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First off, I hope that everyone is doing well and is feverishly preparing for the next hunting season. I am home for a few hours, just enough time to read the board, go to the hospital for yet another checkup, and then travel to Dallas for the funeral of my friend who died so tragically.

I apologize if I am not staying in closer contact, but I have made it deliberately hard for me to check the boards, and not feel "compelled" to check the daily discussions. I'm sure that all the CC addicts will understand the plight of a fellow CCA.

On a lighter note, I'm having the time of my life at school. I have a great roommate, got lucky with my classes, and I am enjoying California. My days are filled with new challenges and I have no trouble staying busy. I still believe that I could not have made a better choice.

Since I'm getting some prodding to get off the computer, I better adjourn. It seems that my father wants his chair back. I secretly hope he is not ruining the reputation of the family with his not-so-neutral positions.

Bu-bye!

By Voronwe (Voronwe) on Tuesday, September 21, 2004 - 12:30 pm: Edit

Great to hear from you! We're all thinking of you, praying for you, and hoping all goes well.If you've read the other posts and threads, you know how much everyone's hearts go out to you in this double whammy you are experiencing.

Kindest regards.........

By Marite (Marite) on Tuesday, September 21, 2004 - 12:30 pm: Edit

Xiggi:

Glad to see you're back to your old form, but how sad your homecoming is to attend the funeral of your friend!
Take care, and come back and visit.

By Carolyn (Carolyn) on Tuesday, September 21, 2004 - 01:09 pm: Edit

Xiggi,
We all miss you and are with you in spirit.
Carolyn

By Momoffour (Momoffour) on Tuesday, September 21, 2004 - 01:32 pm: Edit

Glad to hear that you are doing well. Such sad news about your friend. Thanks for checking in.

By Candi1657 (Candi1657) on Tuesday, September 21, 2004 - 03:49 pm: Edit

Praying for you.

By Mstee (Mstee) on Tuesday, September 21, 2004 - 04:22 pm: Edit

Hi Xiggi, good to hear from you. As a CC addict myself, I understand the need to unplug from CC in order to concentrate on other things, but do hope you will check in from time to time. Sounds like you are recovering nicely from that nasty infection or whatever it was, hope that is the case. So very sorry to hear of your friend's death. It sounds like he was one great guy.

No need to worry about your dad. Though he certainly has his opinions, he seems quite tactful to me!

By Thedad (Thedad) on Tuesday, September 21, 2004 - 04:53 pm: Edit

Be well, Xiggi. I enjoy your Dad but he's not Xiggi.

Drop me an e-mail when things settled down. I'm glad you've got that "could not have made a better choice" feeling.

And it's very tragic about your friend. I'm so sorry.

By Alongfortheride (Alongfortheride) on Tuesday, September 21, 2004 - 06:06 pm: Edit

Xiggi, how wonderful to hear how much you love your new school! I am so thankful to hear that you are doing well physically after such a scare, but I am deeply saddened to hear about your friend. Such a loss for his family, his friends like you and your family as well as the SM family. I have no doubt that you will have a wonderful academic career, do study and enjoy enough for us all!

By Ohio_Mom (Ohio_Mom) on Tuesday, September 21, 2004 - 06:55 pm: Edit

Xiggi,
I am glad to hear from you and hope that you find can find joy even when the days are dark. A good book - a fine teacher - a brilliant sunset - enjoy each as it comes - for yourself and in gentle memory of your friend.

By Concerneddad (Concerneddad) on Tuesday, September 21, 2004 - 09:20 pm: Edit

Xiggi, may we exchange greetings under better circumstances in the future!

By Cheers (Cheers) on Tuesday, September 21, 2004 - 10:01 pm: Edit

Is Xiggi at Occidental?

By Marite (Marite) on Tuesday, September 21, 2004 - 10:25 pm: Edit

Nope. Claremont-McKenna (CMC)

By Patient (Patient) on Tuesday, September 21, 2004 - 10:56 pm: Edit

Xiggi, all the best. Hope that friends and family give each other much support; I am so sad for you and for your friend's family.

Glad you enjoying California and your note about your dad was cute...

