We had a great weekend visiting College Guy for Parents’ Weekend. As usual, I discovered a few things about college days. Or at least I remembered a few things about college days. (Here was my list of things learned last year.) College Guy goes to Taylor University in Upland, Indiana. They joke about it being in the middle of a cornfield. I should’ve taken a photo, because it really IS surrounded by cornfields! 
Thankfully Marion, Muncie, Indianapolis and Fort Wayne aren’t too far away, so they can always go there for fun. It’s a great school and just won a top award for colleges of its size (as seen in the banners that are proudly displayed around campus now.) So – the things I learned this year:
1. College kids can put up with parents hanging out in their dorm room, as long as it’s for a relatively short period of time. Like an afternoon.
2. Guitar Heroes is fun. (I’m expanding my skills. This summer they made me do DDR – and do you know what that is? I didn’t. This weekend I learned how to do Guitar Heroes and I’m thinking we might have to get that. I’m sure it’s good brain exercise, somehow.)
3. It doesn’t matter how good the food is in the Dining Commons during Parents Weekend – all of the college kids still want to go out to eat with you.
4. Roommates can be a good source of information. We all went out for lunch on Saturday (parents + siblings + kids – 12 of us) and roommates like to tease each other. If you’re a parent and if you’re smart, you’ll smile and nod a lot, and this usually keeps them joking and talking, and sharing important info.
5. Most dorm room couches are old and ugly. But very very comfortable. (They’ve been flopped on so many times, that they’re very accepting of any and all body types that want a place to sit.) I have yet to see a nice dorm couch.
6. Cookies are still required upon entrance. Extra credit is given if you happen to also bring PopTarts or something else equally healthy.
7. I miss hearing college chimes. Did you go to a school that had chimes? Walking around campus and hearing them play still takes me right back to my college days.
8. College kids go jogging at midnight and think nothing of it. What’s up with that?
9. Ivanhoes is still the best place for ice cream sundaes and malts. I wish I would’ve taken a picture of what I got. Trojan Two – cookie dough ice cream, chocolate covered graham crackers, and peanut butter sauce. There may have been something else in there, too, but who pays attention after the first delicious spoonful?
10. College visitation weekends are no time to diet.
Today, I’m back in the swing of things here at The Loopy Ewe! In fact, we have exciting things going on around here. More on that later, as things progress. I will tell you that there is a Sneak Up going on right now! Head on over and you’ll find Classic Elite Alpaca Sox, Wendy’s Patterns, Yarntini and Yarn Pirate, a great deal on a few Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Solids, and more. (Note – of course some of those might be sold out again by the time you read this – but just remember, we ALWAYS have more on order!)
Lastly – the winner of our September Blog contest from last week is Emily. She wins a fall skein of Wollmeise and Yarntini this month! I have loved reading every one of your fall comments. I’m glad I have so many fellow-Fall-fans!
Sheri makingsocksoutofthatnewAlpacaSoxyarnandboyaretheygoingtobetoastyandwarm!
I guess I’m just not up with the latest – I had no idea what Guitar Heros or DDR were until I followed your handy links… Good to know… : )
And, my college is not in the middle of a cornfield, but is often called “Silo Tech.” (I went to Kansas State University and it is known for being an “Ag” school). Our in-state rival, University of Kansas, is known as Snob Hill. Just a little bit of Kansas trivia for you, lol…
Oh, and I might have scored some good things in this Sneak-Up! Welcome back!!
Thanks for the post. I’ll be doing the parents weekend at college next year. These tips will really help!
Hi Sheri!
If this yarn thing doesn’t work out, maybe we can form a rock group!!! The Knitting Mamas go on tour??!!! Our college boys would be so proud!
For you guys who have never had the pleasure—Sheri is just as sweet and fun in person as she is in her blog!! 🙂 And she plays a mean guitar!! Rock on!! 😉
OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGOD!!!!!!!!
Let me pause to catch my breath.
I fondly remember my days in college. It seems that somehow I have forgotten all the angst and struggles and work, and now I only remember having fun with my friends. And Shakey’s Frozen Custard at Providence and Nifong.
Ok, I’m going to go back to squealing now.
Oh, and the guitar heroes is great for keeping those knitting fingers limber. DDR seems too much like excercise for my tastes.
