<p>I just spent a day and a half doing just that with my daughter, who has moved into an off-campus apartment with two roommates. It’s not something that I was worried about doing; I expected it and planned for it. None of the students has a car, and the bus stop is several blocks away. The students would have had to take taxis to shop for the larger items, such as a microwave oven and a vacuum cleaner. Why not take advantage of Mom’s taxi during the day or two when it’s available?</p>
<p>D went back last week for prerush activities. She is a sophomore and in a sorority. This week is rush. 1200 potential new members visiting 15 sorority houses in round one, 11 houses in round two, 7 houses in round three…</p>
<p>She is a very intense student, and it seems she is taking the job of selling her house and her sisters very seriously. I got the dreaded call today. “Mom, I am fine. Really. EMS just cleared me. I fainted, but I am fine.” </p>
<p>Seems today was round three with 7 groups of 40-50+ girls rotating through the house. During round 6, she felt just a little dizzy, stepped out of the chapter room into a hall with a sister, and fainted dead away. They called 911. By the time the ambulance and the fire engine arrived she was awake and alert. (In our community they send both, even when just an ambulance is asked for.) She BEGGED for them to come in the back door. They came in the front door “with a legit stretcher and everything.” Her vitals were fine, her sugar was OK. It was 95 degrees out, and I suspect the A/C was not keeping up with 120 sisters and 50 rushees. And who knows when she last ate or drank. (She is a healthy eater and not a stick who has an eating disorder.) She declined a trip to the infirmary or the ER. </p>
<p>So when she called, more embarrassed :o than anything, I reminded her of all the good points: she did not faint as a freshman PNM, she did not faint in the main room in from of a huge audience, and the day was almost over… She is not a drama queen, and I imagine she is mortified over the incident. Thank goodness all the upper class sorority members have to inactivate facebook for the two week prerush/rush period so that news WON’T travel on this one ;).</p>
<p>Mine is moving into a rental house tomorrow with seven, yes, seven, other guys. I don’t think they’ve coordinated anything, although I have heard they have two 52" tv’s.</p>
<p>My contributions are paper plates, plastic silverware and a pool table. I know all three will get good use and I am thrilled to be rid of the pool table. My only strings attached are that it never comes back to this house!</p>
<p>No move-in this time. Instead, D will be trying to whittle down the million pounds of stuff she usually takes to school - she has to fit it all into the airline allotment. She’ll be off to Scotland September 8th.</p>
<p>It will be interesting moving her into the dorm over the holidays! At least it won’t be 100 degrees like it was for move in last year!</p>
<p>Yes- 3 items- I opened the box and they looked decent. The off brands don’t look much different than the cheap name brands- good enough for a student and no big deal if they don’t work well at that price.</p>
<p>We put my soph D on the plane yesterday with 2 50lb suitcases, 2 carryons; we’ve mailed one box and we’re mailing 2 more. Plus she has stuff in storage at college. All for a dorm room ! She claims she has less stuff than last year, but I’m not sure I believe that !!</p>
<p>This year was great - DD is a Junior, returning to same apartment. DH drive her car down for her with what would have been checked bags and things that can’t travel on airplanes at all. Due to Dr. appointments she flew the next day and met him. She only had carry on bags. He dropped the bags and they went out to lunch. Move in done.</p>
<p>Finally I am wondering if H made his midlife career change to K12 education because he knew he would have an iron-clad excuse to avoid college move-in (he always has to report before colleges start.) Move-in for S, at school 1000 miles from home, was only an issue Freshman year–he took care of it after that. (Now, tear-down of his apartment after graduating is another story . . .) Year 2 for D in off-campus apartment at our state flagship (where most move off campus after Freshman year) has been an entirely different story. After one trip in a truck and two in her car later for just her share of the stuff, maybe there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, but I fear I speak too soon.</p>
<p>LOL -I had the same question about the iron-toaster-coffeemaker thing!</p>
