no," he said.  "Not really?" I probed.  "Not at all.  I'm not interested," he said.

I would be happy if he chose any of these ACM schools!  You can't go wrong with ACM schools, and I'm so happy we have these choices.

Spring for Eli

In honor of Eli's birthday, it's spring!  Or maybe summer:  Thermometer reads 74.

Other signs of spring:

New bike tag for the new bike season.

Birds heard singing outside this afternoon as the birthday boy and I rambled about the yard:
Robin
Cardinal
Red-tailed Hawk
chickadee

Buzzards were sighted soaring above, as they always are on March 14!

Love them boyz

"Your face just lights up when you talk about your boys," said the nurse at my annual checkup.

I'm not surprised.  I'm crazy about those boys.

They make me crazy sometimes, too.  Like the way they gravitate towards screens (note what they're looking at in the photo).  And swear way too much.  And drag their feet about going to church, practicing, and doing chores.

Still.  They are absolutely my favorite boys.

Can I brag about what they're up to?

It's easy to spot Robbie in a crowd:  just look for the mop of hair.
Robbie is in Revs this year.  That's the Cedar Rapids Washington High School Revolutionists Jazz Ensemble, the top jazz band at Wash, the best H.S. Jazz band in town, and probably one of the 3 top H.S. Jazz bands in the state.  They practice thrice a week, and go to lots of festivals, contests, and concerts.  He had to buy a suit, of all things, to wear to concerts!  Hard to find a suit for a skinny teenage person who wears a 38 Jacket and 30-30 pants.  Need to get a picture of him in it--he looks very handsome.

But music isn't all he does.  The other day, Robbie said, "I need a new hobby that doesn't involve math."  When he's not playing trumpet or hanging out with his Magic: The Gathering-playing friends, he's doing weird math things on his computer or his TI-84 calculator.  No facebook for him (he just uses it to send messages to his buddies).  He uses a program called "Nitro-tracker" to make electronically-sampled music.  When he's not doing that, he's writing programs that will create fractals, or do his math homework for him, or he's contributing to (or even creating) websites that index home-brew programs or Nintendo DS games.

I told him that he needs to practice talking about what he does for his math hobbies. "Colleges will be interested to hear about this," I said.  "They'll be able to tell you if there are professors who you could work with on similar projects."

(This photo is one of very few that exists of Eli NOT making a face)
Eli wants to take an extra science class next year.  I am not crazy about this idea, but he persists in his dream of becoming a neurosurgeon someday.  Where did he get that idea?  He's doing pretty well in school--he's certainly impressed his Bio teacher, who thinks an extra science class would be a great idea.

He's not in any extracurricular activities at school, but he volunteers once a week at the Humane Society.  His volunteer job is "socializing cats," which means playing with them.  I call Eli "the cat whisperer."  The first day we were there, he captured a runaway cat under some cages.

He also just started an evening class in ham radio operation with his friend Ben.  Yes, Ham Radio.  The day of the first class, he asked me "What do you think the demographics of that class will be?"  (yes, he uses words like "demographics" in conversation).  "Well, sweetie," I said.  "I'm guessing there won't be too many other young people other than you and Ben.  It's kind of an old-fashioned thing to learn, so there'll probably be just you and Ben and a bunch of grandpas."  "Good," he said.  "There might be some boy scouts," I ventured. "I hope there are no boy scouts," he said.

Birthday

Lots of things can make a birthday special:

• Beautiful flowers.  These are from Ellen, Ken and Gabi.  Every time I walk by them I get a whiff of their sweet fragrance!
• The choir sang to me (and Marge, whose birthday is Monday).
• I finished my Sera Lace sweater, and wore it last night to see Dancers in Company.  Dance and a FO*, two awesome things for a birthday eve!
• Brunch on Sunday at Cedar Ridge Winery--it was gorgeous there with the sun streaming through the windows.  Great food and nice atmosphere.  The mimosas were wonderful!
• Yarn!  Anne bought me a big bag of yarn for  . . . big yarn projects :-)
• All the Nesmiths enjoyed a walk together in the afternoon--and it was sunny and delightful outside.
• Ice cream cake.
• A two-hour Downton Abbey to finish the day.
• Anticipating more celebration during the birthday season.  Because one day isn't quite enough!

* Finished Object

Owl Prowling

So why, you might ask, did I drive all the way across town to get in a swim at the Stoney Point Y today rather than just stopping in at the downtown Y, just 5 minutes away?

Well, first, I needed a swim to get rid of the pinch between my shoulders due to sitting at my desk, reading 48 (!) portfolios for the Scholastic National Arts and Writing scholarships over the last couple of days.

I decided to drive 20 minutes rather than 5 because I heard the water was warmer at the Stoney Point Y . . .

OK, OK, I also wanted to be out near where the Eastern Iowa Airport Snowy Owl has been seen.

Here he is; wouldn't YOU like to see him?

I sometimes think of him as "Karen's owl," too. She saw him once when she was driving back from Coe late at night, flying just ahead of her car!

Karen was lucky. I want to be lucky too, and see that owl. The way to get lucky--or at least luckier--is to put myself where that owl might be.

Probably by now, everyone's heard about the snowy owl irruption. Owls have been spotted all over Iowa, as you can see here. (The owl and cross shows where a dead one was found)

I found a cool video about snowy owl irruption on Cornell U's birding site. It takes a while to load, but the photography is amazing.

