College applications in

but it wasn't easy, dear me.

Applications for five schools were due on Saturday, the 15th. On Saturday morning, we drove downtown early so that Fiona could interview with the Carleton recruiter. Fiona was planning to leave town at noon to drive to North Dakota with Mitch's family to visit his grandma. I had been begging her for weeks to show me her college ap essays. She finally printed them out and showed them to me Saturday morning, and I read them while she was talking to the recruiter.

You will note that this was far too late for us to do much about it.

When we got home, she made another pass on the essays to incorporate the comments I gave her. She was supposed to upload a writing sample for one of the applications, but we although we have a scanner, none of us knew how to upload a scan that incorporated several pages instead of just one. So I had to drive downtown to my workplace to use the scanner there and then email it to my home email address, and then come home and upload the essay from there, while she took off for North Dakota.

I had some very choice words for her before I left.

She came back from Mitch's while I was home uploading the essay: "Did I leave my phone here? I can't find it!"

It was eventually found in a snowbank outside Mitch's house.

She checked in a couple times over the weekend. The radiator on the van went out, so they were driving through North Dakota with NO HEAT. Mitch is one of these manly teenage guys who usually insists he needs no outer coat (even in January in Minnesota), but his dad insisted he had to have a coat for the trip, and sent him back into the house for it. It turns out he ended up being very glad that Randy insisted. Fiona said she had a great time with Mitch's family, and I think everyone was pleased with her. She came back about as de-stressed as I've seen her in the past three months, proving that it was a good idea to send her, although we had her doubts (not the least because it was going to be touch and go whether she would be able to finish her on-line gym course: deadline was last night). She even got a lot of homework done on the drive back.

Rob and I spent the weekend starting to peck at taxes and (oh God) the FAFSA.

She's gotten email confirmation that the five applications were received on time. She will probably still put in an application for Luther. I will push her to do it as soon as possible.

I will be SO GLAD when this month is over.

A Soulcollage card for another very dear friend

You may remember the soulcollage card I made to honor minnehaha K's birthday. Well, now it's her husband minnehaha B's birthday, and as he is also a very dear friend, it was time for another card. Photo credit and thanks to dd_b and barondave who took some of the pictures I used:

minnehaha B - Community Suit I am the One whose wisdom is sought by people throughout the world. I am a discerning and original thinker and astute crafter of words. I love music, travel, an excellent meal paired with delicious wine, and most of all, true friends to share them with.

(Here, by the way, is the story behind the inclusion of the penguin with the telephone).

Please don't forget...

Please don't forget jemyl who still needs to sell jewelry to keep her head above water. Specifically, she needs to sell enough jewelry before February 6 to keep her site domain registration. Anyone need to check off some decrease worldsuck today?

It's great that we gave her some orders and some hope earlier. But the need doesn't go away.

Can any of you cross-post?