It's working. Yesterday was another fantastic day!
Started off with my daily trip to Starbucks (sorry Peaberry, Starbucks is right next to my hotel) where I ordered a yogurt parfait, a cup of coffee and a bottle of water for the road. The drive to Colorado Springs was beautiful, the sun was rising in the east, shining on the snow capped mountains in the west.
My first high school visit was a bust, but the admin was friendly and we chatted about her frustrations with the online system for ordering Rockies tickets. (She tried for hours, as did thousands of other Rockies fans, to order tickets and never made it past the first screen.) I'm friends with the counselor at the next high school and she did a great job of recruiting students for my visit, so there were 4 great seniors who are interested in St. Olaf. While I was in that visit, I missed a call from the mom of a current first year student who was hoping to meet me at the previous high school. We never had a chance to meet throughout her daughter's admission process and she was hoping to connect with me while I was in town. Long story short, she met up with me just as I was finishing up an interview at Starbucks and took me out to lunch. Such a nice treat! Her daughter is loving St. Olaf, which is always good to hear.
After lunch, I had to boogie back to Denver for an interview with another student and her dad. This young woman is about the most unique person I've met! She's written a novel, has an online doll clothing company (she knits clothing for a certain type of doll), taught herself how to create websites, etc. On top of all that, she has a vibrant personality.
Brian Watters and I met at the Denver Aquarium for dinner, which was the perfect end to a great day.
I've gotta run.... off to my last high school visit and then heading home!
Jill
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Roadkill
Earlier this month, I was driving down Hampden Ave (in south Denver) on my way to a high school visit when I noticed two large birds feasting on some roadkill in the middle of the road. As I approached the birds, I stepped on my brakes because they were greedily eating their breakfast rather than paying attention to approaching traffic. One of the birds flew out of my path just in time... the other wasn't so quick and decided to fly directly into my path. I slammed directly into the poor thing. Of course I felt terrible about hitting the bird! However, within a few miles, I'd forgotten about tragedy.
I continued driving for another 10 miles when I stopped for gas. After pumping the gas and washing my back window, I remembered the bird and thought I should check for feathers in the grill. Before I even got around to the front of the vehicle, I could see a large wing sticking out of the front of the car. As I came around to the front, I was greeted by a whole pigeon stuck in my grill... and he was still alive, blinking back at me!!
At first, I laughed, but I quickly realized that I would have to do something about this live bird, that I couldn't just leave him to die in the grill of my car. What was I going to do?! There was a nice man pumping gas next to me, so I frantically went over to him, told him I hit a bird that was still alive and stuck in my grill. As he came around to the front of the car, his eyes got huge and he admitted that he'd never seen anything like that before. He proceeded to grab a handfull of paper towels, which he used to protect his hands from the pigeon. The poor bird was so wedged into the spot, it took my new friend at least 5 minutes to loosen the pigeon from its spot. The bird was obviously hurt as bird seed started to fall out of his insides. Yuck, I know.
Eventually, the guy was able to completely remove the bird, which dropped to the ground and scurried under my car. I introduced myself to Brian, thanked him for helping me and drove away with tears rolling down my cheeks. Even though it was just a pigeon, I couldn't help but feel sad for the poor little guy.
I continued driving for another 10 miles when I stopped for gas. After pumping the gas and washing my back window, I remembered the bird and thought I should check for feathers in the grill. Before I even got around to the front of the vehicle, I could see a large wing sticking out of the front of the car. As I came around to the front, I was greeted by a whole pigeon stuck in my grill... and he was still alive, blinking back at me!!
At first, I laughed, but I quickly realized that I would have to do something about this live bird, that I couldn't just leave him to die in the grill of my car. What was I going to do?! There was a nice man pumping gas next to me, so I frantically went over to him, told him I hit a bird that was still alive and stuck in my grill. As he came around to the front of the car, his eyes got huge and he admitted that he'd never seen anything like that before. He proceeded to grab a handfull of paper towels, which he used to protect his hands from the pigeon. The poor bird was so wedged into the spot, it took my new friend at least 5 minutes to loosen the pigeon from its spot. The bird was obviously hurt as bird seed started to fall out of his insides. Yuck, I know.
Eventually, the guy was able to completely remove the bird, which dropped to the ground and scurried under my car. I introduced myself to Brian, thanked him for helping me and drove away with tears rolling down my cheeks. Even though it was just a pigeon, I couldn't help but feel sad for the poor little guy.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Fall Travel... again
It's been awhile since I've taken the time to write. Before I went to bed last night, I looked back at my entries from last travel season and I'm amazed I found the time (or took the time) to write so much! Guess I've been a little lazier this travel season... either that or I've had less exciting things to write about. It's probably the former. I've learned over time that when I take the time to write, I pay attention to the great things that happen to me each day.