By Takanawajoe (Takanawajoe) on Tuesday, September 28, 2004 - 09:30 pm: Edit

Hey, if you are at Claremont-McKenna, how come your high school does not show anyone from the class of 2004 going there?!?!?!

http://www.smtexas.org/campus/counseling/matriculation.asp

College Matriculations for the Class of 2004

Arizona State Univ - 1
Babson College - 1
Baylor University - 1
Boston University - 1
Brown University - 1
Carnegie Mellon Univ - 2
Cornell University - 1
Dartmouth College - 3
Duke University - 2
Emory University - 2
Furman University - 1
George Washington Univ - 2
Georgetown University - 2
Hampton University - 1
Harvard University - 5
Harvey Mudd College - 1
Indiana University - 1
Lafayette College - 1
MIT - 1
Middlebury College - 1
New York University - 2
Princeton University - 1
Purdue University - 1
Rhodes College - 2 Rice University - 2
Skidmore College - 1
Southern Methodist Univ - 1
Stanford University - 1
Texas A & M Univ - 2
Texas Tech University - 1
Trinity University - 1
United States Military Academy - 1
United States Naval Academy - 1
University of Colorado-Boulder - 3
University of Illinois - 1
University of Kansas - 2
University of Lund-Sweden - 1
University of NC-Chapel Hill - 1
University of North Texas - 1
University of Pennsylvania - 3
University of South Carolina - 2
University of Southern CA - 1
University of Texas-Austin - 4
University of Texas-Dallas - 2
University of Virginia - 1
Vanderbilt University - 2
Washington and Lee University - 1
Washington University in St. Louis - 1
Yale University - 6

Impressive school, by the way.

By Fireflyscout (Fireflyscout) on Wednesday, September 29, 2004 - 06:44 am: Edit

Maybe because Xiggi didn't go to St Mark's? He's from west Texas.

By Aparent4 (Aparent4) on Wednesday, September 29, 2004 - 08:18 am: Edit

Thanks for checking in, Xiggi. Your name comes up often here (in a good way), and our prayers are with you.

By Morgantruce (Morgantruce) on Wednesday, September 29, 2004 - 09:10 am: Edit

"Your name comes up often here...."


FBI: "We're looking for information on an individual who uses the alias 'Xiggi'. Please call our felon hotline if you have any information."

Public Library: "He left town with 24 overdue books!"

College Board: "We've been looking for this 'Xiggi' fellow. We need to rescind his SAT scores."

Harvard Admissions: "We offered Xiggi a free ride, but he never answered our letter."

Sheeprun: "I banned 'Xiggi' three times and he keeps coming back."

VISA: "His VISA card is $3,000 over his spending limit."

MasterCard: "Xiggi owes us BIG money... and seems to have skipped town!"

George W. Bush: "In my next admin-i-stration, I'm appointing Xiggi to head the education thing."

Dave Berry: I guess I can admit it now... 'Xiggi" has been my secret posting identity for a long time."

Brittney Spears: "Xiggi is the man I really wanted to marry!"

Jennifer Lopez: "Back off Brittney--Xiggi's all mine!"

By Sgiovinc (Sgiovinc) on Wednesday, September 29, 2004 - 09:43 am: Edit

This is cute...let's continue.

John Kerry: "If I knew this 'Xiggi" guy was from West Texas, I would have asked him to be my running mate! Heard he's better looking than Edwards."

By Lizschup (Lizschup) on Wednesday, September 29, 2004 - 10:21 am: Edit

Jan Brady, from the Brady Bunch: "Xiggi, Xiggi, Xiggi"

By Kissy (Kissy) on Wednesday, September 29, 2004 - 10:25 am: Edit

Barbra Streisand: "If Xiggi comes back to California, I'm leaving the country!"


BTW, Xiggi- I'm sorry for all your troubles. Hang in there and do great things at CMK!

By Carolyn (Carolyn) on Wednesday, September 29, 2004 - 12:31 pm: Edit

Arnold S: "Get zat Xiggi up to Sacramento so I can smoke cigars with him."

By Ndbisme5 (Ndbisme5) on Wednesday, September 29, 2004 - 04:04 pm: Edit

Best of luck to you Xiggi!

By Takanawajoe (Takanawajoe) on Thursday, September 30, 2004 - 02:22 am: Edit

Look at this quote from above in the thread:

"Xiggi, how wonderful to hear how much you love your new school! I am so thankful to hear that you are doing well physically after such a scare, but I am deeply saddened to hear about your friend. Such a loss for his family, his friends like you and your family as well as the SM family."

SM is St. Marks. Xiggi also said at one time that famous alumni of his school are Tommy Lee Jones and the Wilson (Owen, etc.) brothers; they went to St. Marks. And Xiggi is most definitely from Dallas; he reads the Dallas Observer....

Hmmmm, wonder why he does not show up in the St. Marks statistics?!?!

By Fireflyscout (Fireflyscout) on Thursday, September 30, 2004 - 06:42 am: Edit

Takanawajoe - there is no scandal here. While I think Xiggi used to live in Dallas, I KNOW that he did not when he graduated. He did not graduate from St. Marks in Dallas.

