Whew!

Five days, 8 states, 2 hotels, close to 40 hours in the car and I can't even remember how much coffee. I am finally back home after delivering our daughter Lindsay to college in Florida and then spending Sunday and Monday in Maumee, Ohio at the Checker Distributor Open House.

The first thing you should know is that college has changed. Well, not everything. The food is still pretty bad, the classes aren't that different, and books are still ungodly expensive, but the living conditions are definitely improving. Lindsay is attending UNF in Jacksonville Florida where they have just opened a new dorm. Long gone are the days of prison cell sized rooms and the bathroom down the hall. This photo is of The Fountains, the brand new dorm, and yes, that is a lazy river, complete with inter tubes for floating. The lazy river is directly across from the Olympic size swimming pool that is surrounded by lounge chairs and occupies the other side of the patio area. Do you remember your dorm having a patio area? I remember when we were happy to have a bean bag chair.

Lindsay is not living in the lap of luxury. She is in the older freshman dorm. Somehow sharing a huge room with 3 closets and a private bath with one other person in a building that features sun decks still doesn't seem all that bad. Classes are going well too. I think we are off to a good start.

I did feel a little guilty when we basically dropped poor Lindsay in her room, kissed her good-bye and headed home so that I could get back to work. I was scheduled to give a presentation to other shop owners at the Checker Distributor Open House in Maumee Ohio on Sunday. That required driving back to Pittsburgh, dropping off my husband, picking up Debby and heading for the other side of Ohio. A lot of work, but well worth the effort.

It was a wonderful event. If we ever have to select a committee to organize world domination, I am going to nominate the crew from Checkers! They managed to gather an amazing group of vendors, set them up in their warehouse space, allow several hundred customers to shop the warehouse, see demonstrations, attend lectures, feed them lunch, check them out, pack their cars and still see to every single need and comfort the vendors requested.

We had great booth neighbors. The girls from Quilt Branch were on one side and Nancy Zieman from "Sewing with Nancy" was on the other. In the few moments when we weren't busy demonstrating and answering questions we had the opportunity to exchange ideas and chat with the other vendors.

Proof positive that Debby and I really were hard at work!

Then, just after we were packed up and were ready to head home the staff at Checkers surprised me with this delicious birthday cake. Aren't they sweet? Then I returned home last night to a dozen roses from my wonderful husband, phone calls from my kids and an email box full of best wishes from some wonderful people. I call that a very satisfying weekend.

Home.... again.

I was in Florida yesterday…. and Georgia, and North and South Carolina and both Virginia and West Virginia.

Friday I flew to Jacksonville Florida to visit the University of North Florida with my college bound daughter. Lindsay was born in Florida and we prepaid her college tuition before her first birthday on the off chance that she would want to go to school in Florida. The program will refund your investment with a bit of interest if your child decides to attend school outside of Florida (Like Lindsay’s older sister). Unlike her older sister, Lindsay doesn’t think she will have any trouble studying with palm trees on campus.

We’ve looked at several Florida Universities and although she liked them, Lindsay was undecided.

Within hours of arriving on campus I snapped this photo and at that very moment I knew that we were going to be the parents of a UNF freshman next fall. To Lindsay, it felt like home.

The 80 degree temperature didn’t hurt either. Debby helped by text messaging us the weather report from Pittsburgh on Saturday morning “18 degrees and snow flurries” as Lindsay was walking around in her flip flops.

As a parent I prefer to think that Lindsay’s decision was based more on her discussions with the department heads than fact that campus is just 8 miles from the beach. (stop laughing!)

We did check out the beach and even a few quilt shops. We ate lunch on the patio of the restaurant, did some shopping to enjoy the weather and by the time I crawled into bed on Saturday night, I was convinced that it was the best trip possible.

I should have checked the Weather Channel

We intended to fly home yesterday. If you know anything about my travel woes, the following will not surprise you.

All went well until we checked out of the hotel, returned the rental car in a slight drizzle and went to check in for our Delta flight. Due to bad weather, ALL flights were canceled that went through Atlanta. If you have ever flown on Delta, you already know that ALL DELTA flights go through Atlanta. By the time I waited in the mob to get to the customer service desk, they had already graciously re-booked us on a flight that would get us home TUESDAY morning instead of Sunday afternoon.

To fly home I was going to have to re-rent a car (hotels with shuttles were already full) check back into a hotel (at my expense, airlines do not compensate for weather related delays) and wait 30+ hours to return to the airport in hopes that the weather cleared in time for our flight – which had a 6 hour layover in Atlanta.

Lindsay had a huge anatomy test 3rd, 4th, and 5th period today. I have a class tonight and I had the computer with all of the handouts with me. Instead of sitting around hoping for the best, we hit the rental car counter, secured a car, and drove home – through the weather that wouldn’t allow planes to fly. Being from Pittsburgh I am use to ice and snow (people in North Carolina are not, which is why we counted 13+ cars that had lost control and ended up meeting tow truck drivers and state troupers yesterday). Actually, it wasn’t that bad. All 13 hours and 18 minutes through 7 states and every type of weather you can imagine were spent with my daughter that I am going to miss next year. It was a long day, but we are home safe, the college decision is made, and now my biggest concern is how to keep an acute case of “senioritis” from setting in!