I hear you! One of my D16’-s co-workers quit today so now D16 is taking her shifts and will work the next three weekends (Fri, Sat, Sun) straight on top of her usual weekday shifts (even D16 is bummed). Our dorm mountain is scattered and disorganized, although she and I did go through her closet this week and made a keep, toss, donate and taking to school piles.
Although I’d rather see her in a double on the traditional long hallway with a big, shared bathroom for everyone on the single-sex floor in a freshman dorm, D16 landed on the honors floor in a suite of two-doubles sharing a small bathroom between them. It’s priced the same as the freshman dorm for her freshman year, but to stay next year, she’d have to pay a primium for a suite in that dorm. If she’ll still be qualified for honors for sophomore year…
I think she made the right decision, and she expects to get her roommate assignment at the end of the month.
D is pretty close to being done packing, I think, save what she’s been wearing for work and a few other summer clothes. She’s rethinking the number of shoes she wants to take-option for fewer, but mostly neutral or multi-purpose pairs. This makes H and I very happy.
She and her roommate just each bought bulletin boards that are exactly the same-but without knowing that. They’re truly in sync on the room set up. Hopefully they will get along in the long run when it comes to move important things.
@Sophmore1 My hubby and I actually packed the car the other day to make sure everything fit. We reserved a larger vehicle but our’s actually fit everything when we put one of the seats down. Even the items we have on the BBB pack and hold will fit when we bring her home in May. Instead of suit cases, we decided to use black duffel bags from Walmart ($14 each). As you fill them you can fit so much more and you can roll them up in the dorm room to save space.
@dyiu13 I know what you mean! My sweet girl will work at her out of town summer camp job until the end of July and then we only have a few short weeks until we head to DC! I really wanted she and my hubby to travel with me on a short business trip but that’s time she’ll need to decompress from her camp counselor job and go through her clothes/personal items/room and see friends before she goes. Many of her 33 classmates are heading to university overseas and she couldn’t attend their graduation parities because her job started the day after graduation.
I’ve scheduled an 80 minute body massage, facial, pedicure and manicure for her at a great day spa in our neighborhood before she heads to college. Miss her already :((
@HappyFace2018 I hope you made an appointment for both of you to go together!
@gettingschooled No, this is all about her right now :x She will have been sleeping on a camp bunk bed, walking around in her Chaco’s (Chaco’s are awesome but being flat footed can be a challenge), and working with elementary/middle schoolers for two months. She needs this more than I do :x
Our son only has a couple more weeks at home. My wife’s parents have taken him to London, and he’ll be there for ten days. The end of July we’ll be going to visit my parents in Tennessee for a couple of weeks, and he moves in on 8/24.
Thanks @Happyface2018 I will have to do a trial to see if everything fits. Fingers crossed. 
I can’t imagine such a short turnaround time @dyiu13 and others. One of my best friends has 1 week between the end of camp job and move in. She is definitely stressed out.
We finally took a stab at dorm mountain yesterday at BB&B - D16 did not get as much stuff as I think she needs, but it was at least a solid start and she has a firm grip on what type of stuff is out there. She balked at the idea of 4 layers of stuff under her sheets - she only bought a 1.5in. memory foam mattress pad. I think I’ll at least buy her a cover. For some stuff (bathroom rug, towel rack, garbage can) she wanted to wait to coordinate with a roommate. The only thing she shelled out big bucks for was a $130 quilt because she thought all the comforters sets were ugly.
Well, today she got her room assignment with a note that “There is currently no one else assigned to this room.” It’s a single-double suite in a residential learning community, with a shared bathroom between the two rooms. Maybe it just worked out that there was an odd number of females? She was pretty lazy about using Roomsync. Since it’s a learning community with two classes together the first semester (and a shared bathroom), it’s probably not the end of the world if she ends up alone. Someone who ends up hating their roommate can move in with her, haha. There’s still exactly a month before move-in day so maybe something will change.
