A Satisfying Weekend – Hometown View

As a parent you relish in the success of your children in whatever it is they set out to do and their achievements and accomplishments are partly yours as well. As they get older you might be a smaller part of the success but certainly you maintain some pride in knowing that you might have provided the foundation. With that said this was a pretty good weekend for my two children and in one case we were able to be part of it.

My daughter Alex is a sophomore at Penn State and her Kappa Delta sorority was among many sororities and fraternities that held their annual Parents Weekend these past few days. Alex was the chairperson of the event meaning she had to plan everything from securing a hotel for weekend guests, making dinner reservations for some of the families, taking care of a Sunday brunch, ordering flowers and selecting the fraternity to host a joint social. Needless to say she was a bit stressed out because when you are dealing with dozens of young women there is bound to be plenty of drama.

Despite that the entire weekend was great, including Saturday’s social which turned into Sunday morning for some of us and saw plenty of parent’s (including Jane & I) hold our own in a competitive game of flip cup. If you don’t know what that is ask a college-age kid. However the best part had to be at brunch yesterday when many parents and fellow KD sisters complimented Alex and thanked her for planning everything so perfectly. After all the stress and anxiety of the past few weeks she could finally take a breath and we were really proud of her.

However I did discover something over the weekend…she cheats at flip cup.

Meanwhile in New Orleans my son Brandon was taking in the Final Four….for work of course. If you’ve been watching the NCAA Basketball Tournament you have probably seen the commercials featuring Shaquille O’Neal for Dove Men + Care. Brandon works on behalf of that client for his PR firm and this weekend was sent to New Orleans where he spent some time working with Shaq and of course taking in Saturday night’s National Semifinals.

Unfortunately he won’t be there for tonight’s Kentucky-Kansas final as he returns today but he did get a taste of Louisiana yesterday at some crawfish bash. So that’s the Super Bowl and Final Four so far this year and next up might be the Summer Olympics in London.

Shaq is one big dude.