I'm in Boulder, CO where I visited two high schools this morning- the first one was quite possibly my worst visit, the second was my most fun visits, so I guess they balance each other out. The first was at a high school where we consistently have several applicants each year (one this year is applying Early Decision!). Normally, this is a fantastic hs visit, but for whatever reason, the group of 11 kids today was non responsive to my "presentation". One kind soul kept adding her two cents as the sibling of a current student. I appreciated her effort to get the group more interested and engaged, but sadly her efforts didn't help much. I spent 2 hours at the next high school, where it's rare for me to see even one solid student. The two students who met with me are girls I interviewed when I was here two weeks ago. They're good friends so had been looking forward to our visit this afternoon. Lucky for all of us, no one else was interested in learning more about St. Olaf so the three of us chatted about their lives for 2 hours! We had such a great time.
Now I'm sitting outside a restaurant called Mad Greens where I had a delicious salad called the Edgar Allen Poe. I believe it was my first salad of the fall (don't ask how my pants are fitting). The weather is gorgeous! Started off chilly on Sunday, but has warmed progressively throughout the week.
This afternoon I'm getting together with Elena, who is one of the few St. Olaf students who transfers away from Olaf. She decided to go to CU Boulder to study opera with a world renowned opera instructor. I'm excited to see her and to hear how she's liking Boulder!
I spent yesterday in Fort Collins, where I visited some high schools and had an interview with a student and her dad. After that, I headed to Greeley where I had dinner with Micah. You might remember Micah from this time last year... he is from Colorado Springs, family couldn't afford to send him to Olaf so he went to UNC. Since then, we've stayed in touch and try to get together when we're in each other's city. Micah is definitely my favorite student who did not enroll at St. Olaf. I appreciate the fact that he contacts me to get together! Makes it seem a little less strange to hang out with a 20 year old who's not at Olaf. We went to Red Robin for delicious 'shroom burgers and shakes.
Hard to believe this is my last week of fall travel. Only having Colorado as an out of state territory makes for limited travel, which has advantages and disadvantages. Of course, I'm focusing on the advantages.
Lookin' for the good in each day,
Jilli
I'm in Boulder, CO where I visited two high schools this morning- the first one was quite possibly my worst visit, the second was my most fun visits, so I guess they balance each other out. The first was at a high school where we consistently have several applicants each year (one this year is applying Early Decision!). Normally, this is a fantastic hs visit, but for whatever reason, the group of 11 kids today was non responsive to my "presentation". One kind soul kept adding her two cents as the sibling of a current student. I appreciated her effort to get the group more interested and engaged, but sadly her efforts didn't help much. I spent 2 hours at the next high school, where it's rare for me to see even one solid student. The two students who met with me are girls I interviewed when I was here two weeks ago. They're good friends so had been looking forward to our visit this afternoon. Lucky for all of us, no one else was interested in learning more about St. Olaf so the three of us chatted about their lives for 2 hours! We had such a great time.
Now I'm sitting outside a restaurant called Mad Greens where I had a delicious salad called the Edgar Allen Poe. I believe it was my first salad of the fall (don't ask how my pants are fitting). The weather is gorgeous! Started off chilly on Sunday, but has warmed progressively throughout the week.
This afternoon I'm getting together with Elena, who is one of the few St. Olaf students who transfers away from Olaf. She decided to go to CU Boulder to study opera with a world renowned opera instructor. I'm excited to see her and to hear how she's liking Boulder!
I spent yesterday in Fort Collins, where I visited some high schools and had an interview with a student and her dad. After that, I headed to Greeley where I had dinner with Micah. You might remember Micah from this time last year... he is from Colorado Springs, family couldn't afford to send him to Olaf so he went to UNC. Since then, we've stayed in touch and try to get together when we're in each other's city. Micah is definitely my favorite student who did not enroll at St. Olaf. I appreciate the fact that he contacts me to get together! Makes it seem a little less strange to hang out with a 20 year old who's not at Olaf. We went to Red Robin for delicious 'shroom burgers and shakes.
Hard to believe this is my last week of fall travel. Only having Colorado as an out of state territory makes for limited travel, which has advantages and disadvantages. Of course, I'm focusing on the advantages.
Lookin' for the good in each day,
Jilli
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