Jogging at night? I’m with you. Don’t they know college campus are breading grounds for crime? Haven’t they seen movies with serial killers and wierdos who hide in bushes just waiting?
Have fun packing all those orders! 🙂
Oh, your post makes me miss college. Luckily I am going to visit this weekend. 🙂
What are you knitting with the Alpaca Sox? I am trying to pick a color to buy – it’s hard!
Soooooo happy! I got some of my favorite Wendy patterns!! So I had to have some yarn to go along. This is the very first time that I got in on a sneak up.
My problem with visiting my CG is that I want to stay and go back to class. I loved college, even during my masters ten years later when I wasn’t living anywhere near campus. I can’t possibly be old enough to be a college mom, I was a student myself just yesterday.
I missed out on some YP and Yarntini shades but did get 2 from Yarntini & 1 from YP plus some Wendy patterns-Yeh!! Glad you had fun going back to college 🙂
Now back to my massive stash to pick out a skein for my next pair of socks(just finished the SixSoxKnitalong ‘I love Gansey’-I am filling up my little jar with leftover yarn balls very quickly-Back to Home Goods(some are now on markdown here-good since I am moving to NY)
My husband and I both went to Taylor and seeing the brick sign brings back memories. Our college guy was in Indiana for the summer playing in a baseball college league and we tried to convince him to go to Ivanhoe’s, but alas he did not heed our advice. Thanks for the pics.
Ivanhoe’s is the best. I manage to get there on yarn excursions that are not all that close. A large ice cream fortifies when in search of perfect fleece up in Amish land.
I went to a tiny Catholic women’s college – the one I work at today, actually!
Today was the first day of our 75th anniversary year…the chapel bells chimed 75 times!!! Insane but cute and charming too.
And I never thought I’d say it, but I’m happy I missed a Sneak-Up — I know I have a a credit in my account but I feel I need to save it for when I’m desperate for a new yarn. Right now I have plenty of choices in my buffet. But that could all change when you get in some more Claudia – I really want a couple skeins of Stormy Day.
I love it!! I’m looking at the Bell Tower from my perch on the second floor of the library as I read this. 😀 Our futon WAS nice for about a month last year, but it now has large candle-wax stains on it. Lesson #11–candle warmers, open windows, and venetian blinds don’t work well together. I’m now curious what my mother learned from my roommate. I wish I would have seen you all, but I’m glad you had a great stay!
Wow I missed most of it lol. That’s ok, I’m waiting for the infamous Wollmeise…
I miss the companionship of college. though I never went to a traditional one, it was still fun to go to classes and hang out in between.
What a fun weekend! Having three boys, one college age, I spent the summer listening
to Guitar Hero. Now that the oldest one is gone to school, I kind of miss it. Our
weekends spent at our sons college sound EXACTLY like yours. One campus fits all.
Have a good week back, and can’t wait for Wollmeise!
Upland’s like an hour away from me! I was wanting to have a college visit to Taylor a while ago. It’s great that you’ve spent time with college guy.
Awwwww! I miss college! My roommates and I used to do crazy things in the middle of the night……a favorite? After studying for hours, head to Denny’s for a late night snack!
We had bells at school! Everyday at 10am they would play music on them and if you got lucky sometimes in the afternoon a music student would be in the bell tower practicing……you always heard the most peculiar songs coming from the bell tower……once I even heard someone playing the star wars theme!
Yeah, Sheri, what happened to that picture of us doing DDR??? My biggest skill I learned this summer was when your children taught me how to Wii. Well, I guess it’s still not technically a skill since I was REALLY bad at it!! Sounds like a great weekend! That ice cream sounds divine. We just got back from a visit to our college girl and had Chipotles and Whitey’s Ice Cream. Not exactly diet food either….
I’m glad to hear you enjoyed your college weekend. I certainly do remember the bell tower at the University of Toronto. My husband and I got married while we were still doing our undergrad degrees. We lived on campus and even went to bell tower concerts and had a tour of the tower. We didn’t jog at midnight but we went for countless midnight walks. A thing of the past since the children have come along. Fond memories indeed!
