Securing audio equipment at Emerson College.

I met with Tim McKenna on December 15 to reserve my equipment. All went according to plan, which I felt was a good omen. It was kind of remarkable to get everything I wanted for as long as I wanted (I picked up the goods yesterday and I do not need to return anything until January 6. Es un milagro!). Yesterday's pickup included: 3 XLR cables, Zoom H4 recorder, 722 recorder, 3 extra batteries for the 722, 2 lavalier microphones, a Beyer shotgun microphone, and a boom pole (for the shotgun). I had an appointment with Pierre today. I hauled all this stuff over to his office. We went through the logistics of recording a conversation (the 2 lavs and the 722). We figured out all sorts of issues and I am SOOOO glad we met beforehand. I would have freaked out and not been able to get the quality I'm after. Restoring the 722 to factory settings did the trick for most of it, and some of the buzz we heard in the headphones originally turned out to be the lav wires crossing over the XLR cable. After sorting out the conversation recording scenario, we went into the "recording around my sister's kitchen table" scenario. I originally got the shotgun for that, but as we tested it, we realized the mic's pickup pattern was way too narrow and it made for a crappy deal. So, Pierre came up with the AKG 414 on a table/podium mic stand. The EDC typically doesn't allow the 414's to leave campus, but Pierre made it happen. And Bruno Caruso lent me a table mic stand (the EDC doesn't carry those). The AKG 414 has an omnidirectional setting, so that will work much better. I returned the shotgun/boom pole (the less financial responsibility to the EDC the better [I'm already over $7k or so]). Tim McKenna worked with me to get the AKG... he said no one has ever checked it out before. It is a Christmas miracle! Another Christmas miracle: being able to leave my office and run all over and take care of everything. Working at Emerson is the only way I could have made this Master's happen. So, things are off to a decent start. I leave for Texas in two days... I shouldn't admit this, but I can't afford a new insurance policy for this equipment. Praying nothing happens en route (I'm transporting all the equipment as my carry-on luggage).