<p>Just returned from moving in soph son. Also left with the room a wreck, but s swears they can now see the floor (one of the items we bought was a rug to put on top of the carpet, which they claim they discovered was really gross when turning on DS’s black light). DS brought a lot of stuff. Half of what he brought last year never saw the light of day, I dont believe. We’ll see if that is true this year as well.</p>
<p>Occurred to me we didnt buy any toilet/bathroom cleaning products on the final Wal Mart run yesterday, and the bathroom is in their suite, between the 2 bedrooms. Not sure if the school has their housekeeping staff clean the bathroom or not. Biggest item bought yesterday (besides the rug, pot for cooking mac and cheese and large bowl for eating mac and cheese) was a huge spray bottle of Downey wrinkle remover. No iron for DS!!</p>
<p>D has Wal-Mart and Costco close by and already asked us to get her own Costco card on our account. I will be more than glad, my favorite place and she will have food at college that she is used having at home.</p>
<p>Violadad, missed this thread until today, but we will be having a similar discussion with the 58 stuffed owls with D2!!!</p>
<p>D1 when off on a plane yesterday with a carryone and one checked suitcase for soph year. Much less drama than last year (for both of us, I think).</p>
<p>H moved jr son in on Sat. Trip to Trader Joe’s for food. The 2 other unknown roommates had not arrived yet. (my son had at my nagging emailed both boys but never heard from them) Son texted on sunday that roommates had arrived and it was chill. He ended up knowing them! I am still not sure how you could see 2 names and not know that you know them. Even funnier is that one of the roommates is the boy that my son got a ride to and from campus last year for winter and spring break.
My son also texted that he didn’t need anything. Items forgotten at home-bike helmet,alarm clock, tv remote and printer cable.</p>
<p>DS#1 is off for his sophomore year this weekend and what a difference a year makes. So much planning/shopping/fretting last year and this year we only just decided a few days ago which parent will take him. He might pick up a few things on his own this week. At some point he needs to go through the bags of unpacked clothing/stuff from the spring, plus do a little laundry but I’ve bugged him twice and won’t again. I happen to be out of town the last three days before we leave. I get home Friday night, we pack up Saturday morning, and hit the road.</p>
<p>Last year I cried 100 times and found out it’s physically impossible to cry for more than an hour at a time. This year, I think there will be some sniffs and a few tears (hopefully after I’ve left to come home), but already feeling so much calmer. Even while we were alone in the house for two weeks this summer while the rest of the family was on vacation, I didn’t see him much. Perhaps it <em>is</em> true that 19-year-olds don’t love hanging out with mommy?</p>
<p>My dear little boy. Now you guys have made me sad.</p>
<p>I’m feeling guilty because I put D on a plane yesterday. I kind of assumed she would not be needing my help this year (I went with her freshman year, rented a car, helped her move in, took her to Walmart, etc.). I only realized, after the fact, that she would be arriving on campus at night with her huge suitcase full of clothes (no wheels), the Res Life office would probably be closed, as well as the storage facility where she stashed all her stuff for the summer. I heard from her at 11 pm last night that a surprise third roommate materialized, drunk. She had picked a 2 room suite with a friend, only to have a third girl assigned to the room, apparently. I want to rush over there and fix everything, but of course I’ll do no such thing. Maybe I should have gone with her…</p>
<p>I am sure she will work it all out, mousegray. These kids seem to have developes an amazing sense of resilience and competence between their freshman and sophomore years. Its qute impressive.</p>
<p>Weird thing happened- I had a momentary flash/thought about what the 3 of us (DH, self and S#2) would do for dinner tonight. Then reality hit. He’s not here. That rattled me for a second.</p>
<p>Yes, she will definitely work it out on her own. She is better organized than I am. If our situations were reversed, she would have thought of booking an earlier flight so I would arrive on campus when all the offices were open.</p>
<p>When DD’s school did forced triples, they also REDUCED the cost of the room portion of the bill. I’d call the school to see if they plan to do that.</p>
<p>Good point, thumper. Last I heard though, she is being transferred to another living situation, having proven herself to everyone (including the RA) to be a huge problem.</p>