LOL! I love when you do the list posts. It made me miss college! It wasn’t too long ago that I was there (4 years) and things still seem the same (Cookies are the magic password, and what’s wrong with dinner out and jogging at minight?) 😉 Can’t wait for the next sneak up. Wollmeise baby!
Welcome home Sheri! It sounds like you had a wonderful weekend with CG! I went to Texas Tech, and that place was just too big for a cool parent’s weekend like you had…I do miss college fun sometimes, though…
Woohoo – I was finally able to get Wendy’s Asparagus Cables…have been wanting that one since I first saw it! Looking forward to the next sneak-up when I can afford some yarn…maybe Wollmeise? Patterns had to suffice this time around…
Glad to hear you had a great time I bet CG did too. There is a great ice cream place in Bloomington where I went to school, I think it is some kind of zoning requirement or something for college towns : ) And cookies … always a good thing. I think the kids must have a better allowance than I did though, the last time I took my kids there it was close to $40 for the 4 of us just for ice cream and drinks.
I got some of the Classic Elite I can’t wait to try it.
Yeah Yarn Pirate!!!!! I love that stuff! I’m glad you had a lovely weekend.
We use to play “UNO” for hours instead of studying when I went to college. Can you tell I went to college a long time ago! 🙂 Way before video games were invented!
Man… I totally missed the Sneak Up, and I was sort of hoping for some semisolid Yarntini. I was planning to keep checking for the Sneak Up all day, and then the Migraine of Doom decided it wanted to visit. I opted for a nap in a dark, quiet place instead. I know there will be more in, but it seems Yarntini comes in so infrequently. Blah! I may poke around on Ravelry to see if there is someone who wants to trade with me. 🙂
Your talk about college actually makes me miss a few things about when I went to school in Mississippi. I didn’t much care for the state, but the campus was beautiful. It has brick buildings and chimes and green stuff everywhere. Arizona? We have faux adobe and cactus. Stupid cactus.
That was so funny to look at the school’s website and see Dan Wolgemuth’s name! I’d forgotten he went there. He and my husband worked together for a few years when we first moved to KC, and we went to church with them at that time. Sounds like a really neat place; I’m glad your son is at home there. I went to school in San Antonio…no ice cream places, but lots of midnight runs to The Original Taco Cabana…..! Nothing like bean and cheese tacos with guacamole at two in the morning….
i have teen age boys. only reason why i know ANYTHING. guitar heros? love the game. hate the wrist cramps. i can only play half an hour at a time, and i still kick everybody’s patootey in this house!
DDR? we got the latest version, and it’s EXHAUSTING. even on beginner! i need to get it out and exercise more!
My college years were before you were born, I’ll bet — 1949-53! Some of my favorite memories are going to the on-campus coffee shop at Reed (Portland, Or.) after a few hours of studying…intense discussions typically. And if I returned late (after 10:30, I think) to the dorm, having to go to Anna Mann Cottage to find Skinny (the caretaker) to unlock Kerr Hall where I lived; he would wait patiently and discretely while I said goodnight to my date, who later became my husband.
Two grandchildren have already graduated from college; three are currently in college – one at University of Oregon, another at UCBerkeley (Cal), and one just moved into the dorms this weekend at U.C. Davis. All is well, he has a microwave, a full refrigerator and a George Foreman grill parked under his elevated bed!
Joan
I just realized I tried and tried to leave a fall memory post but I kept getting an error message…and I guess I forgot to come back 🙂
So here it is…The first smell of a leaves burning/a fireplace burning always heralds fall to me (in the north of course, not Florida!)
Thanks so much for the walk down memory lane. My parents did all this for me, and, of course, we did all this for The Deputy. You are so right about the cookies. Brownies usually gained us entrance to his room. We could take the smell just so long and then fresh air was needed, even if it was beyond cold outside (we all went to schools in Minnesota). Taylor is a beautiful school. Cherish these memories because this time goes so fast.
I went to Purdue, so I know all about those cornfields! I’ll tell you what, I miss them, those chimes, and all the goodies my parents brought me back when I was in school, LOL.
It’s all over so fast!
