<p>Saintfan - the rug is called Gislev. It’s 6’5" x 4’, but it looks like it’s only in stores. It comes in gray or red.</p>
<p>I have to brag on Pinot Noir who once again saved my butt. </p>
<p>She pm’d me to let me know tickets were up for sale for “meliora” weekend. We aren’t planning on going as son will be home the weekend before, but we did manage to get him two tickets to see the comedian Craig Ferguson. He loves comedy and hopefully he’ll have a friend to go with by then! If not, I’m guessing he can sell them.</p>
<p>We survived launch weekend. We left NJ @ 4a and arrived at UNC ~ noon. We weren’t swarmed by student helpers but a couple of nice girls showed us to DD’s room. She is in a suite - 4 rooms, 2 girls to a room, sharing one bathroom!! </p>
<p>Roommate and mom were there; DH (quite uncharacteristically) swept the girl up into a hug. DD muttered ‘not much longer to be embarrassed by my parents’. DH then brought out a hammer to beat DD’s bed into submission so he could loft it. Roomie/Mom then decided to leave for lunch. Hopefully they weren’t too traumatized.</p>
<p>I didn’t boo-hoo all the way home. DH and DS (16) are quite relieved. Either I’m in shock or sufficiently got it out of my system beforehand.</p>
<p>DD seems happy and has texted/called several times since with minor mishaps. Today’s issue involved the school store shelves being cleaned out of the books for the English class that all freshman are required to take. I assured her that she wouldn’t be the only person without a book and the prof would come up with a solution. I’m really trying not to problem solve for her. It is hard to go cold turkey though ;)</p>
<p>Good luck to all – I hope DD’s roommate’s Mom isn’t somewhere telling stories about my crazy DH. LOL</p>
<p>I don’t know if I am in denial or just been there done this before but we had not done any shopping till this weekend. It was a mistake. We had been waiting on getting the dorm assignment but decided we should just get started. D and I drove 45 minutes to the city where the major shopping stores are located. Hit a BBB and 2 targets and were sadden to find no selection of Twin XL sheets. Target was cleared out and Bed Bath and Beyond had a couple of jersey style which she doesn’t want. Macy’s had microfiber sheets which she didn’t like. We went to our local Macy’s today and bought the one package of twin XL fitted sheet they had. It was white and she found a twin top sheet she liked. We will still keep looking online and still have to make a trip to our local BB and Beyond. I am hoping they still have their dorm stuff since the local UC doesn’t have move in for another month.
If anyone is still shopping Costco has the Ihome I Phone clock radio $20 off right now.
D’s best friend is leaving tomorrow. My D is sad and is wondering what she is going to do for another month waiting at home for her move in date.
Soh200- my D has mentioned that maybe she should just bring Dad to move in. She said I am going to cry!</p>
<p>Congrats to the new launchees! </p>
<p>D has last day of work today with a young autistic boy she’s worked with for two years. She wrote him the most beautiful letter about all she’s learned from him that she’ll give to his parents to share with him when he’s older. This is clearly the hardest good bye of her launch. Unexpected grief. So sweet.</p>
<p>ohiobassmom - That’s the lamp D2 has. It was the last thing we put there. After we opened the box, we noticed the colorful hats were missing. I didn’t feel like taking the lamp apart to bring back to BB&B, so I just brought the box and receipt back. The customer service lady told me that I had to bring the whole thing back. It was at the end of a very long day. I was exhausted. </p>
<p>I said, “Listen, this is my third time back to your store to return damage goods. Do you seriously think I would come all the way back here for those cheap plastic things if they were in the box, which by the way, probably cost a nickel to make. I want to speak with your manager.” The manager took one look at me, figured she didn’t want to mess with an over tired and emotional parent on a move in day, hurried back with those plastic hats, “Of course, our apology, please take them.”</p>
<p>Wackaloon power, oldfort!</p>
<p>eyemamom - you’re very welcome. It’s just early pay back for your S waking my S up in time for class all semester. 