By Eadad (Eadad) on Thursday, September 30, 2004 - 07:05 pm: Edit

Takanawajoe

There is a reason he is not in the statistics. Xiggi's family moved from Dallas after either the eighth or ninth grade but he has remained close to his friends here and often visited SM when he was back in town.

We all hoped that he and his family would move back sometime during upper school but sadly for us all, it never happened.

Put the conspiracy theory to rest.

Fireflyscout

Xiggi's family does not live in west Texas.

By Achat (Achat) on Thursday, September 30, 2004 - 08:47 pm: Edit

Eadad, I did not know you lived in Texas. I thought you were from NC (hence your son is a Morehead Scholar). Shows how little I know..

By Carolyn (Carolyn) on Thursday, September 30, 2004 - 10:44 pm: Edit

I miss Xiggi!

EADad, How goes it at UNC for your son?

By Sleeplessmom (Sleeplessmom) on Thursday, September 30, 2004 - 11:28 pm: Edit

Edad - maybe I'm misreading this, but if your son is Morehead Scholar - SM acceptee for 2004, then say hi to wife from me. I'm the Britbrigade and Jenny graduated 04 too and is up at Northwestern.

By Cheers (Cheers) on Thursday, September 30, 2004 - 11:35 pm: Edit

Dr 90210: "I finally met the one person in California who doesn't need plastic surgery--Xiggi!"

By Eadad (Eadad) on Friday, October 01, 2004 - 06:39 pm: Edit

Achat

No Problem. Guess you just missed old posts where Xiggi and I reconnected here as well.

Carolyn

In his words, UNC is "awesome"...He is so very happy with every aspect of college right now; great roommate (their room has become the hangout), large circle of friends, very happy with classes, engaging profs, active social life, getting involved in a lot of things. The only bad thing thus far has been the unfortunate death of his friend that Xiggi wrote about earlier. He was quite shaken and tried to come home for the memorial service but his schedule wouldn't allow it.

I believe that The Morehead has already exceeded his expectations. He had his first advisor meeting the second day of classes and then had a meeting for those interested in medicine with a Morehead alum that is on staff at the UNC Med School the next week.

The really cool thing about it is that he (and every other fellow Morehead) is/are very very low key about the whole thing and try very hard not to draw any attention to themselves or the fact that they are Moreheads.

UNC is beautiful and he loves Chapel Hill. He has no regrets whatsoever about his decision to turn down Yale (thankfully) and would make a great recruiter for UNC. He is in one of the new, airconditioned dorms which seems to have a lot of the other honors college students in it as well as many out of state students. Life is terrific!

Sleeplessmom

Very small world here on CC!!! Yes, our son is the Morehead from SM. How did you hear about it? Are you still with Jan?...Did I guess right on who this is?

Where did Jenny go to HS? How is she enjoying Northwestern? Chicago is one of my very favorite places but I couldn't get P to apply to either NU or UofC. I would have really enjoyed the visits, staying at the Palmer House and eating at Gino's East on a more frequent basis.

I'll pass on your message to Eamom. She will be thrilled to hear from you!

By Eadad (Eadad) on Friday, October 01, 2004 - 06:47 pm: Edit

Sleeplessmom

FYI

I was just reading an old post of yours regarding insurance. Our insurance co (Liberty Mutual) has a classification for "student living more than 150 miles away from home with no car" and the premium dropped $600 a year!

Worth looking into. Contact me and I'll get you my agent's name, she is terrific.

By Eadad (Eadad) on Sunday, October 03, 2004 - 11:28 am: Edit

bump

By Achat (Achat) on Sunday, October 03, 2004 - 11:57 am: Edit

Eadad, glad your son is enjoying himself. Please keep in touch by posting here. So I guess you can be from another state and get the Morehead.

By Achat (Achat) on Sunday, October 03, 2004 - 12:36 pm: Edit

I looked at the Morehead foundation website and it indeed is a great honor and opportunity to get a Morehead. And it almost sounds like a Rhodes scholarship with the physical vigor thrown in for good measure.

(also says many Morehead alumna win Rhodes, Fulbright etc).

By Sleeplessmom (Sleeplessmom) on Sunday, October 03, 2004 - 08:24 pm: Edit

Eadad - hi to y'all. Yes, I still work for Jan. Jenny went to public school in Garland and worked like a maniac to get what she wanted. And she did. Originally aimed for NYU and/or Columbia but declined NYU and pulled herself off the Columbia waitlist for Northwestern. She's in Medill there, and loves it. I love Chicago too - it's where I almost went, years ago, but detoured to Dallas instead. You must be vv proud of P, but he was always vv smart. Tell A hope all is well, L must be a big girl now! Our D, Allison is 15 and in IB in Garland. Wants to go to college in England - why do they all go so far away? PS - thanks for the ins. tip!

