Sunday, April 3, 2011

Northern Californai Day 2: Tracking Numbers

The day got off to a panicky start. When I checked with the front desk to claim the 6 boxes I had shipped to the hotel with fair materials, the girl told me she's seen no such boxes. My UPS tracking code confirmed that the boxes had been received, but still, the girl said she could find nothing. Refusing to despair completely, I drove 5 minutes down the road to church where I tried to concentrated on worship while formulating a plan to not enter every college fair after today's empty handed. Harlan, the door greeter who must be in his seventies gave me a grand-fatherly hug on the way in and out of church which helped calm me a little. The boxes had to be somewhere.

I headed to the Stockton fair and made acquaintance with reps from Liberty and Gonzaga. Everything started slow, but then I began to see a steady stream of students, most with interests in pre-med and engineering. This was ideal being how George Fox has top-notch science programs. Half-way through a conversation, the announcer came over the loud-speaker letting us know the fair would be closing 45 minutes early. Apparently, they felt the attendance was so poor the fair didn't merit the full 3 hour duration. I laughed to myself thinking of how many transfer fairs they would have canceled. This fair was hopping compared to Oregon Transfer Days. Things must move faster in California.

After the fair, I went for a run. I'm not a fan of running in Manteca. Cat-calling and honking apparently are appropriate forms of expression towards female runners. Not so cool.

Dinner tonight was in Modesto with two counselors from Liberty and one from Penn State. Apparently, George Fox is a small school compared to Liberty's 20,000 and Penn State's 80,000. Still, I think we're pretty amazing. Our waiter was a funny guy, telling cheesy or inappropriate jokes, and I think very disappointed none of us ordered alcohol. I would love to write a character sketch on him someday, but I think it would be irreverent.

Finally, at 10pm, I decided to bug the front desk one more time. Ask and it shall be given. The boxes were in a back closet all this time. I'm thanking the Lord there will be no panicked phone call to the office tomorrow morning asking for overnight shipping. I almost hugged the girl at the front desk--literally.

Tomorrow brings a 7:30am check in at CSU Santislaus and then a two hour drive to the bay area. Manteca's been great, but I'm ready for some water! More to come...

1 comment:

Unknown said...

You are amazing! But you already knew that! I'm glad you found your boxes. Nothing worse than not having the tools you need to get the job done right. Character sketch away. After all, Mark Twain was irreverant (I know I spelled it wrong) and look where that got him! Peace!