Click to enlarge photos.By Laura Armstrong
Columnist
We're on the road to Tuscaloosa this weekend with a U-Haul truck packed full of begged, borrowed and Ikea apartment furnishings for my eldest daughter's sophomore year at the University of Alabama.
Actually, the Marine's driving the gas-guzzling rental. I'm following with the family - grandma, a teenager and two toddlers - in our gas-guzzling SUV.
Oil prices are down and many thanks to Drs. Gingrey and Price for taking a stand in D.C. recently against Speaker Pelosi's tyranny.
My firstborn did in fact survive her freshman year at the University of Aladambama, as my fellow Bulldawg and friend Homer Boatright calls it, despite choosing "Liberal Bias on College Campuses" as her first major term paper topic last spring semester. It was an interesting paper for which she received a B minus and the comment, "Not bad for a dance major," from her professor.
She was happy but still in shock, I think, after learning the university does indeed require her to take and pass academic classes other than choreography.
And those of us who're Bulldog parents are still getting used to some slightly different traditions.
For example, this morning I'm scheduled to join hundreds of other helicopter moms outside Bryant-Denny stadium in a strange morning ritual that's neither church nor Crimson Tide football-related.
If I understand correctly, we (moms of daughters going through sorority rush) are supposed to hang out, looking mahvelous of course, in the sweltering Alabama August, while the girls get final word inside the stadium on which, if any, sororities they've been invited to pledge.
I keep thinking it's designed as kind of a pseudo-experience for us, just in case there was someone wanting to relive the trauma of our own rush week, three decades ago.
Those who say Gitmo is torture have never been through formal sorority rush in the Deep South.
Anyway, after bids are extended inside the stadium, it's my understanding that we melting moms will receive cell phone messages from our little legacies, after which we'll "follow behind" them as they run happily out of the stadium in their new sorority jerseys with not a care in the world towards the appropriate sorority house, where subsequent activities are unknown but are highly likely to involve sweet tea and cheese straws.
And if you want a snort, picture a bunch of parents chasing their children paparazzi-like down the streets of Tuscaloosa with every available camera in tow. I'll be the one running on two hours of sleep, having just finished the move-in and assembly of aforementioned Ikea products to Cameron's third-floor apartment and the tending of two toddlers who I'm certain have discovered all the lamps in our hotel room by now.
But all that is just my life this weekend, a digression.
In real news, Obama bodysurfed on vacation, and that's all that really matters. Isn't it?
lbarmstrong3378@comcast.net
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Posted Comments
You are right on with your accounting of the move in and Rush at Bama. You mirror our experience right down to the U-Haul and Ikea furniture minus the two toddlers. My daughter Madalyn is a sophomore this year and is living in an apartment. Fortunately we only had to move heavy furniture to the second floor. I am also a Bulldog and my husband is a Yellow Jacket but we have thoroughly enjoyed the University of Alabama experience. Madalyn was on the receiving end of Rush this year with 2 weeks of day long workshops and recruitment. It was an intense two weeks. My best to you and your daughter. I hope that Cameron pledges the sorority of her choice and enjoys the many experiences that await her.
It could have been much worse. What if she had announced she wanted to wear orange (UT)? Just make sure that when she graduates she can actually get a job with her degree. My middle daughter graduated from Berry College with a history degree and , at one point, actually had to lie about being college -educated just to get a minimum wage job. Tell her to work hard and network like crazy and good luck!