🎭 Theatre Writeups, 🛣️ Highway Updates, 📰 Musings on the News, and other 🗯️ Rants and Roadkill Along the Information Superhighway
Sometimes life is a pain… in the back. This morning, while getting dressed for work, something *tweaked* in my lower back and I’ve been in pain *all day*. When to the chiropractor, and he indicated is it a bad strain. He did what he could do; I’m seeing him again tomorrow night. Sigh. I’m working from home as I can tomorrow, as I’ve got theatre Friday night. I’ll play the trip to Berkeley by ear; at worst, just Karen and Erin will go up there.
Things always happen at the most inconvenient times.
We just received the college financial analysis from our college planning folks. Their two “cheapest” colleges were:
In other words, the parents costs for both are about the same; in fact, Oxy is more expensive for the parents if you use their total estimated expense number of $60,633. Plus, Oxy would leave Erin (a) saddled with more loans, for (b) attending a less prestigious institution. I think the decision is clear; she’s going to Cal.
To that end… this weekend is a roadtrip to Berkeley. If any of my friends reading this could offer some crash space for short naps in Oakland or Berkeley, please contact me.
News Flash: Birthers want proof Mitt Romney was born in America.
Drive-On Post: It now looks like Erin’s top choice will be UC Berkeley. We’ve never done a visit to the school, although we’ve been in Berkeley many times. We have theatre tickets Friday night, so we’re thinking about a ROAD TRIP: leave around 5am Saturday morning. Tour Berkeley in the afternoon. Drive home in the evening. Good thing we’ll have two drivers!
Today was our annual Ren Faire visit. Let me share with you some quick observations:
The Good. This was the Faire’s 50th Anniversary. There was lots of cool Faire historical stuff, from each vendor indicating when they started at the Faire, to an entire Faire museum. I have no idea whether it will travel to Northern, although it may. In case it doesn’t , you should really come to Southern to see it.
The Bad. We went on Easter Sunday, expecting the Faire to be a little less crowded. It was. However, the San Gabriel Dam Recreation area was not. It took us 45 minutes to get from the corner of Irwindale and Arrow Highway to a parking spot, and most of that was just the delay going the 4 blocks to the park entrance. This is something that needs to be fixed.
They also had to rearrange the routing due to ADA requirements, which got rid of passthroughs. This made the clothing row much more sparsely travelled. This wasn’t good for the vendors.
The Ugly. Surprisingly, not as ugly this year. Perhaps the ones who wear g-d-awful costumes are in church on Easter or with their families. We did have a few. There was the fellow dressed as Tarzan, including the jungle print loincloth. There was the girl in purple tights, a rainbow tutu, and bad purple fairy wings. There were the few belly dancers that were more belly than dancer. But nothing really outrageous, other than more bunny ears than usual. But I give that a pass… it was Easter, after all.
Back when Erin was in 10th grade, we contracted with a local company that specialized in college planning to help us with the process. Our hope was that they could work the financial side of the equation to our best advantage to make college somewhat affordable without loans. Our goal would be to have it in the $18K to $20K range, after aid. We had confidence that our daughter would be able to get into the schools she wanted to get into. Merit scholarships were a possibility, but not guaranteed.
Over the years, her focus changed. First, she was interested in lighting design. Then US History … especially Andrew Jackson. Now it is US History, Political Science, and possibly Anthropology… with an interest in incorporating more pre-Columbian American culture in the school system. She selected her schools, and we did some school trips. Over the summer, we visited Tulane, Emory, Bellarmine, Wash U. St. Louis (WUSTL), Reed, and Portland University. Through her research, she identified other schools of interest: American, George Washington, Georgetown, Bard, Occidental. As backups, we included UC Santa Cruz, UC Santa Barbara… and one school that the college planning folks told us we didn’t have a lot of chances with: UC Berkeley.
On the financial side, I had some money that was tied up in an investment come up for reinvestment, I talked to the college planning folks, and they tried to convince me to put it into a particular annuity so that it would be retirement funds, and thus not subject to FAFSA issues. I researched it heavily, and it made me nervous. After months of examination, I finally decided not to.
We went into application season. Erin did her applications, and applied for a few scholarships. I did my taxes. The college planning folks filed the FAFSA and all the CSS profiles. We waited.
Results came back. Acceptances from UC Santa Cruz (with a $4K merit scholarship), UC Santa Barbara, American (with I think $15.5K), Occidental (again, about $15K), Bard (no merit, no financial info yet), George Washington ($15 K + Womens Leadership Program). Waitlists at WUSTL and Reed. Rejected from Georgetown. Lastly, we got an acceptance from UC Berkeley, and discovered that her HS F-ed up and didn’t get the transcript to Tulane. Erin’s favorites were George Washington and UC Berkeley (the one they told us not to apply to), with Bard in the next tier. None of these were schools we visited. So far, the strategy of going after private schools because they give more money really didn’t pay out in the long run.
