My sister had her orientation today and said it wasn’t that great. First of all, it was 11-3 and they didn’t feed them. Secondly the tour guide was a guy who really only talked to the guys and ignored the girls. And then when they were doing advising, my sister’s program of choice wasn’t even in their system so she has to call tomorrow to register for classes. Hopefully mine tomorrow is better
Hope it goes well @carolinamom2boys
@readingclaygirl sorry your sister didn’t have a good experience.
For those who suggested a plain old DVD player-the cost is equal to or less than the cost of a DVD drive, the USB hub plus special MS software, so I will pass the information on. But I will also suggest that D is free to use her dad’s Netflix, Hulu, and such, since her sister can certainly tell her she rarely bothered with either during college.
@sseamom Thanks
@readingclaygirl: I hope things begin to look up for your sister as she moves forward in her college process. Rough first days can shake us.
Enjoy your time tomorrow!
Not too surprising, I think that buying for boys in preparation for college can be so simple that it leaves one unprepared for doing so with a girl. My boy required almost nothing, took almost nothing from a very sunny place to Massachusetts, and did indeed live in those t-shirts until Mass showed him its teeth!
We forwarded winter gear purchased from a Chicago visit during the college selection process,and had Sierra Trading Post fill the gap much later in the season.
He went on his own (never turning to wave in the airport, sadly for me), took the train and after a few wrong turns near the college, made it there and settled in.
@Undercovermom1 @carolinamom2boys my DS told me, on the subject of color/pattern choices for bedding, “I assume you’ll pick something. If it is good, no one will notice. If it is supremely dorky, then I will use it to bond with my roommate, as in, ‘you think your rubber ducky towel is silly? take a look at the cute puppy-dog bedspread my mom got me’…”
@fretfulmother You’re daughter’s sense of humor sounds very similar to my son’s.
@readingclaygirl Hope your orientation runs smoothly , so sorry for your sister.
@palm715 - on the subject of how Bostonians like our perfect black jeans…my pair is currently being altered at the tailor!
@carolinamom2boys I am fretfulmom 2 boys as well, no daughters here! 
Sorry @fretfulmother . Sorry,read too quickly
@palm715, most of our Dorm Mountain is from around the house. S won’t get any new clothes before leaving, and is taking the bedding from his room. I’ve been setting aside extra toiletries and school supplies over many months so the cost isn’t all coming up now. Your D sounds very practical- the worth of a good pair of black jeans should not be underestimated!
I wouldn’t be too surprised if we only had to fill up one of those bins on wheels they supply on move in day. S wears shorts/jeans and a t-shirt, although he does have a few nicer things. Philadelphia probably won’t be that much colder than DC. There’s been drama over the summer with the university’s president getting a vote of no confidence, but I don’t think it will affect him directly. Come to think of it, there was a president forced out at his second choice school as well (and at my alma mater not that long ago).
We are trying really hard not to go overboard $-)
It was really bad the other night…you would have thought we were helping our sweet girl set up house instead of a dorm room. As we were heading to the checkout line we looked at each other and just cracked up laughing. My sweet hubby says “what the heck or we doing!” We put more than 1/2 back on the shelf. We got off light…I think 
“I need a “yuck” button for all those bug posts…” Me too! @fretfulmother I am super paranoid about bed bugs and check every time we stay in a hotel.
@sseamom what about the portable dvd players for cars? Small screen but the price may be comparable to an external drive for one of her computers.
One day when I was out buying a twin microfiber sheet set (deal at JCP for $9.99 ) I came across a white pillowcase with #needsleep or something similar. It was $3.99 and I thought cute. Since twin sets only come with one pillowcase, I bought it as an extra. Both D16 and S19 were MORTIFIED when they saw it. How embarrassing! D16 said she would take it, but turn it around. HORRORS! The offending hashtag is printed on both sides! 
I told D16 when she looks at it, it will remind her to call me.
As I slowly but surely increase the pile of Dorm Mountain in DS’s room- I asked him- “Do you want any posters, prints, flags, etc. for your wall?”…DS- “…umm…” +
Don’t think he is too concerned with his dorm room decor. @-)
@bookmom7 DS16 will be using a nautical map of Charleston Harbor on his wall; otherwise, that’s it. Plus , additional string lights.
31 days left and nothing purchased yet! This week’s big accomplishment was submitting a request for her bed to be lofted prior to her arrival on campus. Yay? I got her to begrudgingly acknowledge that it would be necessary to go to a store that’s not Sephora on multiple occasions in the next 30 days, preferably before everything is picked over and she’s left with all the stuff no one else wants. How did I raise a child who hates shopping? The only thing that’s stopping me from just doing it all for her at the point is that she has all the money for the dorm stuff.
Since I can’t buy dorm stuff, I can obsess about future travel arrangements. New dilemma is deciding whether she will fly home one time before Thanksgiving - the thought hadn’t crossed my mind before I randomly looked at prices yesterday and saw $72 flights from Denver to DC in October. It might be a good opportunity to switch out some clothes and grab the snowboard so we don’t have to fly with it when it’s 95 degrees outside.
We found some nice neutral colored removeable quote stickers at the Dollar Tree of all places for D’s wall. Two are Bible verses, and one is “Be the change” which is her motto. Then she has some cute gold nad black mini clothespins to hang photos from a string, but nothing fancy.
We did buy the pillow case at Target that looks like closed eyes with eyelashes. It matches D’s sheets and it’s cute. She likes cute.
@livinginLA even the stand-alone ones are less than $50, and less than all the pieces and the software we’d need, apparently, to make it work with the Surface. So I think that’s how we’ll go, if D ends up wanting to bother.