Moving In

Like some of our friends a few hundred miles west, yesterday was college drop-off day for us. We picked a good one, too. The first day of IU dorm move in was Tuesday, a day that saw heat indices well over 100° with rounds of heavy rain in Bloomington. Wednesday, though? Cloudy, relatively cool, with a blessed relief from the humidity that has plagued us all summer. That part of the day was a big win.

Actually, most of the day was a win. We arrived at noon for C to check in at Assembly Hall and get her card programmed for her room. Then we drove over to her dorm, which is a big complex of several buildings. The kids had been sent a video, and parents had been told, that you basically get in line, pull up to the building, dump all your stuff into carts that helpers will take to your room, fight for a parking place, then go to your kid’s room and start unpacking.

It did not work quite that way, and for a moment I was panicking that we were going to have to drag everything we had crammed into two cars several blocks.[1] But S found a nice worker who let her park in a space that was not officially for parking right in front of the dorm so she could unload. I parked on the backside of the dorm and after we had unloaded the first round, we found one of the many kids zipping around in golf carts to transfer all that gear to the dorm. Both times we grabbed one of the official movers to throw everything into a cart that they shoved to C’s room. Soooo much easier than when we moved M into her room two years ago.

C’s complex is weird. It is six different “buildings,” but they are all connected, with elevators on each end. So we took the closest elevator to the street, then wandered through the twisting hallways, transitioning from building to building, until we arrived at her room. Her roommate, who is from Bloomington, had moved in earlier and was waiting for us. We did have to do some rearranging, as C’s bed was right under a conduit for some electrical wiring that would make it tough for her to sit up, but after a couple hours she was basically settled.

We needed lunch and a couple items for her room so we grabbed a bite then braved the sole Target in Bloomington. Parking was a mess. As we walked in another mom wished us good luck. Inside was like those news shots of grocery stores before a hurricane hits. It was a true madhouse, overflowing with people, aisles picked over and empty, and insane lines to check out. We needed four things but even that was a chore because C wanted a lamp that was a specific size, they had very few left, and the two we tried used oddly sized bulbs and we couldn’t find matches. We eventually decided just to order her one off Amazon.

We returned to the dorm and said goodbye outside. I’m not sure why, but this entire day and the goodbye itself was much easier than two years ago. Still tough but instead of being a mess for hours, this time I just had a minute or so where I couldn’t talk. That’s not a reflection of my relationship with M vs C at all. There are a lot of factors that go into it, but I think the biggest is that we’ve been through this once and it wasn’t the overwhelming emotional punch it was the first time. It also helped that it was just the three of us, where two years ago we took the entire family and it was extremely sad watching the girls say goodbye to each other. When L said goodbye to C before she left for school Wednesday, they were giggling rather than crying.

Roughly four hours from arrival to departure, with lunch and an apocalyptic Target visit thrown in. The drive home was the hardest part of the day, as we ran into rush hour traffic in Indy. Oh, getting from the dorm to Target, which should have been a five-minute drive, was more like 20 because traffic was so crazy on campus, too.

But Kid #2 has been dropped off and is on her own, officially a Hoosier. Fingers crossed it all goes well. She texted this morning saying someone had already pulled a fire alarm and they had to evacuate, so she’s getting the full college experience quick!