D has not decided when her last day of work will be - we leave on the 13th so I suggested no later than the 10th, but she should probably take a whole week (on other hand, money is nice).
I just saw this article with excellent advice as we near that drop off.
@fretfulmother : On correlation: You really make me smile. I think my kids, especially my oldest, would love you.
On the nightlight and vision: I am quite aware of those findings, and wondered ages ago if the early eye problems my youngest son suffered were related to the (overly bright for my tastes) night light I had near his bed. If only.
I’ve now chucked it up to his unfortunate allergic existence and 363 days of sunlight shining right on his closed eyelids first thing in the morning for too many years. Blackout curtains are a little bit of wonderful, turns out.
@Waiting2exhale thank you!! 
I always figured that the causation went the other way, i.e. those who have trouble seeing, turn on the lights. And of course their kids could inherit their eye issues…
I’ve used night lights all my life, and my eyes are blessedly in good shape, requiring only a bit of reading glasses help for crocheting and no other correction. My husband has a strong eye prescription but always uses a sleep mask. So I didn’t worry about the kids.
DS1 inherited DH’s beautiful big nearsighted eyes instead of my beady little gimlet ones. 
Does anyone have crying days? Days where you can tear up at the tiniest thing? I think hitting the 30 day mark today has sent me over the edge. My mind keeps wandering and making me think of S and various memories and I’m tilting my head back again, trying to get the tears to go back in. Luckily, I usually have a day like this and then the next day I’m back to normal. Since this is our last kid, it’s definitely hitting me harder…
@psychmomma I don’t know what makes me more emotional…her heading off to college or her sweet auntie not being here to see it. My sister took care of me like she was my momma. She had a massive heart attack in September 2012. My daughter will be the second person in our family to attend college…after me. She was so proud of me 
And she just glowed when she heard my sweet girl play her violin and sing. I received a necklace from her estate that I’m planning to give to my sweetheart before we leave her in DC. Lord help me :((
I have my moments. D was 5 seconds into a final run through of her upcoming praise dance the other day and I had tears, because you know, it was ALMOST her last practice. Then this morning I was all teary about something else-menu planning, because in 2 weeks, my menus are going to be much smaller.
Eyesight and nightlights…H’s entire family needs glasses to even see people up close and personal-one sister sleeps with them on for fear of falling should she need to get up at night. My side just needed them as we aged. D-she has 20/20 vision, defying all odds, since I apparently have no dominant DNA. She has always had some kind of nightlight, though the last several years, has also used an eye mask. She is bringing both to college with her. The new nightlight is low-light but has GLITTER. Because it matches her and the roommate’s color scheme.
Just got an email from GW offering a room safe rental/purchase. Has anyone received an offer like this and what do you think??
@HappyFace2018 - I can see why you would miss your dear sister more than usual at a time like this. She must be smiling down on you and your D. Oh, the necklace- what a meaningful gift. Your D will love it. I’m imagining a few tears during that moment.
Those dorm safes might be easy to break into. Check the brand, model, and reviews. I’m thinking of a lock box with a proven lock. I might even decide on a locking handgun case. The dorm safes we researched had crappy locks.
Made a little progress tonight. S ordered his local transit pass from the college site - he’ll need it for his pre-orientation program. Then I got him to order a Northface Borealis backpack. He picked the color and used some of his Amazon gift cards that he received for graduation. I then got him to complete the online form for all of his childhood vaccinations. I think he realized things are getting close since he received the required freshman book today. We’ll be on vacation next week then we’ll need to get the laptop. I’m not sure it is a good idea to order it before we go since it might sit at FedEx for awhile. He had his wisdom teeth out on Friday and had spent two days lying on the couch with movies but went out yesterday with a friend and back to work today. Still on ibuprofen and anti-biotics. A friend told me to buy 4 of the ice packs that have beads in them and for the first 24 hours rotate them - 20 minutes on and 20 minutes off (so one set was always cooling in the freezer. Worked like a charm as S has no swelling on one side and just the slightest bit on the other. Another right of passage.