He's gone


Class start tomorrow

So, I spent Thursday and Friday getting #1-Son set up at Uni, and here I haven't said anything about it yet. It's a major change in my life, so I guess I oughta.

#1 is going for a Batchelor of Science degree in Physics at a very, very large state university in the state just east of ours. This is the main university campus for the state, and is fed by the third largest metropolitan area in the nation (although it is a 3-hour drive south, thank heavens.) There are nearly 32,000 undergraduate students on campus and well over 10,000 graduate students. And oddly enough given those demographics, it is not a commuter campus -- all of the campus-owned parking is strictly for staff (and the sports crowd -- it's a Big 10 school.) Seeing as it's in the middle of hundreds of miles of corn and soybeans, I guess that's not surprising.

Alas, but #1-Son is in the southeastern-most dorm on the campus, and all of the hard sciences buildings are on the north side. The bookstores and administration buildings are in the northwest corner. He and I spent a half-hour each way walking diagonally across campus to buy books. Fortunately, the Uni has a deal with the city bus service, and students ride free. Everywhere; not just on campus. It's kinda necessary, given the lack of parking on campus.

He forgot his comb. And washrags. How did he forget his comb and not his toothbrush, when he used both the morning we left? I dunno. I am not now nor have I ever been a member of the Communist Party an 18-year-old male geek. Things I bought him while we were there: a comb, washrags, cortisone cream for insect bites, Granny Smith apples, a case of Sprite, paper plates, paper napkins, sunscreen, a hat, and two extension electrical cords (indoor, grounded.)

It's 3.5 hours driving each way from our house, which means it's a hard (on the driver, and #1 doesn't drive) one-day round-trip. The trip is all interstate, bless, but they are heavily-traveled interstates in fairly poor condition. And State-Next-Door is F-L-A-T flat, which means the 'scenery' is boring as hell. One of his roommates (he has two -- he's in an end unit in his dorm, which holds three people instead of the standard two) is from a suburb of the metro area on the far western side of our state and does pass through our metro area on the way to and from home, but his drive is 9+ hours each way so obviously he won't be making it for three-day holiday weekends.

Things that are really weird now that he's gone:

* Even though I'm a day late getting the kids' laundry washed, each division (darks, lights, whites, etc.) is still only one load.
* We don't need an extra placemat and chair at the kitchen table. Since 1994, #1-Son and I have been bumping elbows on a side of the table that was really only comfortable for one person.
* Nobody's arguing over whose turn it is for the kids' computer.
* Nobody's arguing over who gets to sit in the big blue chair in the family room.
* I can turn off the hall light when I go to bed at night, because all the kids are already in bed.
* I'm trying to decide how to go about cooking for just three of us on the nights when Hubs doesn't come home for dinner, especially since Daughter is a vegetarian.
* Nobody hugs me suddenly from behind, or pokes me in the nose when I make a bad pun.

I dunno if I'll run up to get him over the three-day Labor Day weekend or not. It's not fetching him -- I can leave here in time to be there when his last class is over and we can be back by bedtime, if not dinner time -- it's taking him back, when we're torn between keeping him here as long as possible and getting him there in time to turn around and get back home at a decent bedtime.

Posted: Sun - August 23, 2009 at 09:09 PM   Home         | | View Technorati reactions

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