empty NEST

It’s been 2 weeks since we went on to Atlanta to move our (freshman) daughter into college.  We arrived two days before her designated “move in” date (Saturday 10:45am).

We had an early morning flight (I woke up with puffy swollen eyes ,headache and a sore throat).

We were ready to leave only to discover our flight had been delayed for 3 hours. My daughter had  a great idea to send some boxes ahead, so we would have less to bring with us on the plane.

My husband, and I shared a very small bag, and our son had only a backpack.  My daughter ,visualize all the contents of  an 18 year olds girls closet, bureau, and superfluous accessories packed into a duffel bag, huge rolling suitcase and a carry on.  We went to the curbside check in first and discovered her duffel weighed 74lbs, that was going to be an extra $150.00. Are you kidding me? My husband went to park the car and the kids and I went inside to figure out a solution. We plopped ourselves in front of the huge scale(how convenient).  We could redistribute her luggage, or better yet, buy a small rolling bag (which she didn’t have) and put a bunch of clothes into that.  How lucky for us to have found the perfect small rolling bag that had a matching tote.  She took out enough stuff from her duffle to get it to the 50lb weight and stuffed the extra poundage into the the new bags.

Now ready to check in, our plane was delayed another hour.  Lucky for us we had access to the lounge and waited in comfort for the plane to board. We finally boarded the plane and had an easy flight to Atlanta.  We got our luggage and rental car and made our way to the hotel.

My husband loves city’s so he and our son went exploring, ending up at the botanical gardens.  My daughter had a pedicure and manicure, I waited in the hotel room with my free bottle of wine and truffles 🙂  We went to a traditional southern restaurant for dinner called South City Kitchen it was authentic southern and delicious!

The next day we started at Bed Bath and Beyond, then onto Target and The Container Store (Our suv wasn’t big enough to hold everything so we would have to make at least 2 trips in the morning to school).
We had dinner that nigh with our daughters roommate and parents, and her friends roommate and family, and her roommate and family (that’s a lot of roommates). Another nice dinner and new connections.

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We arrived at my daughter’s dorm and dumped the contents of the car onto the sidewalk.  Her roommate has already arrived and half moved in.  We have managed with the help of upperclassman to get all the curbside stuff into her room.  My husband has gone to collect the boxes that were sent ahead and delivers them to her dorm.  He now needs to go back to the hotel and collect the rest of her “stuff”.  This takes much longer than anticipated and we have a minor catastrophe.  The rest of her stuff hasn’t arrived and we don’t have enough hangers.  My husband comes back with the rest of her things and he and my son immediately leave to get more hangers.  My daughter and I complete her registration and go back to her dorm room to complete the unpacking.  We do the best we can until the HANGERS arrive.  As soon as my husband arrives it’s time for the parent/student dorm meeting in the common room.  We really don’t have much time so we only stay for a few minutes.  We make our way to the exit and say our goodbyes, lucky to be surrounded by many people so there really isn’t time for tears!

On our way back to the airport for two more nights at home with our son and then he is off to boarding school an incoming Junior.

I’m still sick so we decide that we will stay the night, I take my son since he has a meeting.  He will meet my son’s roommate (he is from Turkey) at the airport and take him up to NH.

They settle in nicely and so do we.  My husband loses his phone and tries to retrace his steps, I go home and rest!

The next morning we go to the Berkshires, we have tickets to the last concert at Tanglewood (summer home of the Boston Pops), Michael Feinstein, Betty Buckley and Christine Ebersole are scheduled to sing.  Lucky for us there is a surprise visitor Liza Minnelli. We also visited the Norman Rockwell Museum and Edith Wharton’s home The Mount.

Wow, we did a lot , and I’m still sick.  Empty nest, I don’t think so.  I still have 2 dogs and a husband in my nest, thank goodness 🙂