No images in this post because I promised not to post any of the pictures I took today. So let's put on our imagination caps and read some attempts at 1000 words per image. If you select the description of the missing image, and do a google image search on it, sometimes it's funny, sometimes it's not funny, sometimes it's haunting. Don't bother. Also, this post is much longer and more meandering than most because of the lack of imagery. You could just skip it if you'd like. tldr: Moved in, it was fine.
Picture of the license plate of a Prius
So today was drop-off day at college. My daughter the freshman is ready. I'm ready. While everyone is a little nervous, we've planned for this day for some time, and packed everything needed. We've made lists and checked off items. We figured a list of things to pick up beforehand and lists of items to pick up a few weeks later. Her Mom is coming down to visit her after the gets settled in. Long story but I think I explained it earlier - both kids move into their dorms on the same day. The first child is now a senior in college, and if we had been able we would have just rented a $19.95 truck from Home Depot and hired a hobo to drive it to Iowa. And been proud for the expense. In our defense, when we moved the first kid to college for freshman year, once all of the boxes got into the room he essentially told us to go away, and then (as far as we know) didn't unpack anything until the week before he had to move out, at which point he unpacked everything and didn't pack it even when we went to pick him up at the end of the year. Again, I'm not worried about offending that one because they don't read my blogs and that's possibly the wisest thing they've done.
So back to the license plate. Since Lily had her own car, and we drove it out together (instead of driving her car and our family car out caravan style, which is fine since we didn't want to put the miles on it - and it would have been so much more boring than what actually happened - although I would have had the chance to drive it *back* home on every little back road between the Atlantic and the Mississippi river over the course of, say, 10-15 days.) I ended up dropping her off at college. When she was dropped off, I had no way to get back to my brother's place 30 minutes away. (Which, since it's Baltimore, was about 200 yards away) (One more aside [lie, there will be more] the dear wife had to drive to Iowa with the first born and their girlfriend, then drive alone back home on a 5 hour drive and she doesn't like driving that far even with someone else in the car to entertain her. But ended up taking an awesome walk by a river on the way home that was better than my swear-infused walk through a confusing campus.)
Anyhoo, since I had no way of getting back to his place, my brother let me borrow their Prius. Which was really quite considerate of him. Especially since he let me drive his car when he was overseas with the Army in the 1990's and I ended up losing half the hubcabs and more, but let's not talk about that. It was really nice of him. And I'm much older and wiser now, so it seemed less risky. Back to the anyhoo, I had never driven a Prius before. After a brief about how it works (press on, then drive) I followed Lily to the Target near her school. We needed supplies.
So my review of a Prius is this: I learned a lot about myself today. Apparently I have a heavy right foot and floor the accelerator whenever I come off a stop. I guess I knew that, but today really solidified it. You know how you're going to take a left turn and you have to wait for traffic to clear, and then you take a nice calm left turn and go on about your business? It's not that I *didn't* do that, it's just that I often just floor it and wedge myself between two cars going 45 mph in the direction I'm going. With the Mazda (zoom zoom) wagon and the Mazda truck (groom groom) it's not that bad, and with the new Vespa I can really get flying from a stop. Not so much with a Prius. I was driving very carefully but the first thing I noticed is that it doesn't have a ton of pickup. The dash said I was in "eco mode" which I'm guessing means it drives like an ordinary sane person but I'm not. So I got used to the very calm, very environmentally friendly manner in which it comes off the line. I'd like to think I saved the lives of a number of dolphins today. But I was impressed at it's ability to move on the highway at the same speed as normal vehicles, and the satellite radio was kind of nice to have. Although it did cut out a few times and I don't know if it was the settings or the fact that only Boomers use satellite radio anymore, but the only stations I could find were 1970's album alternatives. I don't mind Steely Dan, Christopher Cross, or Cat Stevens, but not so much grooving on Dionne Warwick. It's a generational thing.
I took a picture of the license plate when I got to Target so I could find it in the sea of Prii parked there when we were done. Not sure if that's the proper plural, but it is now. Oh and who the HELL decided to make a Target where the parking aisles are DEAD ENDS? I could get the Prius turned around just fine, but the giant SUVs around me were having much more problems dealing. Ended up finding a spot right by the door. Win!
Picture of a father and his daughter trying to find twin sheets at a Target (NOT SuperTarget) next to a college on freshman move-in day.
So I met her at the Target. I purposefully did not wear a red polo today, because I've accidentally worn a red shirt to Target before and we won't talk about the interactions with strangers that that caused. I did however neglect to realize that a "Salmon" shirt is pretty close to red and the regular employees have been pushing the "red shirt" rule for some years now. So waiting inside the entrance because the weather outside was crazy hot and humid, I felt very conspicuous and worried that someone would ask me for a cart, or where humidifiers were found.
She finally showed up and we got on with our shopping. Due to my memory issues, I used a mnemonic to remember the five things I needed to get today in addition to her list. Mask, Masher, More Power, Mueller, and Mousse. Since the only mask I have on this trip is a very colorful "ships in bottles" pattern, I kinda wanted a plain black mask so I could be a little more subtle at the college. I also was told by all of the females in my family that I needed a steamer for the wrinkled shirts I pull out of my luggage. That's a "wrinkle Masher". Since the daughter stole my Power Cell Phone Charger Brick thing, I needed a replacement* as "more power" for my phone, and I also needed some different hair product because the travel sized "cream" product I bought last week was not working for me at all. The final M, Mueller, is the last name of the friend who lent us an iPass toll transponder, and I needed to remember to get that out of the daughter's car. I promptly forgot the last two M's and spent most of our visit at Target trying to remember them. Sometimes I feel like I have dementia, but without the relief of being placed in a memory unit. Happily I got everything except the mask. Back in Minneapolis every third aisle is a collection of masks for sale, and Target bags since we charge $.05 for every plastic bag. Apparently the masking rules aren't as strict in Maryland, so no masks were to be found, and we ended up getting a Dolphin killing amount of plastic bags to contain our purchases. So much for the Prius eco saving mode.
Also, shopping for Twin sized sheets at a Target directly adjacent to a college on move-in day was not probably the wisest move. Lily even saw someone she thought she followed on Instagram among the many, many families of college children, concerned mothers and disinterested fathers. We did end up getting most of what she needed, including silverware, spatula and measuring cups. Should have thought of trash can, but who's perfect?
Time was going well until she pointed out that we had 15 minutes to check out and get to campus. My decision to leave my digital watch on Central time was not a wise one. It all worked out in the end, even if she wanted me to help her to her car with her cart. I think she was just nervous and wanted me to hang out more.
* It's more than you need to know, but I forgot my phone charger in her car last night, so I got smart and plugged the phone into my laptop via USB for the overnight, thinking I was a genius and it would continue to charge like it said it was charging but it didn't. So I woke up two hours early to a very strange pattern of vibrations and found out what it's like to have a phone at 0% charge. Apparently the Prius blows a fuse if you main line USB power to a phone, so I really needed another way to get the phone working. See the previous note on not having a working phone/data connection for the amount of pain I was in. But the lack of confidence in the phone meant I didn't sleep much in those last two hours, and ended up with about 4 hours sleep. Good base for a hard day.
Picture of the daughter at her car
So one of the concerns was that we were bringing her car on campus as well as the Prius, and we were worried the strict guards at the gatehouse would deny me access, and talked about all of the different Uber options, street parking, or leaving the car at the Target and sneaking through the woods to get on campus. Turns out it wasn't an issue, big shock. When we met in the parking lot and got ready to go check her in, I took a picture of her getting out of her car and joked that I would be livestreaming the whole event. She didn't think that was funny.
She did get pretty quiet, and I talked to her about being nervous, and we worked together to allay any fears she had. I have to say I couldn't blame her. She was going into a foreign environment, not knowing anyone, being surrounded by other kids and their nervous families who were moving in for the first time, and the student volunteers were really quite extra. One of them was cheering with pompoms for every car coming on campus.
She got checked in well, but at one point they made it clear parents had to wait awkwardly outside the registration hall. It was about 900 degrees and the humidity was near 100%, so I hung out with a bunch of other parents working on our sweat patterns and trying to look aloof while not sitting on any of the benches - which were in the sun.
Picture of a WHOLE BUNCH of boxes in front of a dorm
So after getting checked in, identified and issued a "guest pass" for me (we were supposed to turn it in after we were done, but I kept mine. For the amount of money we were paying I figured earned a souvenir. And it wasn't numbered or anything, so if someone comes up short on the guess pass count, it can't be traced back to us.)
They made the campus a one way loop (more on that later) and we were to pull up in front of the dorm where a crew of very energetic volunteers would help us unload. Now, for the first kid's college experience, we got to drive on sidewalks, and when we pulled up a whole Lacrosse or Jai Lai team of students converged on the car, grabbed boxes, and took them up to his room. In this case we ended up with an awkward Ginger guy with a cardboard box on a set of wheels. Luckily, my order was to help unload the car and then drive it back to the parking lot and then come back and help carry things. Second stroke of good luck - you know that whole "one way loop around campus" thing? Turns out the loop took me into some of the very beautiful and serene forests of this campus, past hammocks and lounging students, past impressive buildings and such, right past a security vehicle and out the back gate. On city streets, at least 90 degrees off the main gate (again) so I had to drive around and come back on campus. While that seemed a bit off-putting, it absolutely assisted me in taking enough time for the task that I didn't end up carrying anything up to her third floor room.
When I did find her she led me up to the room but in passing the ginger guy he waved and she waved back. She had now started her college career and the only person she knows is essentially a Weasley who likely didn't have anything better to do that day. Could be worse. Could be a Jai Lai jock.
Picture of an annoyed 18 year old in a dorm room with the same boxes but spread everywhere, while avoiding having the roommate or her mother in the picture
So while I waited I added a couple more layers of sweat to my already fatherly moistness, but once we got inside it was a Very Cool air conditioned dorm. We got up to her floor, but in the elevator I asked if she'd seen the communal bathroom yet and she said she hadn't.
Think about it. You've never really been away from family for more than a couple days, and now you're a literal 1,000 miles from home, know absolutely nobody except a budget version of Ron Weasley, and you don't even know what the bathroom you're going to be using for the next 9 months is like. Much less the showers, the laundry, the cafeteria or even - crap we forgot about this - the classes! I have so much respect for anyone going off to college now, or ever. Makes dropping out twice seems fairly easy in comparison, even if I had to go to Marine Corps boot camp to avoid the wrath of my parents finding out.
Picture of the daughter hanging fairy lights while the suitcase with all of her clothes is left unpacked by the bed
So as I said, when we dropped the first kid off it was literally a dropoff. Right into the void of "college" without any idea how anything was going to play out. So it was rough. Ugly sobbing in the car at a state park, but that's another story. (This might be the only time I don't go off on a tangent, mostly because I can't remember if I already have on previous days. Considering it your next birthday and Christmas present combined.) For this one, we're so confident of her ability to deal with the experience, and we know we'll see her again, etc. So it's less scary and more exciting. But the best part was that she let me help her unpack! Her roomie's mom was assembling shelves, and they were going a mile a minute setting things up, so the fact that we just had a wire shoe rack to assemble and a couple of bins of sweaters to unpack made me a little nervous. But as it turned out we were really a good team, and I helped as much as I could. It was nice to be able to turn a Target bag into a trash bag and pile all the cardboard boxes up knowing I wasn't going to have to throw anything out or find recycling. Welcome to the rest of your life dear daughter.
