The never-ending quest for college money

So how did Heir 2 do in his scholarship quest on Friday?

Well, we won't know the big picture until mid-April. But he felt good about what he did and arrived at lunch beaming.

It seems the interview portion of his test (or whatever) was done by the professor in his major -- the professor he met with last fall. The professor wants to take him on through the Undergraduate Research Assistant Program, a really neat system where he gets to work on real-life research projects, present papers (a recent URAP student presented his paper in Italy, according to Heir 2 -- I'll try not to be bitter) and work one-on-one in his field. That's the part he's excited about. We're excited that it offers some scholarship money plus a stipend he can use for pocket money.

I can't tell you how much he deserves all this good luck. He'll tell you he's "cruised" through high school. And there were a few times he chose sleep over turning in a perfect paper or achieving 100 percent on a test. But he's maintained straight A's and he's done it all even when his world was crumbling around him. He's never complained about having to buy things for himself that we were able to afford to buy for Heir 1 and for awhile there he was the reason we could have dinner every night.

We did sit through a presentation for Roanoke's honors program, but neither of us was very impressed. The first thing he said on the way out was: "Couldn't you just smell the smug in that room?" So, though he qualifies (as a mother, I've just got to let you know that...sorry if I sound so...SMUG), he will not be participating in the honors program.

Today he's at the long-awaited forensics tournament, where his goal, he says, is to get it over with without embarrassing himself (his words, not mine). As you recall, he sort of fell into this to fill out the team numbers last-minute as a replacement for a team member who couldn't make it and then ended up coming in second. So, though he gotten a little bit of coaching since then, he's quite certain he knows just enough to get him into trouble.

When he gets home, he's going to bed -- if I have to nail his head to the bed, he's going to go to sleep.