It has been nearly a week since Dad’s Weekend and I still have not quite recovered from doing things other than sitting in my dorm and studying on the weekend. I lost so much sleep cramming in time to study and entertaining my stepfather that the canceled morning classes I had this week were a blessing. As exhausting as it was, it was still a fantastic weekend.

I introduced my mother and stepfather to the perfection of Flix milkshakes and Zoe’s gyros. We got some shopping in at The Bookie, where they bought a Cougar shirt for my little brother and matching sweatshirts for themselves. I will try to pretend not to be overly embarrassed about that since I did say I would be willing to be seen in public with them. We cried laughing at Nuthouse Friday night, saw J. Edgar at the theater Saturday night and then wrapped the weekend up with lunch at Dupus Boomers on Sunday.

It snowed, which was at least pretty despite my hatred of snow, and the Cougars won their football game. It was a golden weekend, but all of that was punctuated with a lot of “Well…now what?” It is a good thing they have never been on campus before and enjoy walking around and sightseeing, or I would have failed miserably at playing host. It is stupidly hard to find things to do on Dad’s Weekend.

Not only was the WSU search function fairly unhelpful, but the last actual flier of events I was able to find was from 2007. I finally found the 2011 list of events, and unfortunately, they were either football, boring or expensive.

I like that I am attending a school that has a football team that actually wins occasionally. I do not, however, like freezing my butt off in a seat I paid far too much for while watching a sport I am not exactly excited about. The only reason I went to the homecoming games in high school was because they were free, and I was the only one on the journalism staff willing to stay at school for more than 12 hours to take pictures at the game.

Our parents pay enough for us to attend this school, so why is there not a wider range of free or cheap activities available during Dad’s Weekend? Maybe there can be a free concert or two, emphasis on free, or a cheap charity concert that people actually want to see. How about playing a movie in the CUB that is not focused entirely on skiing? The football game already covers the sports angle, we do not need to watch a film on people going downhill fast, which they call a sport. Maybe one of the sororities can host a father-daughter dance to support a charity. I know I would drag my reluctant father to that – we both dance badly enough that it could actually be fun.

Next year, there needs to be a wider array of events that appeal to a range of different kinds of people. Not everyone is obsessed with sports or old people singing. WSU students have a wide variety of tastes. Dad’s Weekend is a great tradition, so why not make it great, not to mention affordable, for everyone?