November 10, 2005

On The Road...

The title of my first blog entry is taken from one of my favorite books by Jack Kerouac and is quite appropriate for an admission counselor. I am in my first year as an admission counselor at Case and was the first in our office to be done with travel season, so I thought it was time to reflect on my travels.

It all began with my first morning of high school visits up in Sandusky, OH. I woke up early to prepare myself for the long day of recruiting that lay ahead of me. As I was ironing my dress shirt, I flipped on the television to check out the day's NFL news on ESPN but never made it there.

Not since my college days, just a few years ago, had I been completely free to watch re-runs of “Saved By The Bell” on a weekday morning. I kid you not, the episode that was airing that morning was the one where the gang from Bayside High takes the SAT and Mark Paul Gosselaar, aka "Zach Morris" scored over a 1500 (Note: The SAT was scored on a 1600 point scale back in the day). Bayside then hosted a college fair and Stansbury University, the Harvard of the West, showed up to recruit everybody’s favorite slacker, Morris, rather than the future star of "Showgirls", Elizabeth Berkeley, aka "Jesse Spano". Throw Screetch and Mr. Belding into the mix and you have yourself a gift of comedic genius.

Due to my schedule, I was off to Vermilion High School and had to miss the last five minutes of the show. While I have seen every episode of this classic show, I was kicking myself for not remembering how it ended! As a result, I am faced with the question...could I have done my job better that day if I had watched the entire episode? Hmmm.

Regardless, the Vermilion visit was a success and I learned that the reigning Miss Teen USA is a student at the school. I did not have the chance to meet royalty that day but the students I did meet were really cool!

More later. I'm gonna go read some applications and finish watching Lebron lead the Cavaliers to another victory...watch Sportscenter tonight, he just threw down an amazing dunk! That's levitation holmes.

Posted by David Vitatoe at 08:55 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 28, 2005

Economy Size means SMALL

My colleagues and I travel with lots and lots of good Case material, propaganda, what have you...and at least a suitcase or two (even though we wear the same clothes every day we travel!). So we usually reserve mid-sized cars when we rent vehicles in our travel territories. However, I am one that prefers the tiniest rental car available. Please don't tell me a Dodge Intrepid is a mid-sized car. It is a BOAT. And please don't tell me that the next smaller size is a Dodge Stratus. That, too, is way too large for me. Even a NEON is pushing my size limit! One company I rent from offers a REAL compact car - a nice little Ford Focus hatchback. This is a small car. Real small. It is not that I'm uncomfortable driving a big car. In fact, they tend to be pretty comfortable, luxurious, even. In my real life, I drive a Honda Civic, nice and small. So the purpose of renting the smallest car when I'm traveling to recruit students?

Quick lanes changes, Illegal left hand turns, and oh, yes, repeated U-Turns.

No matter how many mapquest, yahoo, whatever directions we print out and clutch against the steering wheel while we spill coffee on ourselves, or rip frantically from the passenger seat to scream, "Right on WHAT Street?", we get tragically lost. No matter how many times we may have visited a high school or found a college fair in the dark, we are always running late, we are always speeding, and we are always Oh-So-Close to our destinations but seemingly unable to remember exactly what direction is north, south, east, you get the idea.

So, a small car makes for much easier cutting people off, cutting across lanes, scooting into a gas station to ask for directions AGAIN, doing one of those "emergency and authorized vehicle ONLY" U-turns on an interstate, and the ability to get into a very, very small parking spot to sprint into the appointment you've been running late for.

My other, more personal reason for renting a small car is to explore the city I'm in - usually Baltimore or Washington, DC - where parking is expensive and at a premium. Running in to a non-chain neighborhood restaurant to pick up a takeout order? Parallel? No problem! In a Ford Focus.

Posted by Judith Weiss at 11:35 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack