Saying Goodbye

Whoo - what a weekend. It had to happen someday! Is it easier if you have more than one kid? In the realm of potential heartbreaks between parent and child, I guess this is a relatively easy one. After all, she's off to the College of her dreams. She's dreamt of this day since the CSSSA summer of '06. She had to be there. She's hungry to learn. And I feel confident that she's amongst enthusiastic, like-minded sponges like herself. I think she'll be happy at Cal Arts. And, after this weekend, I feel confident that she'll be safe.

But the house felt empty this morning. It wasn't easy waking up realizing that, not only is she not here, but she won't be here till Thanksgiving. I don't know yet whether that will get harder or easier to accept as time goes on... we'll see. We'll sure miss her, that's for sure.

We went out to La Vera on Sunday night for a farewell dinner with Mary, our "other daughter."

A couple of Sonoma Cownty Girls:



Monday morning, we took off for the long drive down I-5. Amelia drove the whole way.



Here's the dorm -- can you tell she's in Southern California?



One of our biggest anxieties was ... the roommate. What if she got stuck with a lunatic? What a relief it was to meet Tahnee! She's a total sweetheart. Cal Arts did a great job of pairing them up, I think. We hit it off immediately with her parents, and found that we all have a whole lot in common. Both girls are only children, both musicians, and both in the Character Animation program. We loved the two girls next door, too - who are also practically roommates, since the two rooms share a bathroom! Here's Amelia, Tahnee, Adeline and Sabrina: (All four in Character Animation) "Go Girls!"



And if it gets too hot, there's always the pool.



Dave & I took a tour of the campus. We discovered so much that we hadn't seen before! It was soooo cool. We wish we could turn back time and go to school there ourselves!

Here's Dave in the Shop. Yeah - she chose the right school.



Check out this way-cool shop floor: (Wood ends!)



This is a "Cube". Each character animation student is assigned one of these (although I think freshmen may get more of a "group-cube." This is where they practically live while working on their film projects. This one is empty. Apparently students get pretty creative decorating their cubes. Amelia already has a rug for hers. Probably so she can sleep on the floor.



This is Cal Arts' new Amphitheater; named "The Wild Beast"



and back at home ... Somebody's missing you, Amelia.