So, a chapter has ended and a new one has begun. In a flurry of summer-end activities and last minute preparations, M is a college student. The move in actually went fairly well, we had the great fortune to be offered lodging with family just twenty minutes (in an ideal world, which we now know Boston at rush hour is not) from the school. We arrived and were given thirty minutes to unload into "bins" which were really just giant garbage cans for M's building, because the halls and elevators are so narrow that nothing else will fit.
We set about preparing when some hired movers converged upon us, and began to boss us around and rearrange. I, who had prepared a nice "bin" filled with manageable (for me) and easily controllable items, was told to take one of the containers packed by Kevin instead, and the professional mover took my light one. The one I was left with had a printer and a television perched and about to fall off, and I had to wheel the heavy bin about two blocks through the streets at a trot, trying to keep up with the rest of them. M was charged only with carrying a few handheld items. B had wisely opted not to join us. Good thing, because he would not have fit anyway!
So in the end, we managed, the printer had to be rescued and I managed to keep the TV at bay. The poor thing was returned home anyway, as M's room is so pathetically tiny that there was no place for her to put it. Her roommate has a large monitor which she put on her desk, and says she can stream live TV through that if they ever want to watch. Whatever. How do you live with no TV? Beats me. I can't sleep without it. But she will have to!
It is strange not having her around, but really not all that different. She responds to our texts, not prying but if we have something to tell her, such as that one of her classmates - yet another - was killed in a car crash yesterday morning. It wasn't someone she was close with, and perhaps not even someone she knew at all. But I texted her to let her know and that opens a short dialogue: so as best we can tell, she is having a great time, she eats but doesn't seem to exercise (I guess there will be plenty of that to come shortly) and she gets along well with her roommate ::knock wood:: but doesn't seem to be finding many kindred spirits in her dorm; they missed a meeting last night because they didn't know about it until later, they have been spending their time with kids from a neighboring dorm, I believe.
There are a couple more days of this welcome week, and then they have some mandatory advising and information meetings, as well as the President's Convocation and the Freshman BBQ. Classes will start on Wednesday. I hope she has her books! I got her two on amazon and left the rest up to her because I couldn't find them any cheaper than what the bookstore was charging at school.
Otherwise it's been quite a summer. We have survived almost nightly thunderstorms, random tornado watches and warnings, a hurricane and even an earthquake! M became as always unnaturally brown after spending every single day in the blazing sun, although I was grateful for at least a few cloudy days this summer. B had a busy summer as well, with volunteering at the hospital and a nursing home, and tennis camp on his days off. Now he has one more week to study his summer reading books before he has to return to school on the 12th. But his big news will be the driving. He should have his permit by Tuesday afternoon. Only one more two hour session with the driving school stands between him and the piece of paper with his name on it. And lastly on B, his neurologist rescheduled his appointment this year so it's been put off until the 20th of September. It's quite likely he will be sent for an MRI this year since it's been so long and he's grown so much. So please remember to storm the chiari gods for good results! He has been feeling fine. We even bought him a gym membership for his birthday. He goes on Monday for his inaugural session.
And in other news, the house is a disaster as my job has moved to full time, but I plan to spend the rest of this weekend trying to whip it into shape. We were lucky not to sustain any Irene damage, thanks to the waterbug in the basement that alerted us to the fact that water was just pouring in through a hole in the foundation, which was supposed to be sealed off around the pipe it had been cut to house. We only lost power for about ten hours and the backup sumps worked wonderfully.
After this weekend, it will be back to reality. Kevin has been on vacation but goes back on Wednesday. And our next big excitement will be when we go for Parents Weekend the third week of October. We are bringing the dogs because (a) it's cheaper to do that and (b) this way we know M will be sure to come and see us for a minute!
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