<p>Very best wishes to everyone making this trip; word of caution though - check tires carefully once you're unloaded and preparing to make the trip home, especially if you're not using a Curmudgeon sized truck. The combination of weight on the vehicle and driving at high speeds on hot pavement for a long period of time can and will cause tire failure.</p>
<p>My d. spent several hours packing today; as far as I can tell just about everything she owns is going into the huge wheeled duffel she insisted on purchasing. She also bought a new, supercharged laptop today, so she spent th rest of the day loading up the computer. She's planning on shipping bedding and coats to herself; she'll fly out on her own next week. My S. is already settled in at his campus, where classes start on Monday, and he started his new job this week. He's working half time and part of his job duties will be on campus, and he managed to schedule a very full course load with afternoon classes only, so job + work should integrate well. So far he loves his job & is feeling very excited about it - I'm hoping school will be the same.</p>
<p>
And with this to buoy our spirits (now Mom's up , too) we will try not to be embarrass her too much with any gnashing and/or public wailing. Now the truck, clothing choices, generally boorish personality? The kid is used to all of that. ;) </p>
<p>(Now if my kid cries, we'll have a scene for sure. The bag of emotions I've been carrying around will most certainly come unstitched. After all, this is the kid who wrote the saddest letters ever written from Camp Kanakuk. Gosh, why'd I have think of that? "It is soooo hot. PLEASE COME GET ME NOW. I hate it here. Can you at least get a little fan and put it in a little box......" </p>
<p>But somehow , I don't think she'll be the one to cry this time. She is so excited.</p>
<p>Talk about boo hooing, or even having it deteriote into the 'ugly cry' -
my sister tells the story of friends of hers whose son chose to play basketball at a school half way across the country, instead of taking an offer from a school close to his midwest home. He attended a basketball 'camp' at the school in the summer and did not have an enjoyable time. When time for school to start approached, they drove him to the college and the night before classes were to start, he refused to stay in the dorm and spent the night with them in the hotel instead. ON THE MORNING CLASSES WERE TO START, she tells of father, mother, and son, standing in the parking lot of the Florida hotel, sobbing their eyes out. They drove him to campus, let him out, and cried all the way back home. He had a rough first year, even having the coach send him home for a long weekend (a coach with a heart?!?!?), but now is loving his college experience. Thank God for happy endings.</p>
<p>My junior D just returned to college (luckily only 75 miles away). She decided that the 30 year old sofa we had at our old cabin (her father's old bachelor sofa!!) would be perfect for her room (and unfortunately no roommates showed up with a sofa this year!). Since the roads to the cabin are bad and gravel, I didn't think using a pick-up would work (she would love a sofa full of gravel dust!). Luckily our little local Enterprise was renting cargo vans for $39.99!! It had the metal screen between the front seats and cargo space, so looked like something I could haul prisoners in, but did the job great. Headed the 30 miles to the cabin, loaded the sofa (with help from the locals!), headed the 30 miles back to town, and then the 75 miles to school. When I got there and got the sofa unloaded, she thought of some other uses for that cargo van (i.e. head to the local grocery store to borrow some carts to use when helping freshmen move into the scholarship hall the next day, etc.). Oh, the joys of having a kid in college!</p>
<p>Just sent D#2 off for the first day of her senior year of high school. I was so engrossed in the moment of watching her head to the car, etc. I FORGOT TO TAKE A PHOTO!! Guess I will have to take one of her SECOND day of her senior year!! </p>
<p>Was going to take the dog for a walk, but my eyes are too red and puffy now from reading this post and beating myself up about forgeting the photo - would hate to get the neighbors talking!!</p>
<p>Dropping one's child off at college is a fixed memory, like giving birth, 9/11, Kennedy's death.
S was first of his friends to attend college, so I had no one who could empathize with me .(He started after jr year). I do recall S agreeing to shop at BB&B the night before our plane trip Other than a new computer, ONLY concession to materialism). Fortunately, once on campus, older students were incredibly helpful. I went shopping in campus store for a mug, T-shirt, bumper sticker--reminders. Other parents were shopping too, pushed aside by their excited kids who were so much more interested in meeting future classmates than hanging with parents.
In answer to Oaklandmom, whose S is coincidentally headed for same school my S attends, I still hang around CC. CC offers a wealth of info, a range of topics from politics to sports to linens, dramas, & the warmth and openness of virtual friends who can share info about their children they could be reluctant to discuss with neighbors. Almost all my friends sent their children to state schools, but on CC I found others who were willing to send kids across country and spend a small fortune to give their children the gift of a prized educational and social experience.
To Curm, best of luck today.</p>
<p>Cur- just jumping in here- will read the rest of the thread later- but I'm sending the very best wishes to you and Mrs. Cur and of course your beautiful daughter. I can't believe it's time to go already, didn't she just finish her applications? </p>
<p>I'm looking forward to hearing about her semester!!</p>
<p>{{{{{hugs}}}}}
andi</p>
<p>Hello fadder, hello mudder
here I am at
my college dorm
I've stood in line
since half past nine
and where the h... is my registration form....</p>
<p>Go, mudgette</p>
<p>Marite, that is cute! :cool: Last year, to move my youngest into her NYU dorm, there were lines around the block to just get your key to move in. </p>
<p>Good luck Mudge and Mudgette and to all other incoming freshmen and their parents. It is such an exciting time in the kids' lives. I know mine never cried...they couldn't wait. It was just me who hated to say goodbye and drive off. It is hard at first at home without your kids but after a while, you do get used to it! Promise!</p>
<p>Susan</p>
<p>Right now I'm kinda looking forward to Sat. It seems all of my son's friends took this last week off from work and have been at my house until about 3am every night. I, of course, am up until they leave and then up again at 7 when H. gets up for work. Think I'll sleep all of next week, so empty nest may not hit again until the week after!.</p>
<p>Cur,</p>
<p>Thanks for starting this thread! Good stuff.</p>
<p>We head out this evening via Southwest to drop our son off at Notre Dame. It looks like a fun filled, yet sad, weekend for us all.</p>
<p>Sorry I can't be as witty as many others as we head off . . . perhaps I'll be able to post something interesting and funny when we return.</p>
<p>2 off to college now . . . where did the time go.</p>
<p>Eagle:</p>
<p>The best of luck to your S! He'll have four wonderful years at ND.</p>
<p>My DS will be the last of his friends to leave the nest - we fly down on 9/3. Something must be wrong - everything he needs for school fits into three 18 "x 22" x 12" boxes that we're shipping down. We'll need to take one large suitcase and one carry-on each. Almost everything is packed.</p>
<p>AND...his room is on the first floor (our DD's room was always on the 3rd floor - no elevators, of course).</p>
<p>He's been in touch with his roommate - they agreed to get a rug - any color except mauve (DS didn't know what color that was - I showed him a bottle of nail polish and that was that).</p>
<p>His room still needs to be purged - I think he's having a hard time throwing away notes and homework that were so important just a few short months ago. </p>
<p>I'm trying not to be gushy and oversentimental - but the other night, when we had a blackout and had to listen to the Yankees game on the radio (with candles around the family room), DS put his head on my shoulder and held my hand. Talk about a Hallmark moment.</p>
<p>bethel - I read this entire thread with not a tear in my eye - having dropped my D off last year with her remark ringing in my ears, "Mom, there aren't going to be any big emotions." But your post, the teenage boy, maybe still in full growth spurt mode, maybe gangly, maybe chubby, maybe full beard, maybe barely a scraggly mustache, maybe prickly short-haired, maybe long and curly hair, maybe in khakis and a button down, maybe in plaid, maybe in a boarder shirt, maybe a vintage Metallica shirt, maybe a hip hop tank, the thought of that boy holding your hand with his head on your shoulder.</p>
<p>Ah. Tears.</p>
<p>We delivered DD to Hendrix yesterday. We are so very excited for her, but a bit sad for us. I guess we'll be experiencing the empty nest thing (if you don't count the dog). It was a very bittersweet goodbye and the 6 1/2 hour trip home was very quiet. Hubby and I didn't talk much ... I think we were both just needing some quiet time. DD was to take a French placement test this morning and she has a full schedule awaiting her for this orientation week. There's so much to say, but I'm so very tired. We didn't get home until 1:00 this morning, and with getting up at 5:45 (that's sleeping in for me), I am dragging. Good luck to all who have yet to send your children off, and I commiserate with those of you who have just returned.</p>
