Mrs. Earp arrived home yesterday at 6pm, none the worse for wear. Apparently it’s hot in Texas in August. She claims she didn’t cry when she left Kyle at his dorm, but I’m suspicious of that.
Anyway, here’s a summary of what went on during Kyle’s first few days as a college man. (You can click the photos – like the one of Kyle at the Tower – to embiggen.)
Kyle’s roommates are from Texas and Massachusetts. They get along well, and are both wicked smaht, but they’re homebodies. Kyle spent most of the 12-14 hour daily festivities at the many locations on campus, while his roomies stayed in the dorm. That’s not a shot at them – they’re very nice – but Kyle is a social butterfly.
Kyle had to get a key chain for his dorm key, so he decided on the one below. Apparently, the Lone Star spins; a feature which made Kyle very happy.
Kyle in his ridiculously small dorm room. There are three students living there, and it barely has enough room for two. Next year he moves into the newer, larger dorms, so it’s a temporary problem.
Notice the Thin Blue Line flag above. He asked for one as a graduation present, along with the one below… Because Texas is freakin’ awesome!
This is the Tower, the centerpiece of the campus. During some events, the students split into smaller groups. Every group had a funny name. Kyle’s was “Scholars With No Dollars.” Julia liked the female group, “The Towerpuff Girls.”
During lunch Saturday, Mrs. Earp and Kyle walked into the cafeteria, and Kyle was flagged down by a table of girls. He dumped Mrs. Earp and walked over to eat with the hotties. I don’t blame him.
Besides his lacrosse teammates, he is making many, many friends, both men and women. He seems to be more outgoing than he was in high school, which is a good thing. Later Saturday, they attended a church service in the gym. Mrs. Earp said most of the others were dressed in Sunday best, while my family was dressed, um, comfortably. At one point, it came to a part where you kneel, and Kyle figured they would sit, because there were no kneelers. Most of the Texas people knelt on the floor. Mrs. Earp muttered, “You’ve gotta be kidding me.”
Now maybe my Texas friends can answer this. I know it’s Texas, but is it really like that in most churches? For a northeastern guy, it’s, well, different.
Kyle sent me a text string Friday night, and complained most of the people at Dallas were “much smarter than me.” He seemed really down, and I did my best to reassure him. College is scary, but he’s a hard worker, and will do just fine. I saw very little sleep Friday night, stressing about how he was feeling. On Saturday, Mrs. Earp said he was much better, and at one point said, “You know I’ll be fine. You don’t have to worry.”
We’re parents. We worry from cradle to our grave. It’s our job. That said, I think he’ll be okay there. He is totally in love with Texas, UD, and the people. Plus, his home lacrosse schedule is nowhere near as tough as last year’s.
We arrived in Dallas on Friday at about 2:30pm, picked up out luggage – Love Field is crazy efficient, and it’s usually a breeze getting baggage quickly. We hopped the tram to the rental car place, received out VW Jetta – a really nice car – and headed to the hotel. Naturally, since I was involved, there was a snafu at the hotel which cost us another hour, and after calling Kyle, he said to take our time, as he was finishing a paper for class.
