DAY FOUR - Monday, October 27, 2008
After my morning ritual of gas and coffee with Joe, the night manager at the local mini-mart-gas-station (MMGS for future reference), I followed Eron to Scottsdale Junior College, where she was going to school. Besides all the other stuff I mentioned about Eron, I forgot to tell you how intelligent she is. She started kindergarten when she was four, and graduated from High School a year early… so now she's a freshman in college at the tender age of sixteen.
We managed to get separated on the highway they call "The 101", which basically makes a big circle around the GPA, and when I got to the campus it was much larger than I anticipated. I randomly pulled into one of the 15 parking lots available to me… parked next to a 'you are here' map of the campus… and put a phone call into Eron. As I was in the process of telling her where I was and asking her for directions to find her… I heard her laugh… in stereo… from the phone in one ear, and from across the patio in my other. Somehow I had zeroed right in on her, like a homing pigeon. Was it a father-daughter connection, or shear luck? Who knows, and who really cares? Still… it was kinda interesting, don'tchya think?
After spending an hour or so with her, walking around campus, and helping her drop a class… I headed out on my own, to find the Scottsdale Chamber of Commerce, hoping to get some potential work leads. Before I tell you about that tho, I want to mention why Eron dropped a class. It was a psychology class that she wasn't doing very well in. It was an elective for her (she's an architecture major), and she could take a different class to satisfy that requirement later. Bless her heart… she's working two jobs and going to school. Something had to give. Fortunately she was passing the class, so she didn't have to take a hit on her GPA, which is important… it will help her get a scholarship to a major university. Plus… the lowering of her stress level and the added time the dropped class allows, will help her keep her grades high in her other classes, which are all in her major area of study.
I feel bad for Eron… I was much more fortunate. My parents were able to put both my twin brother Don and me through college, so we didn't have to work during the school year… just summers. It's probably gonna take Eron about six years to get her degree, because she basically needs to support herself. Her mom and I will obviously help as much as possible, but neither of us is in a good financial situation, so Eron is mostly on her own in that regard. Plus… she and her mom don't get along that great, so she's gonna most likely be moving out and living with a friend as soon as she turns 18. I wish she didn't have to grow up so fast, but if anyone can do it, she can.
When I started trying to locate the Scottsdale 'Chamber', I had an interesting experience. I stopped at a gas station and the guy I asked, a fellow biker brother and a fellow contractor (or so he said), told me he had done some work for them recently, and that I was really close… "Just go back up the road about three blocks and turn left at Main St."
When I got to the spot he said it would be, I couldn't find it, so I pulled into another gas station, and was told, without any hesitation or doubt in the guy's voice or face, that that other guy was crazy, and that the Chamber was, "Down Main St. about six blocks, take a left, then a right, and then it's on your right." Guess what… no Chamber. At least he had led me to a city business park though. The gal in the finance department said she wasn't sure, and was nice enough to call them, and got directions for me. Finally!! Someone with enough courage to admit they didn't know.
I've always wondered why so many people are embarrassed to admit ignorance in something. My mom always said, "Being ignorant is NOT being stupid… it's simply not knowing something". One of her other favorites was, "The only stupid question is the one you don't ask." I added my own ending to that one after my first two daughters started growing up. It goes like this: "… and if you ask someone to take their time to answer your question… listen to the whole answer, even if you disagree with some of it. Don't close your mind, because you might miss something that the person says, that makes you think of something that you wouldn't have thought about before, if you hadn't have been listening to them."
Lindsey at the Chamber was very helpful, and gave me pages and pages of names of contractors. The hour and a half, and all the zigzagging around Scottsdale was not in vain. I went back to Ann's, and spent the rest of the day doing laundry, running a few errands with her, and then starting the process of packing Honey. I was gonna take off the next morning, and wanted to pretty much be able to get up and go.
The last thing I did the next morning before I left, was to kiss Eron on the cheek while she slept. Ann was nice enough to get up at 5am, and wish me a bon voyage. We both kinda teared up as we hugged. We definitely still care for each other, and we always will.
Why are they so much cuter when they're sleeping?
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