</p>
<p>We made good progress today.</p>
<p>You tell 'em oldfort!!!</p>
<p>Oh goodness. We leave in a week. Realized we never did make hotel reservations. Duhhhhhh. Using points, so staying near the Philadelphia Airport and it was easy to get a room.</p>
<p>PN - just knowing your son is not only doing my son’s laundry, but also putting it away makes the knock on the door on his way out truly no big deal :)</p>
<p>LOL. Are you sure there isn’t someone here that is going to my son’s college and wants to do his laundry? He’s bringing his ice cream making and would be happy to whip up a quart or two in payment.</p>
<p>I have a logistics question for those of you who have already launched kids where you had to fly in. We are flying in a couple of days early and then doing the BBB pick-up and local target shopping etc. I was thinking that we are going to need to wash the new sheets, towels, etc. It seems that it would be a pain to have my D do it on move-in day at the college so I was figuring the best bet would be to find a laundromat. Is this what others did? Is there anyone on this board who is familiar with Mt. Vernon, Ohio. I wanted to know if there was a laundromat there.</p>
<p>BTW - I am still laughing at oldfort and her lamp return!</p>
<p>^^Check to see if your hotel has laundry facilities…many do, and it won’t be as crazy as the dorm laundry with lots of kids trying to do their new sheets. On the other hand, it is sometimes good to check out the dorm laundry room with the kids and make sure they understand how to use the machines if they are significantly different from those at home.</p>
<p>Well, I haven’t been on here in forever but emptyingnest, my son is already there for preorientation. What we did was put a new set on without washing, I figured he could last a day in them till he could run a load in the dorm. Not perfect but doable…he is in Mcbride BTW.</p>
<p>So nice to hear of all the happy campers so far (the parents, I mean!). We do survive, somehow. </p>
<p>Neighbor said only communication from her son was a text because he forgot the password for his new debit card…so we are going on the no news is good news theory.</p>
<p>Not sure what the roomies family did with their other son…my neighbor had cancelled her hotel when she realized her H wasn’t going to be there as he would be on a business trip, and she had no desire to go to the parent cattle call (big state U , just keeping the kids away from the helicopters), and realized she wouldn’t really be seeing her son as he was tightly scheduled.</p>
<p>Actually, we aren’t even sure what the parents did. We live only about 40 or 45 minutes from the campus, but roomie is from about 4 hours away.</p>
<p>As there was absolutely no pleasant conversation–actually, no chit chat whatsoever–we haven’t a clue. </p>
<p>My neighbor will be going over to the campus this weekend to drop off a few things and so the dad can see the room and get a hug.</p>
<p>Thanks Elle (D will be in Lewis). The item I am most worried about is towels. I learned the hard way that towels that haven’t been washed are not absorbent. I still remembering trying to dry off with my new dark blue towels and all I got was fuzz all over me! I remember calling home and telling my mom about it and her response was silly, don’t you know you have to wash towels before using them!</p>
<p>EmptyingNest, I’d probably try to do the laundry at Kenyon (assuming that’s where you are headed) but there are definitely laundromats in Mt Vernon. I’d choose one of the two on Rt 36, the Gambier side of Mt V. Same area as all the shopping, too.</p>
<p>Rerunagain,
Ice cream for laundry sounds like a good trade to me. My S’14 (at Swat) would consider that. Of course this is the son who needed us to do his laundry near the end of last semester, not because he was busy (my assumption when I agreed to do it) but because he had run out of quarters! I asked what he would have done if his school was farther from home and he told me he would have had to get change.</p>
<p>Thanks. Yes we are headed to Kenyon. We arrive Wednesday evening in Columbus and will stay there until Saturday morning. This gives us time to do all the shopping. </p>
<p>Elle232 - since you are already done with this – did you need a hand truck? It is on one of the lists sent to us but this seems very impractical to bring on a plane and a waste of money to buy locally to use one day. How far is it from where you are allowed to unload your car to the dorms?</p>
<p>Emptyingnest, I would definitely do it at the hotel laundry…it will get done. I am actually going up next weekend for convocation and all that, and suspect that no sheets and towels will have been done this week…and I will be doing them at the hotel…but that is a boy for you 
It will all be good.</p>
<p>Just saw your last message, his dad took him up (drove) and bought stuff there. Did not need a handtruck and it went smoothly. I will say my son is minimalist and took very little with him. But still, I heard it was doable for them and he is on the third floor.</p>