So it was moderately chaotic, but we managed to make her bed, set up her stuff, and she even got to work setting up things like fairy lights, and putting her place settings in a drawer. Then moving them to another drawer. And then back to the original drawer. I was just happy to be there and help. And be in air conditioned space. What I sussed about the roomie was that she was a Dungeons and Dragons nerd, wanted to pack 120 books but settled on a dozen five inch thick volumes, and her talk about being into making pancakes wasn't just talk. Lily has everything you need to make pancakes and serve them to three people. Her roommate had more than that. They'll get along just fine!
Eventually Lily hinted that it was time for me to leave and I gave her a good sweaty hug and we talked about her schedule for the next day or so. She thought she might make lunch with us tomorrow, but as it turns out it's not likely, but maybe tomorrow night. I'm due to leave on Monday, but as it happens there's a hurricane approaching my sister's place, so I might have to delay that trip due to loss of power and imminent wind death. We'll see though, as I love me a good weather trauma. I think it's likely I'll get to see my daughter before I leave though. My wife is coming in a couple of weeks once Lily gets settled in, and I think she's getting the better end of the deal, although I think COVID will keep her from being able to see the dorm. But Lily's so much more likely to be chilled out by then.
Update: No, she won't make lunch tomorrow, but is getting along famously with her roomie, has already made some friends, and is happily exhausted.
Missing: Picture of me getting an iced Latte at a Starbucks drive through
So as I mentioned, when I dropped the first kid off there was anxiety and sobbing and bitterness and hours spent looking at his location on google maps caressing my phone saying "oh he's in his dorm he's ok I wonder if he remembers my name." This time I spent a moment lookup up a Starbucks with a drive through and enjoying my drive into Baltimore. I seriously love my daughter, but have so much more confidence and understanding about what's going on this time. It was a good Latte, BTW.
So hurricane Henri is heading to my sister's place, and that might make the rest of my trip crazy, but the stress is off on the dropoff, and it's time to just settle in and enjoy hanging out with my siblings and their families. I drove the Prius back to my brother's place, no issues or incidents. Do I offer some D cell batteries instead of filling the gas tank?
Missing: 38 pictures of me chasing a toddler for an hour
So Lily was winning the "who can win over the toddler" contest by the time she left, but I was determined to make an impression. I brought a stuffed Snowy the dog from the Tintin series, and hoped that would win her over. She eventually warmed to it, counted it and an Elsa doll a number of times, and shoved it into the hen's area of a Little People barn. But didn't really stop carrying it around. Which was awesome. My brother had to go into work saving the world, and his wife was on an all-day video conference, so they asked me if I wouldn't mind watching the toddler for a bit.
So I've helped raise two kids who at various times have been more than a handful. So how hard could it be entertaining a beautiful and fun little girl? Well, apparently it's been a few decades since I've chased high metabolism energy around a room for an hour. Holy crap that was a lot of work! But I didn't break the baby and by the end of it I could get a fist bump or a high five, but I think a hug may take more than a stuffed dog and all the cheerios she can eat (and feed the real dog.) But I'm determined to be a fun uncle, so we'll see. When Mom came back from her video call, she minded the baby like a seasoned veteran, and I wondered how it could be done so easily!
Missing: Picture of me drinking late into the night with my brother and his wife only to find out it was 9pm when we called it quits
So we had a great dinner, my brother finally got home from frantic work, and we had a lovely evening. I got some serious quality time with my sister-in-law, and then some great story telling time with her and my brother. We played "oh yeah, well here's an even better story" about our times in the military in Korea, and I got to try a sidecar for the first time. Lemon margarita, pretty much. Tasty! His wife called it a day and he and I spent a long time still telling stories and enjoying the nostalgia of a shared experience at different times in our careers. By the time we'd finished out cocktails, it was time to call it a night. I thought I was reading my watch wrong, but it turned out it was only 9pm. Which to my time zone clock was actually only 8. So I went to my very wonderful guest room, turned on the computer and wrote way too many words about a very short day. Think I'm going to go back and edit this and fix spelling mistakes? Guess again. Write to you tomorrow!
Total words: 3,756 - so only imagine 3.75 images.
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