In hopes of seeing one, I went on the Iowa Birds listserv to find out where and when they've been spotted. There were a number of posts this weekend about the bird by the airport. Bruce drove so I could look for owls. We went out there each day of the weekend. The boys came a couple times, but they spent most of the time looking at their electronic devices.

In three trips out there, we have yet to see the owl. I'm disappointed. I REALLY want to see one, and it's so tricky. I mean, that owl could be anywhere out on those snow-covered cornfields!

But the owl-prowling has been surprisingly enjoyable, even without owls. The landscape is eerily beautiful--the snow drifting along the fence rows, the tan of the corn stumps poking through the drifts, the cozy farmhouses and beautiful barns. One day, we saw huge skeins of Canada Geese wheeling and unraveling above us--they must have been considering spending the night in a cornfield.

And there's something fun about the boondoggling aspect of these owl-less prowls. Bruce seems to enjoy himself--he was the one who offered to drive. He likes to explore. It reminds me of some of the trips and boondoggles we used to take before the boys were born--and gives a little glimpse of the future when we'll be boondoggling together again, just the two of us.

The Celebration

No birthday cake for Robbie this year. His requests were Chex mix and chai ice cream.

We found a recipe for the ice cream on Recipe Source, and used his favorite Chai tea bags to flavor it.

He had some friends over on Sunday to celebrate. This is how a teen boy invites people over for his birthday: (Robbie on the phone) "Hey. Doing anything this afternoon? Wanna come over?" Mom: "Why don't you tell him it's your birthday?" Robbie: "I don't want to make a big deal about it."

They played Magic: the Gathering, Wizards (a new card game from Aunt Ellen), and TrackMania, a racing computer game.

Of course, they also made and ate ice cream.

Happy Newt Year

It's an exciting new year here in Iowa--with the caucuses just a couple of days away, the candidates are swarming!

Bruce has been busy seeing them since this summer when they first started arriving here. As of New Year's Eve, he'd seen all but 2--Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich. Mitt was scheduled to be in town January 2. But the closest Newt would be was Waterloo, 50 miles away. Bruce was considering a New Year's day road trip to see him.

Although I'm not the expert that Bruce is, I've been to see a few candidates. The first was Tom Harkin the year he decided to run for president. Then came Howard Dean, who I heard, but did not see--a hazard of being a small person in a big crowd. I went to a big rally for Clinton and Gore at Quaker Oats. Of course, I also saw Obama in 2008 when he did an MTV program on Coe's campus.

But I'd never been to see a Republican candidate. They just don't interest me. I guess that makes me a democrat. The candidates this year seem particularly unappealing--angry and mean and some a bit crazy. Newt certainly seems to have a mean streak, and he does have some crazy ideas like school custodian jobs for kids and Obama being born in Kenya. But the idea of a little boondoggle to Waterloo with Bruce sounded fun. And even if Newt's a bit of a nut, he's a farily smart nut--so possibly interesting to hear! So I decided to go and see the guy.

Here's the bar where he appeared.

It was packed.

We stood near a door where we couldn't see very well, but could catch all the action in the parking lot--news media folks, people with NEWT 2012 stickers on their lapels and earbuds in their ears, security and police.

I figured I'd make the most of being small and rather inconspicuous, so I made my way through the crowd to check things out. C-Span guys with mikes on huge poles were wandering around and a couple of reporters were jotting notes on pads. The waitresses did their best to take orders, but they looked frazzled.

I talked with a few people, too. One woman said Newt was the first candidate she'd seen this year. "We used to live in Des Moines, and there were a lot more candidates there," she said. People standing near us, a retired couple and their daughter who looked to be about our age, had seen some other candidates. "Who are you leaning toward?" I asked. "I know who I don't want," said the man. I expected him to say "Obama," but he said "Ron Paul."

Eventually, the Newtmobile arrived. I went out to take a picture.

Someone handed me some stickers and a sign. I gave most of the stickers away and stowed the sign on the bar.

Because I couldn't see the stage, I planned to get a photo of the Newtster as he walked in--I was near a door and could duck out to snap a shot. But I got spacy from standing so long and missed it! Mostly what I saw was a short-ish guy with a big head and white hair.

He didn't speak for long--just long enough to berate his opponents for "going negative" and to tell us that he is the most qualified candidate for the job, having Worked with Ronald Reagan to End the Cold War (Go Noot!)

Then it was time for questions. He answered a few about getting jobs back from overseas (lower taxes!), the federal reserve (secretive, needs a makeover), NASA (bureaucratic, but we still need a goal in space), and something having to do with guns (been an NRA member for years). His answers were articulate (Bruce's word). I thought he sounded slick. He seemed to think he was pretty smart. I bet he'd talk your ear off with pedantry if you'd let him.

It was interesting that although the audience seemed appreciative, most of the people weren't bursting into spontaneous applause. "Did they yell 'Noot, Noot, Noot'?" asked Eli. Sorry to disappoint, but they didn't. I gather the Iowa republicans there this evening haven't really decided yet about who they'll caucus for. That's also what the polls are saying about our state in general.

At the end, Newt offered to talk with anyone who wanted to come up and ask him questions, which was cool. I think the tween-age girl near us was going to take up her copy of Newt's book A Nation Like No Other, to get signed. She, at least, looked like a true Noot fan.