Every chorus was your name

Let's forget about admissions recruiting for a second and talk about the Avett Brothers, shall we? OH MY GOD THEIR NEW ALBUM IS AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! "January Wedding"? I will abandon all hopes of a springtime garden ceremony/elopement so I can dance to that when I get married. I'm pretty sure I've listened to that song about a billion times in the twelve hours since I downloaded it.

Today I did not meet with any students at all. It was actually painful at the last school: I work at "X" College, but they thought I was from "X" University. Basically the same exact school... except for about 4,000 students and a 14 hour drive. So I arrive and there's a parent whose daughter attends "X" University and the mom was so excited to meet someone from her daughter's school and she drove in especially for this. The poor woman. I was also supposed to meet with two students at that school, but they were interested in "X" University and not me... so I left some materials with the guidance secretary and left. Then I went to a college fair that night (in a completely different school district in a completely different state) and they had us registered as "X" University. Stupid common names.

Tonight's college fair was in a region with several huge high schools, which means I am almost completely wiped out of my fabulous pretty picture brochures. One rep who is a frequent table buddy at fairs was stationed across from me tonight. He was watching the Yankees game on his phone behind a display, and it was pretty hilarious watching him sketchily look down and smile every so often. At one point he looked up at me, pointed down, and then gave a thumbs up while grinning. I knew what he was referring to, but the random parent who was passing his table at the time looked a little creeped out. Can't imagine why...

I also overheard two seasoned reps chatting outside our "light refreshments." The lady was explaining, "I cut my hair. And I got fat! I look a lot different than last season!" You have no idea how difficult it was to withhold laughter. (The guy seemed to recognize her following that explanation.)

I love watching family dynamics in the college process. You can always spot the family member in charge, whether it's a forty-five minute minute interview, or two seconds at a college fair table. It can be entertaining at college fairs watching parents weave in and out of tables, their kids trailing behind. Tonight I kept seeing kids who would pause to look at a table, but their parents would keep walking and stare the kids down until they followed. Obviously the kids should have no say whatsoever in the process because it's the parents who will have to live with the decision. It's much better to discourage the kids' interests now before they start to think the search is centered around them. That would be terrible. If nothing else, I really hope this job will make me a better, more relaxed parent when the time comes for my future offspring to look at colleges.

My final highlight of the evening centered around (what else?) pen theft. I think I've mentioned before that I use crappy hotel pens that I've stolen during my travels. After all, I can't get upset if the munchkins are stealing stolen property, right? And somehow during the course of the evening, someone who grabbed a pen from Old Dominion left it at my table, so I have quite the assortment. Two girls who probably didn't even know there was a college fair going on approached my table. One of them looks at my pens and starts rolling them to look at the logos. She looks at me quizzically, exclaiming, "I was trying to steal a pen! What happened here?!" I offered her the one from Old Dominion, but she declined. I'm not sure if she even realized that I wasn't from Old Dominion.

In short, a pretty spectacular fair. Join me tomorrow as I work another fair while trying to forget that I'm missing the wedding episode of "The Office." Oh my god: Do you think their song will be "January Wedding"?! No... The universe would explode into a blissful cloud of awesome. Hopefully it's something tragically adorable, yet unaffiliated with the Avett Brothers.