Definitely need to get Guitar Heroes now. I’ve been keeping ahead of the nephews by sneaking in practice at their place, but now I need one of my own or I won’t be the cool auntie next time I visit. ^_^
I use Guitar Hero as a spectator event. I love to watch the teens all playing at the same time (we have three guitars). Real guitar players tell me playing the game drives them bonkers (that’s what I get for living with guitar players). Glad you had a good weekend at the college.
As a UI grad school grad, I am very familiar with corn and soybean fields. They grow on you (hee hee).
Ahh, the sound of bell chimes! That takes me back, too. I guess there were people who jogged at midnight, too, but I (the Original Couch Potato) was not one of them. We did have midnight road trips to Foster’s Donuts for fresh-out-of-the-fat cinnamon buns (oops, I just typed “sinnamon buns”–what does that tell you?).
I missed Yarn Pirate and Yarntini on this sneak up but got Wendy’s sock patterns at long last!
I’m glad you had a lovely weekend!
I’m an odd duck, I hated the big college and all the college kids, I couldn’t wait till they all left for the summer and the little town was so much quieter and peaceful and there were less dunken boobs wandering the streets. 😛
Glad you enjoyed Parent’s Weekend! That ice cream you had sounds WONDERFUL!!!
I just managed to order Wendy’s patterns and get some of the Classic Elite yarn, but missed out on teh Yarn Pirate and Yarntini. In my dream world, I’ll have all the Yartini, Yarn Pirate, and Wollmeise I could possibly want…until then, I just have to keep a close eye on your sneak-ups!
AAAH. I can’t believe I missed the update. I NEED new yarn. 🙂
Anyway, I went to uni in Indiana (but only for a year). My brother’s there right now doing his Masters in Robotics or Artificial Intelligence or something clever like that. 🙂
You wanna see nice dorm couches? Head to Cornell.. lol. A lot of the dorms there have REALLY nice stuff.
Also, that jogging in the middle of the night thing boggles my mind. I just don’t get it.
Oh, how I miss college… I went to a little private liberal arts school in the Midwest, and I fondly remember those days.
Have you seen the Yarn Harlot’s Wollmeise socks? Oh. My. Goodness. I knew that “Spice Market” was the color I was wanting, but now that I’ve seen it knit up, I’m positively drooling!
Uh, I hope you were kidding about the healthiness of poptarts…
my parents never understood why i wasn’t as excited about eating brunch in our dining hall as they were – every time they came to visit me for the entire 4 years they acted surprised that i wanted to eat out!!! 🙂
Sheri,
Wow! Taylor! I grew up in Ft. Wayne- I’m very familiar with the area! I loved Taylor but ended up going up to Calvin College in MI instead- lots of friend from that cornfield though! Glad to hear they are still an awesome university!!
Yay, Taylor! My brother in law and sister in law both graduated from there – met there too. I was only there once, for their graduation, but we went to Ivanhoe’s after!!
My folks could never come for parents’ weekend. I went to school too far from home. So I always ended up adopting someone else’s. That was cool.
There’s a lot of things I did during those four years that make me stop and wonder why I’m still alive to shake my head about it. And a lot of things that my mother is still finding out about, these nearly twenty years later.
I had to laugh a bit at the start of your post. My husband grew up in Ft. Wayne and it was so dull they jokingly referred to it as “Fort Fun”. If the kids are going to Ft. Wayne for a good time they’ll be eating a lot of ice cream, and that’s about it! How great you got to go to parents weekend!
There’s much that I appreciate about Indiana but the flatness is not one of them.
That Alpaca Sox does look very warm and inviting. I think it needs to go on my Wish List. I’m really liking the Ivy. I’m still tryin to find that perfect green.
I love your posts about your family. We are just back from 8 days in DW, DH and I, it was nearly 30 times for me but only 3rd without children. I tried to call only everyother day. DS1 took care of the home and even had DS2 home from college a day to play the new Xbox halo 3 game. They survived, the house survived and I suppose in many ways so did I. Interestingly enough as we walked around, me knitting of course, our thoughts turned to things we would do with our grandchildren. We are quite a few years from that but it felt like we started our walk slowly over the bridge into that phase of our life. My thoughts of course went to knitting, DH said that if and when we get that announcement I was expected to go crazy with yarn purchases as long as he had no holds put on him for toy purchases.
I stopped by during the sneakup but opted out til today and bought some alpaca. Beautiful things as always.