Cindy’s Blog

Garrison came home for the first time last Friday. Its so nice to have him here, even if it means the return of laundry on the floor. He’s already put on his freshman ten, but in his case its mostly muscle from what I can tell.

The picture of him with his roommate may have been the last time they were both cheerful in each other’s presence. They are not the best of friends. You can’t have everything now can you?

Here’s Garrison and his roommate after a long hot day moving into his dorm.

They seemed compatible on move-in day. We’ll see how long that lasts.

The dorms have a new arrangement, each side having a bed above a desk to leave more floor space. Its much better than what we saw on the dorm tour or on Chico’s website. The downside is that no matter what your height is, its hard to remember to back up before you stand up from the desk to avoid hitting your head on the underside of the bed.

A few days ago we decided to get on it about arranging Garrison’s housing at Chico. Everyone says to sign up for dorms now to have an early selection. Chico’s guidelines say that the first step is to give them a $1000 housing down payment. We paid online. Then I went on to step two - signing the housing agreement. You’d think that payment - contract - choose-a-dorm would be the exact opposite order of events, but not so. As I looked the agreement over I wondered why it said Spring 2007 so I looked at the receipt I printed. Sure enough, I made an initial payment for the Spring 2007 semester when obviously he’s not there.

I called them the next day to tell them that he starts in the fall and I made an online payment already.

“Oh, you can’t do that yet. We’re not set up yet.”

But I did. They said they would hold it for me. I’m quite sure we’re the first parents of a Fall 2007 freshman to make our initial payment.

I suggested that they update their application to catch people trying to make payments for semesters when they’re not there. She insisted that that wasn’t possible. I know she’s saying that only because she works in finance and doesn’t know. I doubt my suggestion went anywhere. As a Dilbert cartoon said, applications should be easy enough that hamsters can use them.

Garrison received an acceptance letter from Humboldt State today. It’s his safety school but it’s still nice. It arrived in a thin envelope. Oddly, Humboldt sent a big envelope to thank him for applying (he’s holding it up in the photo a few posts ago).

On October 8 Garrison’s applications to Chico State, Sonoma State and Humboldt were submitted where he’s applying as a pre-Nursing major. All immediately sent acknowledgement emails. Humboldt quickly sent a thick envelope.

Garrison opened it while practicing his reaction when thick envelopes arrive later.


Garrison thought that it was an acceptance letter since it contained an application for housing. I enlightened him about the college application process, telling him that when an acceptance letter arrives it will be unambiguous.

Two days later a thick envelope arrived from Chico. This time the camera stayed in it’s bag as G opened it. He began reading “Congratulations! On behalf of the California State University, Chico it is a pleasure to inform you of your admission for the fall 2007.”

“Good job faking Garrison. That’s exactly what acceptance letters sound like.” I told him. I was sure he was faking, mimicking the examples I gave him a few days before.

“That’s what it says.”

And so it does. We’re so happy! The letter is dated October 12.

What better way to celebrate than to carve pumpkins. Here’s our inspiration.

This comes from Ray’s pumpkin carving tutorial. Here’s my attempt. It looks shocked and confused. The mouth is the result of a complete mistake. You can’t give your pumpkin a good expression when the mouth is bungled.

And here’s Garrison’s. Look at those gorgeous teeth.

Did we miss our calling as sculptors?