By Eadad (Eadad) on Sunday, October 03, 2004 - 08:34 pm: Edit

Achat

There are approximately 150 nominating schools outside North Carolina that can each nominate one student per year. Additionally, the admissions office can select students from the regular admissions pool as long as they apply prior to Nov 1 I believe. Last year 5 students made it to finalist status from the admissions pool and I think two ultimately were winners.

John Motley Morehead traveled frequently to the UK and deeply admired both Oxford and Cambridge and actually patterned the Morehead Scholarship and application/interview/selection process on the Rhodes Scholarship.

There are Canadian Moreheads as well as those from the UK. There were three semifinalists this past year from the UK with young lady from Scotland named a winner. She lives down the hall from my son and they have become good friends.

By Carolyn (Carolyn) on Sunday, October 03, 2004 - 11:26 pm: Edit

Eadad, I am so happy to hear the update. I had told my son (age 14) a bit about your son's decision last Spring and he was so thrilled and excited when he choose the Moorehead. Unfortunately, he was also very disappointed to discover that his high school isn't a Moorehead school. He was ready to ship out to UNC immediately. LOL! He actually asked me about how your son was doing a few weeks ago.

Any updates on your daughter's college hunt?

By Eadad (Eadad) on Wednesday, October 06, 2004 - 06:15 pm: Edit

Carolyn

Thanks for the kind words. Yes. we are starting again...sigh....I really could have used another year...LOL!

How cool that your son not only remembered about S and the Morehead but was asking about him....what a great kid you've got! FYI, there is a way for students in non-nominating schools to be nominated, and in fact, 5 of last year's semifinalists came via the admissions office route so tell him not to dismay, there is a way he can try for nomination.

As you know this is going to be a wholly different process with all different schools. Unlike her brother, she is not a good standardized test taker and is going to need a test prep course...uncharted waters in this household. Add to that the built in frustration of knowing how well he did on the tests with no test prep or even practice exams, and she gets even more down on herself. I know I am going to need some advice from my fellow CCers this time around.

Her list right now includes USD, LMU and Santa Clara so we may be seeing you sometime in the next year. She is looking at other Catholic schools like Villanova, Holy Cross and others because of her high school's record of admissions to them. I am trying hard to get her to open her mind and look at some LACs and smaller "non-big name" universities as well. To be honest, so far I am losing that battle...she "doesn't want to go to someplace she's never heard of"....we'll have to see.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 12:31 pm: Edit

EADad, funny you should mention that....

Our hs listserve just had a post from a student who graduated last year and is away at a college he had never heard of. He was urging all of this year's seniors and juniors to go to the college fair, to explore, and keep an open mind. He was student body president at the hs and a fairly bright kid and is now deliriously happy where he is.

Fwiw, he wound up at Drew University. A place that I'd never heard of, even though it's in PR's THE BEST 357.... He first encountered it at the college fair.

By Carolyn (Carolyn) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 01:24 pm: Edit

EAdad, If you visit Santa Clara, one school in the area you may also want to check out is St. Mary's College of California. I hadnt heard much about this school until recently, when two teachers whose opinions I both respect mentioned it to me and then I happened to meet a current student and a former faculty member in the same week. They all had excellent things to say about St. Mary's.

I had chance to do a drive through during a visit up in the bay area a few weeks ago. St. Mary's is a beautiful school (Catholic) - about 2600 students, minutes from San Francisco but in a rural-suburban area. It has a very good academic program, including a great books component. The campus was beautiful - set in the mountains, surrounded by trees. A bit less selective than USD and Santa Clara but just as good academically from the reports I've received.

We're actually going to San Francisco in November and will do the full tour of St. Mary's and the University of San Francisco (another catholic school) with my daughter. We may also try to get to Santa Clara on that trip if we have time but we found this summer that one school visit a day seems to work best so we may have to save Santa Clara for another visit.

I'll post a report here when we get back. In the meantime, the web site for St. Mary's is
www.stmarys-ca.edu

By Dadofsam (Dadofsam) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 01:57 pm: Edit

Carolyn: St. Mary's is a fine school but has been going through a bit of a shock recently becuae what was supposed to have been a huge donation evaporated when the donor was found to have been engaging in a scam. The money did not exist. The president has tendered his resignation, though he is said to not have been personally involved. The school will probably be OK, but any major construction probably has been put on the shelf.

Hope your bookstore visits went all right.

By Dadofsam (Dadofsam) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 02:00 pm: Edit

Sorry; double post