<p>From first years to seniors, good luck to all during this upcoming last, stressful week.</p>
<p>I'm stressed out, too, TD. I'm worried that my daughter will not have started packing before I get there to pick her up. Last year was a nightmare . . .</p>
<p>Oh, MWFN. We went to pick up D at the end of one of the first year, meeting her away from her House from whatever reason, having dinner, etc. I asked her how she was doing in terms of getting packed up and she said, "Coming along." </p>
<p>Well, I guess "coming along" was mathematically correct in terms of 1/n, where "n" is a largish number but still non-zero. Her room looked like the aftermath of the battle of Marengo except that there weren't any extraneous body parts lying around. </p>
<p>While she packed, I schlepped boxes of stuff down a flight of stairs, down a hallway, and down another, narrow flight of stairs into the "trunk room," where I was leaving stuff that was staying over the summer. </p>
<p>Only as I got into the trunk room, I discovered that the methodology of a number of the ladies appeared to consist of either a) walk into the room a few feet and then set stuff down wherever you can (leading to a massive amount of stuff up front with clear spaces further back being unreachable and/or b) stuff being stacked in such a way that if it didn't fall over in the moment, it was considered sufficient. I spent a good half hour re-organizing and re-stacking stuff in the trunk room just so that I could get D's stuff into it. At least her stuff was pretty well boxed up for the most part...I shifted around several large garbage bags holding undifferentiated glops of belongings.</p>
<p>This time, since she's leaving for good (arrrrgh!), I've told her that she needs to have everything packed such that on Monday morning she has to finish off only two boxes for UPS: one for home, one for D.C., with all the rest having been previously picked up and conveyed to the UPS pick-up spot. See, I've had this image of having to pack up 8-10 boxes the day after graduation. No way it's happening the day before; our Saturday schedule is packed so that a sardine would complain of it being tight (11 different scheduled items from 9:15am to 9:15pm).</p>
<p>My parents drove up from PA a few weeks ago to take a large number of my belongings home (my TV, my fridge, most of my clothes, etc.). Hopefully the rest of my stuff fits in the four checked bags that we're able to fly with back with us Sunday night after graduation (US Air recently decreased the checked baggage allotment to one bag per person). </p>
<p>It's funny, though. Even with most of my belongings gone, my room is still full of clutter.</p>
<p>I have been sending periodic emails to pack, pack, pack. I doubt it is happening, however.</p>
<p>Last year, darling D assured us that she had packed all but the essentials -- and we walked in her room to discover that EVERYTHING had been deemed essential except for winter coat and mittens. Seven hours later, we put the last box in storage. The downside for her? I packed some of her roommate's things (she had been using the top of D's dresser to store some of her own stuff), and we stored a box of stuff that D wanted to take home for the summer. </p>
<p>I'm taking bets on whether she has packed her stuff before we arrive. You wanna get in on this? :)</p>
<p>MWFN...LOL, it's so nice to know that certain of one's parental experiences are not unique. Seven hours? Oy. We only took about three. But I think I'll decline the piece of the current action...one never knows. May your e-mails to pack, pack, pack result in faster results than mine about arranging flight to D.C. upon return from Sicily and nailing down for sure a temporary place to stay in D.C. and getting the address. </p>
<p>Borgin, I can't deny that students whose parents live within driving distance have an advantage; conversely, those students whose parents don't live within driving distance have the burden of needing to be more organized.</p>
<p>Yes, you've spoiled your daughters with all this coddling and picking up business! My parents went the tough love route with me. I've got to be on that plane whether or not my room is packed up. </p>
<p>This usually neccessitates staying up the entire night after my last final to pack (of course I wait till the last minute), and I, like all students who fly, carry all my own stuff to the trunk room, including my fridge, tv, printer, and all 15 or 20 boxes of stuff. </p>
<p>Self reliance, baby :-)</p>
<p>This will be the only time we have come to pick our D up. Oh course this is not exactly true since she is going to Italy with the orchestra and then coming home after they get back. We will be getting to Smith the Thurs before graduation and I am hoping that she has at least figured out what is going to DC with her grandparents and what is not going with her at all. I expect to spend much of thursday and friday getting stuff packed and ready to go with us or to be shipped. It will be interesting.
Ellen</p>
<p>Taking them home after four years is tough -- for lots of reasons.</p>
<p>I'm already trying to figure out if/how/when we can visit her in D.C.</p>
<p>And speaking of taking home, D has some take-home finals. Ugh. Open book was bad enough. (I always felt it was a way for the prof to taunt: go ahead, use anything you want...unless you know this inside and out, it's not going to do you any good any way....mwu-ha-hah-hah-hah-hah. So saith the once-upon-a-time engineering student.)</p>