Ah, Admissions Adventures

So, I'm in Delaware. 13 hours early.

I have such an interesting job in the fall - I travel around PA, NJ, and DE going to high schools during the day to speak with interested students and guidance counselors, and doing the occasional weekend or evening college fair with a bunch of other admissions counselors. I get to see new places and meet new people every day.

Last year was light-years different than this year. Last year hardly any guidance counselors had time for me, and many of the students who came to see me really seemed like they were just getting out of class and had no real interest in my school, so while I liked actually traveling around the work I was doing didn't feel particularly effective.

This year on the other hand, even the counselors who were downright rude with me last year have been incredibly friendly. So I'm enjoying it a lot, and I'm enjoying exploring new areas with calmer, more confident eyes. And I have some fun stories that I pick up on the way. For example, today I went to a school that had an old file of information about us that needed to be updated... the only piece of info they had in the file was a copy of our "magazine" from 1994. Whoa!

Right now I'm in the middle of a 7-day loop from home to Central PA - Delware - Eastern PA - New Jersey - Central PA - and back. Quick stops in each place, but meaningful visits.

I was intending to spend 3 days at AK's apartment while he's in Wisconsin for a board meeting, however I had a major plot foil this afternoon when I got on the turnpike from Lititz to head east... I forgot my key.

I knew this was going to happen sometime, that I have the benefit of having a spare key to his apartment but that I would make the 6-hour trip there sometime without it when he wasn't there. Knew it. But didn't know it enough to remember it when I rushed out of the house on Tuesday!!!

I knew he had talked about getting another spare made to keep in his office, so I tried calling him all afternoon long but he wasn't near his phone because of his meetings. So I decided to take matters into my own hand and just burst into his office and ask them if I could dig through his desk to see if his keys were there.

Total failure, although his coworkers were so nice! So I finally heard from him and he called his landlord and the realtor who is currently selling the house his apartment is in, but no luck, while I sat in a coffee shop desperately trying to find hotels for backup.

If you know me, you know that my type-A personality means I like to have plans... and, for a change, I had no plan B here! So it was an extremely stressful afternoon for me, but I do feel fortunate that I have the resources and means to find a plan B when things go wrong.

So here I am in Delaware, 13 hours before I thought I would be! But now I get to sleep a little longer tomorrow since I'm only 15 minutes away from my first visit instead of 45 - there's an upside to anything.

As Babs said today when I was talking to her online from the coffee shop - October can only go up from here. :-)