Day 116

And it's off to camp number one!  We took Taryn to Greenville to start band camp at East Carolina University today.  Getting her to want to go there was an adventure in itself.  She went to band camp at Virginia Tech last year, and had her heart set on going back this year.  However, I wasn't so enthralled with the idea of driving to Blacksburg to get her there.  She fought against going to ECU, because she had friends tell her it was a lot bigger, etc, etc.  I think what finally pushed her over is finding out that her band teacher here would be one of the counselors at the camp...and finding out that the girls were allowed to use the elevators in the dorms because they're put on higher floors than the boys...lol.

The trip up wasn't too bad...it took about an hour and a half.  I had been in the Greenville area once before due to some bad directions from my GPS coming home from a trip to visit Ben, but I couldn't remember how long it had taken me to get there.  Once we got there, we discovered that parking can be tricky.  Apparently, ECU has no parking that isn't either meter parking or permit parking.  My truck didn't get towed, so I'm assuming they make exceptions for summer programs (or I just got lucky).  We found a place to park not too terribly far from the dorm, then made our way in to get her checked in.  One interesting thing about the ECU program as compared to the VA Tech program is that they don't make room assignments until the kids check in.  Taryn ended up in a room on the 7th floor with a trombonist named Emma.

Once we got her checked in and took her stuff up to her room (where she was happy to discover that the previously mentioned band teacher/counselor was on her floor), we had to go find the campus music center so she could audition for her band placement.  I am proud to report that I only drove past the music center once...and in my defense, it really could be more clearly marked.  We were in for another adventure once we went inside, as they had no signs or anything saying where the different instruments were having their auditions.  We finally managed to find the check-in table, where they were kind enough to tell us where the clarinet players needed to go.  They said that there were plenty of practice rooms where the kids could go to warm up; what they failed to mention is that the majority of the rooms were locked.  We finally found a room for Taryn to use (by virtue of the fact that someone happened to be coming out of it as we were walking past), and she warmed up.  Then we got to go stand in line so she could wait for her turn.  When Taryn checked in, they gave her this slip of paper with an audition number on it; we're not sure why, since the kids just lined up outside the door where the auditions were being held, and the numbers meant nothing.

Taryn was a little upset because she froze on her audition; I can sympathize, since I'm the same way.  The kids were given the choice between eating in the dining hall and having their parents take them out for dinner; Taryn wasn't quite ready for me to leave yet, so I took them out to Sheetz to get something to eat (I know it sounds weird, but we don't have a Sheetz where we live and we've missed it...lol).  We took our food back to her dorm room to eat, and then Gabriel and I headed for home.

Today's picture is the thermometer in my truck (and some short blond kid who was hanging out in my backseat) as we were leaving ECU to come back home:

And that, my friends, pretty much sums up day 116.  See you all on day 117!