Here we go again...

Well, I realized when I titled this that it could mean so many things. What I am really talking about though is here we go again with the whole college search process.

Sammy is nearing the end of his Junior year. Soon to come: SAT exams (and SAT II's), college choices, essay writing, application process and deadlines, application fees, the waiting game and alas, writing more large checks to a yet to be named college/university.

Last week was Spring Break for Sammy. After our great visit to LaQuinta/PGA West/Indian Wells tennis garden, we headed off to San Diego. The weather went from 85 and sunny in Palm Springs to 50 and rainy, just like that. When we checked into our hotel near the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) campus in La Jolla, it was downright stormy.

The following morning it was still very, very rainy. We got lucky as our 90 minute tour just happened to take place between down pours. I used to work at UCSD when Michael was in Law School at the University of San Diego. The tour was great and very informative and afterwards I got to reconnect with an old friend.

Sammy with Dr. Seuss sculpture in background

(Theodor Seuss Geisel "Dr. Seuss" lived in La Jolla)

Sammy at the UCSD Geisel Library

For multiple reasons I don't think Sammy will choose UCSD, however, the tour was great and afterwards we took Sammy on a drive around San Diego and showed him where we used to live/work/go to school. Michael also introduced Sammy to his favorite: Nico's tacos.

Our Spring Break College Tours continued on Wednesday in Claremont, California. The Claremont Schools (a five school consortium including Claremont McKenna, Pitzer, Pomona, Harvey Mudd and Scripps) are very popular with Catlin Gabel graduates. Sammy really enjoyed the tour of Claremont McKenna and I really enjoyed it because we were joined by actor James Remar... a.k.a. Harry Morgan (Dexter's adoptive Dad on Dexter) and Richard the Tycoon (Samantha's on again, off again boyfriend) in Sex and the City. Now, I am not exactly star struck (unless we are talking pro men's tennis players), but these college tours can get pretty boring. Convincing Sammy that indeed we were taking a college tour with Dexter's dead Dad (and his real life family) was actually quite fun.

(Biology building in the background on the left. This is where Sammy would spend a lot of his time if he ended up at a Claremont School)

After Claremont McKenna, we headed over to Occidental College. "Harry Morgan" was there too. This is not uncommon when you are on a college tour track... even if the colleges are miles away from each other, you often run into the same people. Sammy also really liked Occidental. Living in LA for college would probably be pretty fun. We'll see what happens.

That was the end of our Spring Break College tours. If I learned anything from Joey's college search: you do not have to run around like a crazy person visiting 9 colleges in 4 days. Joey ended up actually applying to only 2 of the 9 colleges we visited and attending a college that was not even on our trip.

Let the games begin!

A Spring Treat

I have this obsession with professional tennis. Well, specifically professional Men's Tennis. This year we got to go to the Indian Wells PNB Paribas Open near Palm Springs. I cannot even begin to describe how excited I was. It was awesome.

During the day we sat up in the Loge seats, which are high up, but still fun. The sun was beating down. We got lots of needed sunshine and Vitamin D. I actually never thought I would say I "needed" to get sun, but since I am chronically Vitamin D deficient and the doctor actually prescribed a little sunshine (along with a boat load of Vitamin D supplements), I gave myself permission to just sit and soak up sunshine (constantly slathering myself with SPF 50 sun screen of course.)

In the evenings, we got to sit in the 8th row as Lindy & Stuart do not go to the evening matches and they graciously gave up their seats to us. We saw Nadal beat Karlovic and we were close enough to witness the Rafa snarl every time Karlovic aced him. Fun!

We got to see Federer/Wawrinka v. Nadal/Lopez doubles. Federer and Nadal rarely play doubles, so this was a real treat.

But the highlight of the experience was sitting in the front row when Federer/Wawrinka played in the doubles final. They lost, but who cares when you are 10 feet from Roger Federer.

So many times I wished I had my "real" camera, but I only had the iphone.

I love tennis!