January 10th, 2015

Hi, it’s Christina –

Let the insanity begin! Good Morning! I only have a few minutes, so this will be short and there won’t be a writing challenge either.

Lord I’m tired. With Lys out of commission because of her knee, I was the one hauling junk up from the basement yesterday so she could pack for school. At roughly seven last night, when all the bins, bags, and unpackable stuff (mattress cover, lamp, mirror, decorations, TV, fridge, etc.) were piled up in the family room, I realized there was no way all Lys’ stuff plus four of us were going to fit in the car.

My sister-in-law, bless her heart, said Dani could stay with her for the weekend. So I asked my hubby to remove one of the back seats so we could fit everything – now that Dani wasn’t going, we didn’t need her seat taking up room. He removes the bulky, heavy, seat, turns, takes three steps, trips over a cinderblock - which is frozen to the ground - at the edge of our driveway, and goes flying. What a helpless feeling, seeing someone you love falling, and knowing you can’t do a damn thing to stop their fall. He landed like a ton of bricks, whacked his knee on the ground and his face on a cooler we have outside, but thankfully, other than a couple of bruises, he seems to be alright. I guess we’ll know for sure when he wakes up. Hopefully, this was not a sign of how our weekend is going to play out. UGH!

Okay, as I said, I only have a few minutes. I have to go hop in the shower real quick, roust everyone, get the last few things in the car (Paulie didn’t want the TV in the cold overnight), then hit the road. I hope you have a wonderful weekend, and happy writing!

August 23rd

Hi, It’s Christina –

It’s five in the morning. After five hours of tossing and turning, I gave up and got up.

We finally got out of the house yesterday around 10:30, three hours later than I had wanted to leave. We drove through torrential rain and snarled traffic, and finally arrived up here a little after six. My normal six hour, door to door drive took almost eight hours. When we were almost here we realized my husband left our toiletry bag on the bed at home and I forgot my body pillow (which I need to sleep because of my bad back).

When we got to the hotel, I dropped off my husband and girls and ran to the store for the toiletries, then requested extra pillows from the front desk hoping they would work in place of the body pillow (yeah, NO). We all showered and went to pick up my daughter’s roommate to bring her to dinner. Because of all the luggage in the car, we needed to send my youngest with her grandparents so there was room for Rhea to sit.

A two car caravan is easy enough to deal with and we managed to find the parking deck with no wrong turns – far better than the last time I tried to find it. The last time we were up here, we had dinner at a really good Irish pub and we planned on going there again. All nine of us trek down Church Street to the pub only to find there is an hour and a half to two hour wait for a table. Thank you, no. I don’t care what restaurant it is, there are none that would warrant that kind of wait. Unfortunately, the wait time at several other restaurants was the same. Can someone please tell me what could have possible been going on in Burlington, on a rainy Thursday night, to cause such a backlog?

We finally find a place where the wait was only half an hour. It was not because it wasn’t good, but because they offered tables on a first come, first serve, and you needed to be present (no list of names being called from), so I think a lot of folks had walked away. Anyway, we finally got seated, had a yummy dinner and the whole bill, including a glass of wine for my aunt and two beers for my hubby, came to $140, including tip. $140 for nine people for dinner – I think that’s great.

By the time we left the restaurant, the rain had stopped so we had a nice leisurely stroll up Church Street back to the cars, dropped Rhea off at the dorm and returned to the hotel. My daughter was still insisting she did not want to show up at school with stuff in three cars, so we took everything out of my mom’s car and my in-law’s car and packed my van. Now the game plan is I drive my daughter and her stuff to the school for 8:00, pull up in front of her dorm and let the swarm descend, follow the directions to the off-site parking, give the rest of the family the address for the off-site parking so they can meet me there, and we can all take the shuttle back and help my daughter get situated.

How we think we will be able to get eight of us in the dorm room and be able to get anything accomplished, I don’t know, but the grandparents wanted to be part of this experience, so I don’t want to deny them. This is their first “sending a kid off to college” for any of them. My husband, my sister-in-law, my cousin (remember I said my aunt came with us too) and I all went to colleges locally and commuted daily from home.

Oh well, the time has come to wake my daughter up so she can get ready to leave. I will try to hold it together as long as I can, but I am not making any promises. Seeing the refrigerator in my van set me off yesterday. Tackling a highly emotional day on virtually no sleep, does not bode well for me keeping my emotions in check, so my goal is just not to embarrass my daughter.

The internet is down here at the hotel, so I don’t know when this blog will be able to be posted. So until then… have a great day and happy writing!

 

August 22nd

Hi, It’s Christina –

D-Day has arrived. I know I said I probably would not have had time to Blog today, but I’m up, hours before we have to leave, so…

The party last night was good until the end. That’s when all the tears started. Another close friend of the family was here and she leaves for her senior year of college on Friday, and she started to cry when she found out my daughter made her a cake in her school colors to go along with the cake she made for herself. (My daughter is the one in the back with the green cake, and yes, the friend is crying while she is cutting hers.)

Not long after this, others started leaving and my daughter had to say goodbye. She had a really hard time when her aunt and cousins left. Some people ask why I did this party, and I’ll admit it, one of the reasons was purely selfish. I knew if I didn’t exhaust myself both mentally and physically yesterday I would have had too much time to sit there and dwell on the fact my baby was leaving and I knew I would fall apart. Having a house full of people, I knew I would be too busy to let it hit me.

With all the hubbub yesterday, I never had time to pack my husband’s and my stuff for the weekend, so I have that yet to do today as well as loading our car up with my daughter’s stuff. We sent some things last night in my mother’s car as well as my in-law’s car, but the rest is coming with us. It should be interesting trying to fit the refrigerator, six bins, however many miscellaneous bags as well as our weekend bags, and four people in the car.

Between the side view mirrors and the rear back-up camera, I should be able to manage, since I know the rear-view mirror will be useless. My daughter is a little embarrassed her things are taking up three cars, but if we sneak some stuff in tonight, then we can consolidate the remaining things into our car for tomorrow, and she will be ok.

I hope they allow us to help her unpack and set up her room. The way they made it sound was we drove up in front of the dorm, the upper classmen descended on the car and remove all the stuff and we drove away. Hopefully they meant drove away to a parking spot not in front of the dorm. I can’t imagine just dumping my child and her stuff on the curb and driving away. It would be cruel and unusual punishment for all of us. No use getting worked up over it now, it will be what it will be, and we’ll find out when we get there.

Ok, the sun is finally up enough that I should be able to go in my room and pack without turning on any lights and waking my hubby. Chances are I will be awake tomorrow hours before I need to be, so I will probably do a Blog entry. So until then… have a great day and happy writing!