Well, D24 is all moved in and ready to go. Her room feels enormous. We measured and, excluding the closet and part by the door, it’s 12.5’x8.5’. Skinny, but lots of floor space is open and she is very happy with it. We moved in her stuff in multiple trips this year. It was harder in a way since we just parked and used a wagon instead of the big bins. But the first trip was just clothes and bedding. We cleaned and moved furniture and then I did the bed and she did the clothes. Then we got rid of those bags/suitcases. Next trip was less organized, but still just a couple of Ikea style bags. She unpacked and I went to the storage for more. It worked well and felt less chaotic than it did last year when there was just so much stuff all at once!
Her friends arrived and they are having a good time catching up from summer.
I’m heading home tomorrow. It’s harder to leave this time.
NiceUnparticularMom and S24 are leaving Friday for the drive back to school. I’m not invited because he is taking his car and there is no room for both his stuff and me (she is flying back).
I don’t mind him choosing her, but the thought of watching them drive off–well, I won’t tell them this, but it is hitting a little hard. I guess this time it is clearer to me what it means.
I am officially done with all of the driving this summer. Nothing would make me happier than H taking S24 back to school without me!
The debate of the moment is will S24 take a bike back to school, it seems that there is a Subway and Dunkin within biking distance to Williams that will make having a bike necessary. He has not ridden a bike in about 6 years so this seems to be the time, save me!! (although if he does take it there may not be room for me in the car, so…)
D24 wrapped up her summer research on the other side of the city this week (except for a poster she will present at a conference in December). Due to the two hour commute, we had arranged for an apartment where she had been staying midweek. She’s been here for the weekends to spend time with her hometown friends, brother (S21) and us. The bulk of belongings from that apartment are now in my husband’s SUV. She’s off rock climbing today, but this coming week she’ll be stowing those goods while preparing for sophomore move-in. We’ll be flying east to help her get set up. She’s super sweet and always fun to have her around, so hard to say goodbye.
S21 begins the master’s phase of his joint BS/MS program with an orientation on Monday, but then he has the rest of the week off before classes begin. He’s been home for the summer, but has an apartment near his uni that is only a half hour away. We’ll see him often, but he’s truly a joy to be around, so will miss sharing everyday moments.
I am having this same feeling. We bring D24 back up on Friday. It is so much harder this year. It has been so nice to have her around all summer, and next summer she is supposed to be on co-op (fingers crossed that she lands one), which can be literally anywhere. So this feel like the end of an era.
D24 is very anxious about her course load for fall. This is widely regarded as the weeder semester for ChemE majors (with the trifecta of orgo, physics 2, mv calc), so it’s hard to tell if she’s excited to go back. She is looking forward to seeing her friends and moving in to her fabulous off-campus digs, so that’s encouraging. Her BF just got a last-minute co-op job in Baltimore, so he won’t be around for the semester, which is a change in plans for how she envisioned the semester playing out. Thankfully, I think between a demanding course schedule and lot of beginning of the year sorority obligations, she’ll be pretty busy and hopefully won’t spend too much time pining.
Wishing all an enjoyable last few days or weeks with your C24s and best wishes to all the kiddos for a great semester!
Other than applying like everyone else (and doing the paperwork right away when applications opened), I have no idea. I don’t think I realized it was like finding a golden ticket.
One S24 back at school – I am not even inquiring AT ALL about bedding this year–because I learned at the start of summer that he somehow “never saw/never used/and now has no idea where they are” the second set of Pottery Barn (!!!) sheets and towels that I unpacked in his room and put away neatly in his drawers at the start of freshman year. Yes. No explanation. Lesson learned–for ME. I’m gonna buy those PB sheets and towels for MYSELF going forward. He can sleep on paper towels that he paid for. The other S24 flies back tomorrow and he knows where everything is as far as I can tell. D26 is “working” on her college essays and I am already, shamefully, needing to be talked off the ledge. Help me laugh so I don’t cry! Did she learn absolutely nothing from her two procrastinating, not-listening-to-mom-and-dad brothers?! I can’t even look at the Parents of 2026 thread.
I just have to commiserate with all of this - I have an S22 and an S25. Somehow, for the third year running, S22 has managed to lose sheets. When he went back for sophomore year it was just the pillowcases. He had pillows, no cases, no clue where they went. Goes back junior year and he’s lost his top sheet. Pillow cases are there (pillows were missing though) and the fitted sheet, but top sheet is gone. This year, it’s the fitted sheet and he didn’t realize until after he unpacked everything and I had left. He’s got a car this year, so I sent him to Target to pick something out. Forget the nice, 100% cotton high thread count that I bought him. Go spend your own money and see how that poly-cotton blend feels. (He’s generally not a pampered kid, except with his bed and I generally don’t splurge for him, except on stuff related to sleeping, because I am a crazy person about sleep.)
I have no idea how all of these things can get lost, but he also came home with a blue ikea bag that wasn’t his (we only bought the ones that zip, this one doesn’t) and two extra navy blue blazers (???). So somehow I think things just up and migrate rooms when no one is looking.
Then there’s S25. Somehow, he learned nothing from watching his older brother apply to college, prepare to attend, and then move in. He was, by far, my less organized, more last minute, more by the seat of your pants child. (This is not news, he has always been this way.)
So I just wanted to say - I feel you, and you are not alone!
I’m 120% in this camp! There was a big ticket item my daughter lost freshman year and I told her it was on her to replace. Funny how stuff stopped going missing and how much better cared for it all was when it was her $.