<p>Alu, STOP! I'm having enough problems with this! LOL!</p>
<p>We leave tomorrow at 5 am to take our boy to college. He wants to fit in one more party before he leaves. The good news is that his GF and most of his friends are leaving on the same day. He finally started packing yesterday. Of course we had to throw away bags of garbage just to get to the stuff to pack. I'm hoping that we have what he needs, at least the min.</p>
<p>I guess that this is going to happen, I can't be in denial forever. This week has been frantic. We went on one last family vacation last week, so it's a short turn around to get everything ready to go this week. It doesn't help that my H has worked every night until nine. He said last night, this is our last night with our S at home. But he hasn't seen him since Sunday, since our S has been packed with going away parties every night. He hoping to get home early tonight before the boy goes out. We will have 10 hours in the car tomorrow. It will be a long day.</p>
<p>The dining room is full of stuff, but not too much. I can't imagine when my D goes to college, my S who doesn't have too much stuff and still we are going to fill up the minivan.</p>
<p>Off we go, I'm trying not to get too sad. I've wanted this day ever since he was born. If he didn't have the grades or the ambition to go away to school, I would have been so unhappy. Then why is this so hard.</p>
<p>Alumother, I am so glad to read:</p>
<p>"having dropped my D off last year with her remark ringing in my ears, "Mom, there aren't going to be any big emotions." </p>
<p>This is exactly what my D will say. She's already warned me she'll say it. I fully EXPECT her to say it. </p>
<p>I am so glad I'm not the only mom to have to act brave and insouciant on college drop-off day.</p>
<p>Last night, after a fantasy football inspired "debate" with the 10 year old brother who worships him, followed by threats that he wouldn't come home for 4 years, by a kid who still thinks nothing of screaming across the lacrosse field "I love you Mom," I woke up this morning to a heartfelt apology note pushed under the bedroom door. Guess the emotions are running high in both directions.</p>
<p>Meningitis shot update: S finally called dr's ofc this morning (he forgot to get this during his sports physical in July). Spent an hour on phone calls, discussing national shortage of the vaccine. Stay tuned . . . .</p>
<p>You are all making me feel guilty.</p>
<p>Last year was D's first year and we drove her belongings out to school (she was attending a pre-orientation backpacking trip) and loaded them into her room, along with a lot of help from the upperclassmen. Spent parts of two days with her.</p>
<p>This year she is flying out with two suitcases and her laptop and everything else is being shipped to meet her there. We won't see her until late October when we head out for a weekend.</p>
<p>OOO just reading this thread brings back some great memories - some teary ones too - I miss my kiddo alot every time she moves in again. And this year she never got home over the summer - so I don't get that honor at all this year :( and this is the last time - the next move is just to bring some of her stuff home - she will be heading off to who knows where for a huge internship for second semester - then done! WOW has time flown.</p>
<p>We've bought all the stuff he needs for school: laptop, digital voice recorder, cable lock for laptop, bedding, desk stuff, etc. He's already had an overnight summer orientation and met some classmates. We had a parent orientation in parallel, so we feel confident there are plenty of resources on campus to help him succeed, if he needs them - it's another matter whether he'll take the initiative to USE them, if necessary. But that's also part of what growing up is about.</p>
<p>He's packed into 3 big boxes "stuff" from his room that he does NOT need at college, and that he knew he had to put away before leaving, or his mother would toss it out as junk once he was gone.</p>
<p>We're letting him pack himself for college. The big move-in day is next Friday, so it's rapidly approaching. He's appropriately nervous and excited, I think.</p>