The aid letters came next. From GWU…. no additional aid other than $5K loan. Berkeley was bubkis, but we expected that. So now we decide: a $60K private university with $15K in merit funds or UC Berkeley at $32K. GWU is a great school where she would make wonderful political connections, but potentially unaffordable. UC Berkeley is no UCLA, but it’s a great school nevertheless, has a wonderful reputation, and does work in pre-Columbian cultures. We got no need-based aid because we only have one kid and we make too much for the aid but not enough to really pay for things because we live in Southern California.
We are going to apply for some scholarships that are still open.We’re also going to contact the financial aid office at GWU and see if we can get some more aid freed up. We might also hear something remarkable from Bard.
If you have read this far, a few questions:
We intend to continue looking for small scholarships, as they won’t hurt us for need-based aid, and shouldn’t hurt the merit aid at this point (as continuation of that is based on grades). As for my attitude regarding the college planning folks: on the plus side, they did help us file the financial forms, which was a big help. They didn’t help on the need-based aid side, and we really wish that if they thought we would get little need-based aid, they would have helped steer us to the most likely other scholarships.
Music: … between recording albums … next up Live Concert at the Forum (Barbra Streisand)
Last night was the first night of Passover. It was a busy day.. I’m still exhausted. Still, I promised you pictures of the table, so I need to do that.
Why was I so tired? Well, we had 20 people over for dinner (including us). Yes, people were bringing dishes, but we were still cooking a lot: a kugel, salmon, vegetables, sweet potatos, gefilte fish. I also had to set the table, which meant bringing out the good china. We’re of the belief that the “good stuff” shouldn’t just sit in a cabinet–you should use it occassionally. Chinaware wants to be used. So the table was set with the finest: three different sets of china: our patter, my mother’s pattern, and my grandmother’s pattern (we didn’t have enough of just one–we only have a set of 8 for our pattern). Oh, you want pictures. Well, here you go:
Of course, there was a complicating factor. There’s always a complicating factor. In this case, the factor was that my wife, two days ago, walked into a plate glass window at Disneyland. Yesterday morning, she was feeling dizzy and unsettled… so around 10am, she had a friend take her to the ER at Valley Presbyterian (on the advice of our family doctor). So all that cooking above… she left written instructions. Now, I’m the table-setter, the leader of the ceremony, and the dish washer (I was up to 1am washing dishes afterwards). So guess who picked up the gauntlet to do the cooking? Nope, not me, although I helped. The credit goes entirely to my daughter Erin, our dear friend Nicole, and my uncle Ron. Erin did a lot: the night before, she backed two pecan pies, two apple pies, and an apple cobbler.
Adding to the stress of the day: college selection stuff. As I’ve written before, Erin is deciding between George Washington University in DC, UC Berkeley, and Bard. We had been working with a group that had indicated they could help us get financial aid. We were melting down yesterday because that didn’t pan out. That subject will be the topic of my next post, but suffice it to say that the only aid we’ve seen has been some merit-based aid that Erin got; nothing came from the financial work the college planning group did. Stressing over that just added to things.
Last night was also the first night using our updated haggadah. I think I worked pretty well. We still have never done the after-dinner portion of the service, but other than that… people liked all the explanations I have in our haggadah, as well as how it tells the story. As before, if you want a copy of the haggadah, all you need to do is drop me an email.
One of the nice things about last night is that this is one of the first time we’ve had the full family at the house (or a close facsimile thereof — my wife’s brother couldn’t make it, and her other sister is in Tucson). We had my sister-in-law and her family; my uncle Ron, his daughter, and her three children; my uncle Tom and his wife; three of Tom’s friends, and two of Erin’s friends. A full house!
Did Karen ever make it? Yup, she got home around 10pm, after having a temper tantrum at the ER for just letting her sit, with a potential head injury, for 5 hours. She will be letting her doctor know. What was the verdict? Just a minor concussion, and it will get better over the next few days.
So that was our 2012 Seder. I was up for 3 hours cleaning, and today I’ve got loads and loads of stuff to put away. Tomorrow may be the Ren Faire if we’re up to it. I’m not sure how Faire is on Easter Sunday, thought. We might go next weekend.
Music: Stoney End (Barbra Streisand): Time and Love
As I continue to get the house ready for Pesach (we have 20 people tonight), a quick question (h/t to Larry H on Facebook for the inspiration): Do C programmers start counting the Omer at 0? Therefore, is tonight Omer[-1]?
P.S.: The picture of the tables will be coming later today. As a reminder, email me if you want a copy of our haggadah.
Music: Simply Streisand (Barbra Streisand): The Boy Next Door
