Full Moon

It's dark when I wake up at 6 am these days. It makes me miss the summer a bit, but then I get mornings like this one. As I started out on my walk with Bravo, I saw the huge moon over the house across the street, so I went back in for my camera. I should have just taken that picture since it was just a bit darker then and thus the moon was more spectacular, but I still think the beach pics would have been better. This is only one of those I took at the beach - I may post more later. Technically, yesterday was the full moon, but it certainly was glorious to see this morning.

I didn't make it out to the barn tonight. I'd forgotten we had a visitor at work from our Chicago office, so Ejie and I took her to the MOA. We shopped at Nordstrom Rack and a little at DSW (didn't recognize any of the workers, though, Karis). Then she treated us to dinner at Johnny Rockets. I couldn't resist a chocolate malt.

I saw an article in the Washington Post online today about parents and their first-year college students called Orientation 101 for Parents and Freshmen: Letting Go. Here is just a bit of the article:

School officials are no longer surprised by parents who try to register their children for classes, argue about a grade or look up a future roommate on Facebook and demand a switch.

"I've heard four or five times this summer: 'I'm not a helicopter parent!' " said Tiffany Sanchez, director of new student programs at American University. She laughed. "Sure you're not."
....

At the admissions office at Hopkins, it's not unusual for parents to tell staff members, "We are taking the SAT next week," or "We are here for our 3 p.m. interview."

"It's the era of we," Conley said.

I know I was a lot more involved in Karis' college hunt, choice, and orientation than my parents were in mine. As I recall it, I sifted through all the college information on my own, and chose 3 schools to which I applied. My mom (or both parents? I no longer remember) took me to look at Duke, then quietly campaigned for me to go there instead of UVA. It was not a successful campaign as I disliked Duke on sight. On move-in day at UVA, it took about 15 minutes to unload the car, and then they were gone.

As the article points out, colleges have more activities for parents these days. But frankly, I think I've done pretty well. Of course, if I'm comparing myself to the parents described in the article, it's easy to look good. But really, I've tried to back off. I haven't been totally successful, but I've tried.