College prep...the boy's moving day

i know some folks are curious about the whole kid going to college thing.

i had one of mine do this last year. 

i watched my husband openly cry over her move to boston, as we headed back to the car to head home without her. 

bringing my son and his wealth of personal stuff to his new digs in Maine was going to be equally tough. 

or worse. 

i have spent the summer saturdays with graham setting up my tent and lugging tent weights along with my assorted inventory to the Providence Open Market 

and other shows. 

in spite of the generally hard work it has taken to do these income earning tasks, there has been one  constant delight. 

graham. 

now after almost 18 years, 

i needed to let him spread his wings and pursue his own interests. 

i figure, that they include girls, girls, girls...sans family nosiness

and 

sports 

and 

eating what and when he feels like it 

and 

his education. 

his goal as i know it currently is to become: GG, male nurse.

i couldn't be happier for him. 

he knows already how to put socks on geriatrics since his dad and i have trained him for this. 

his past two summers working at RI Hospital have trained him to wash dentures, and reset them into their owners' mouths, 

clean sheets and make beds, 

take a decent message without mumbling, 

feed folks who can't do it for themselves, 

change adult diapers, 

fold laundry, 

and be all around agreeable to all of these tasks for not much over minimum wage. 

i think he will be a stellar addition to the nursing community. 

we drove to maine with him and all of his junk. 

his roommate was already moved into their room. 

and he is a really nice seeming fellow from providence too. 

they knew each other and chose to room together. 

i fear for other students there. 

they are both pretty charming. 

graham and marquise

clearly, our late start to drive northwards, in a pre-hurricane environment did not mess up the basic moving in process. 

we drove and arrived and were directed to graham's dorm. 

about 20 kids were there to greet us and unload our car. 

not only did they unload, but they carried it all up to the room while a very brief signing in process was underway. 

i did NOTHING. 

we went to the dorm room, 

where  i watched my boy unload all of his stuff. 

he enjoyed making his bed and showing off the hospital corners. 

(heaven knows i tried to teach him that, but when it comes to learning, he does everything on his own time-line.)

he put his clothes into his dresser drawers. 

he unloaded his bathroom sundries into his shower caddy.

it was all unpacked, made, cleaned, and sorted by the time my husband had parked the car and come up to the room. 

we chatted a little, 

he showered, 

we all thought we would walk to the ice rink and check it out. 

we were wrong. 

graham and marquise sent us packing and went to the dining hall for some early dinner. 

they had meetings to go to. 

so we said adios. 

and went to check into the sparest motel room ever for a good night's rest. 

chris and i felt graham was missing a lot of stuff, like notebooks and ibuprofen. 

we went to dinner, but were warned that there was an hour wait. 

leaving our name for a table, 

we re-parked our car a few hundred feet up the hill at Target.

the boy got all sorts of things, like a light, 

ethernet cable(just like the ones i threw out the week before... ugh. ) 

cookies, 

notebooks, 

chips,

folders, 

water,

tweezers for splinters(you never know...),  

gatorade, 

etc. 

we returned to the resto and they immediately called our name to be seated. 

it all falls into place sometimes. 

we ate, 

went back to our motel room, 

slept, 

drank coffee upon waking, 

and went to find some breakfast. 

i asked our server for iced coffee and she had never heard of that. 

live and learn. 

maine may not be ready for me yet. 

then we went back to see graham on his way to start his day. 

he, M and i brought up all of the stuff we had gotten at target the night before. 

he left all the bags full on the floor and we went to the dining hall. 

he had a bowl of fruit loops with chocolate milk and marquise downed a pair of pizza slices with a hamburger. 

it took all the time that a discussion about what local bank to use took. 

basically, in a wink. 

cause now that the boy was where he was waiting to get to, 

our advice was superfluous. 

we went out of the dining hall and tried to say goodbye for real. 

my husband got all weepy again and would not take a picture. 

i did too, but i was damned to have one. 

of course, brushing my hair this week, might have improved that outcome. 

however, it somehow did not seem like much of a priority. 

the boy looks pretty danged happy. 

and i miss the hell out of him. 

no surprises. 

we left to deal with the gutters at home, 

the porch-bound stuff not housed yet in the garage and assorted logistics for hurricane prep. 

food. 

toilet paper. 

white bread. 

milk.

 after all, we are rhode islanders now. 

so that is all the news from lake ohwoeisme.

xoxo. 

W.