THANK YOU – YOU ARE CRACKING ME UP!!! Thank god I am not alone. What are these boys doing with their stuff?! How do they survive!? Where are all the sheets? Honestly, do we need to call in Agents Mulder and Scully to find the truth that is surely out there? I overheard my son telling his friend that “sometimes, I had to sleep on still-wet sheets from the dryer” because “it was time for bed but I only had one set of sheets…” Um…open your drawers! The extra sheets YOU said “yes, I like those” to are in there! But for some other freshman now…
The two extra blazers are really making me laugh. I can only imagine what those moms are saying.
New rule for sure: I’m not replacing anything that I already bought. It’s good for them.
S24 hit the road back to school with H yesterday. I’m hoping for a better year this time around - he was pretty nervous heading out but I was super encouraging. He’ll be living in the “ski” house this year with some kids he knows from ski team so we’ll see how that goes. He’s happy to be off the meal plan (food was horrendous). S22 flew back to school last week - for the first time he seemed happy to be going and as he seems to be settling in well, all is good from that quarter. Now if I can just get both to be in a good space at the same time that would be a big plus.
Substitute a pile of electronic components for the basket of hangers and add a sleeping young adult to the tangle of bedding and you’d have the current state of S24’s room. Oh, and that pile of clothing on the floor would be dirty laundry he intends to wash before packing. He leaves tomorrow.
Move in happened today for D24. We drove from AZ to TX and somewhere in NM, a rock hit the windshield of the rental car and by the time we were east of Amarillo, a crack appeared and is a bit long. But I don’t have time to deal with it right now because D26 and I have to get to Tucumcari, NM by 9 pm tomorrow night to check to our motel.
Life’s an adventure.
Meanwhile, Spousal Unit called and asked if D26 and I are flying home. For the 10th time, no. I’ve told him a billion times and it’s written on the white board in the kitchen, for Pete’s sake.
I learned today that I am not allowed to be friendly with other parents or students moving into the dorm. Both of my kids scolded me big time and said how totally embarrassing I am.
Have to hit the road at 11:30 am tomorrow. This move in feels harder for yours truly than last year.
But D24, D26, and I made a good team and got everything loaded and unloaded in nothing flat. D24 and her roommate picked a good storage facility to use for the summer and that worked out well. We will do the same next summer.
Am bringing a couple of D24’s items back home with us…her bed spread from last year. The top sheets that she never uses.
Last year’s area rug is getting thrown out. It never got vacuumed the entire school year!
Got the kid stocked up with toiletries and some other essentials today. Looks like for the May move out we will need about 3 more big Home Depot/Lowes storage bins. Those worked well and are easy to store in a storage unit since they stack easily.
It’s been good for D26 to be here for D24’s move in. And it’s meant a lot to D24, too.
D24 has choir practice tomorrow for a couple of hours. Plus again on Sunday and a little bit on Monday before the opening convocation ceremony that evening.
D24 really likes this school. I hope this school year goes better academically than freshman year did.
Not exactly the same thing but I volunteered a few times in the merch store of my kids’ HS, a BS as it happens. The store opened the first weekend IIRC. Basically, just after drop-off after parents had left.
Groups of boys would come in and load up on t-shirts. Like, guys, what’s going on here??
The answer: all of their existing t-shirts were already dirty. Rather than do laundry, they just bought more.
ETA: got back a couple days ago after taking the droids to UMich for year 2. Droid1 flew out a week early, I drove out from NY with Droid2, and Mrs Droids flew out to meet us. Had a great meal and overnight in Cleveland on the way out. We could’ve cannonballed but wanted to pick up my wife on the way to A2.
Anyway, moving the kids into their houses was…somewhat of an adventure owed to the state of the houses. But it seems sorted now.
Leaving was tough. Weirdly tougher this time than last year. Still, parents’ weekend is less than three weeks from now, so we’ll get another fix soon enough!
Back from bringing our D24 to school. As expected, it was a whirlwind.
We drove up Friday and moved her stuff in.
Her new place (off-campus townhouse complex) is fantastic…she’s got a decent sized single bedroom (furnished with a full size bed), a very generous closet and her own en suite bathroom. Her 3 new housemates (2 that already knows from her sorority) all seem nice and it seems like it will be a good fit.
H and I then left her to do a grocery run while D started to unpack and set up. When we returned to the apartment, her 2 besties from last year had come over to see her and help her unpack. They joined us for dinner Friday night. Such kind, smart and bubbly girls…I’m so happy she has them in her life. We parted after dinner so they could get on with their night (I was heartened to hear they had a weekend full of plans already mapped out) and so H and I could collapse at the hotel and be asleep by 9:30
Saturday morning, H and I went mountain biking (we had brought our bikes) since we are early birds and we wanted to let D sleep in a bit before getting together. We found a great park and took a little ride, just enough to feel like we had done something other than moving errands and driving.
We then picked up D and drove her up to her boyfriend’s house where his family has been pet sitting her fish all summer. Boyfriend is on coop in Baltimore, but it was nice to meet his parents. Drove the tank back to her apartment and got that stuff set up, then went to Target for more household stuff (plus a sheet she needed for a toga party that night ).
We finished up with a late lunch together (side note: I’m sure I’ve stated this before, but I have yet to have a bad meal in all of Rochester…there’s some seriously good eats in that city), then dropped her back at her place and set out for our 5.5 hour drive home. It was the first drive home from there where we didn’t have nagging worry about her…she is just so much more settled this year. What a difference a year makes.
First day of classes today - hoping for a good update from her later.
Help me laugh so I don’t cry! Did she learn absolutely nothing from her two procrastinating, not-listening-to-mom-and-dad brothers?! I can’t even look at the Parents of 2026 thread.
).