Move in day for daughter #2

She was anxious. It started two weeks prior to her leaving. Nerves kicked in and all of the "what ifs" ran rampant in her brain. "What if" I don't make friends? "What if" no one likes me? "What if" my major isn't what I want after all? I listened. Made soothing mother noises and said cliche things like "of course you will make friends" and "you can always change your mind about your major" which she had responses to that just kept the circle going round and round.

The night before she left she announced the plan. We were to leave by 7:00 a.m., get gas and Starbucks, and head to the campus so she could see her dorm and establish her side of the room. As usual, we didn't leave on time, running around throwing in last minute things, deciding on who was riding with whom. Somehow we were gassed and Starbucked and heading out of the county by 7:30ish. Not bad all things considered.

Darcy rode with me in the van while Tom drove her car. Since it was a Thursday the work traffic had us backed up on the bridge, but it wasn't too difficult and we were at school in a little over an hour. Early by the move-in schedule, but we weren't the only rebels. The instructions, sent via mail in a well thought out booklet that most likely cost a third of her tuition, told us to meet at the student center. The school had no issue with spending dollars on this booklet instead of emailing the instructions, but they spent zero dollars on welcome signs or signs with arrows leading new students to this place of destination.

Colleges, please. Decorate and embrace your new freshman class. At least for the sake of the parents who fork over a lot of dough. I want to see the damn band playing a welcome tune. I want to see signs that tell me this will be a great year for my kid. I want happiness and excitement.

First mark against the school in my undercover raid of move-in day for colleges to apply to the business I want to start where organizations hire me to tell them how to make things better. Hey, USF this one is for free.

At the student center there were balloon bouquets and a guy who passed out beads with the USF logo. Better. Darcy had to sign in to receive her keys and further instructions and parents were routed to a lounge area with chairs and Starbucks coffee and tea. Points were added for this set-up and for the flavored creamer. More points were added for the table set-up for parent involvement that came with a pack of free tissues. I was feeling better.

But then the kid appeared before I could take my first sip of coffee, or put a lid on it, and we were off and heading back to the car so that she could get to her dorm. The instructions were to park at the only banking area allowed on campus which did not follow the information in the booklet that told us how Bull Backers were going to be waiting for us when we pulled up to the dorm to unload us. Those points that were added were quickly deducted.

We parked both cars in the business lot. Half of the lot was for resident parking so Tom got to park in a nice shaded area while I followed the rest of the parents to the other half. We got out and followed the directions to walk across the street to the quad of dorms. As we crossed the street and made our way down the hill, we noticed a line of cars turning into the quad where Bull Backers were there unloading cars and putting stuff into giant cardboard boxes sitting on wheels. I suggested we do the same, but was shot down by the kid who just wanted to get to her dorm. We caved to her.

Her dorm is brand new. It was just opened the day before and naturally the area around it, including the dorm's brand new gym, was still under construction. Of course, it was. No surprise to the parents, but seriously, I have two daughters at two different universities and BOTH dorms are still under construction on move-in day? I added this to my list.

We strode right into the building and went right into the elevator. It stopped and we exited into a beautiful student area complete with couches, a study area, a half kitchen with a refrigerator, a microwave, a sink, and a bar set-up. Very posh and clean. A resident assistant was there to greet us and offer her assistance.

Her room wasn't far down the hall and while small, it was clean, bright, cheerful, and BRAND NEW. We all oohed and aahed over that, or maybe that was just me having been on the opposite of that with the last move-in, and Darcy took the bed that she had chosen when she assigned herself her room. Because that was the way it was done at this school. You went into the app and picked a bed and a room. Whoever picked the other bed was your roommate. Hope you match. Ugh. Darcy started out with one roommate that was the opposite of her in certain views, but that girl ended up going to another school and she was assigned another roommate who is also somewhat local. They met before move-in day and were thankfully more alike.

We headed back out to go unload and discovered that the door wouldn't lock. Nor did most of the doors on the floor which the husband checked. He offered to fix the issue, but the RA quickly put in a work order and it was fixed within a few hours. The points canceled themselves out on that issue. This college does not allow students to loft the beds on their own so Darcy put in an order for that and we headed off to move the van first.

No go. The police had arrived by this time and had cut off the pulling up to the curb in front of the buildings to unload area. Instead we were directed to another lot that seemed VERY far, but actually ended up to be on the other side of the banking lot we had been in. A campus officer directed us to park and then told us to join the line of people standing in the full sun. We followed these directions, but none of it made sense to me. What?

Supposedly we were in line to wait for the Bull Backers to arrive with their magic wheeled carts to take us to the dorms. Seeing as how I had just been to that location and seen that parents were snatching up these magic carts and helpers, I did not see anyone appearing to dwindle down this line anytime soon. Tom and Darcy left me in the line to go back to the other car to unload from that parking lot as it was closer. I stood in the line in the direct sun in my black Steelers shirt and tweeted my disgust with this whole situation. The madder I got, the more the sweat dripped. In the 45 minutes I spent in the line no one came to move anyone in. Darcy texted to tell me they were unloaded and in the magic cart and in line for the elevator. I got out of the line and headed back to them where I spent considerable time expressing my displeasure to all of the people in line for the elevators.

At some point, Tom saw another empty magic cart and he snagged it. He hauled it over to where my van was parked and he and the Bull Backer unloaded the van and he arrived back to us as we were getting into the elevator with our first load. He said the line was still standing there and when we had our magic carts unloaded he was kind enough to take one of them back to one lucky guy who snagged it.

Darcy is the opposite of Madison when it comes to arranging. She and I are on the same wavelength and we are quick. We see what will work and we do it. She didn't want to sleep directly across from her roommate and so we moved her bed. She put her desk at the end of her bed and her dresser in her "closet" which was really a hole in the wall with shelves. We had it all set up by the time Tom arrived with the second load and we were off and running like a well oiled machine. I emptied the suitcases and started hanging clothes. She made piles of things and then we made the bed. Her roommate and parents arrived and we all shook hands and chatted some before her parents left to pick up some items. Tom wandered off and would come back periodically to offer assistance. He kept offering to loft the bed, but the roommate was concerned this wasn't allowed and kept telling us our maintenance man assigned to us was Hector and we had to let him do it.

Eventually Tom came back from one of his wanders to tell us he had met Hector. Hector was currently involved in a repair job of a burst pipe that was running through the ceiling and drenching some poor person's dorm room. Ah, new construction. Tom and I lofted Darcy's bed as I was the expert having done Madison's. Darcy's was a lot more simple although it doesn't go as high as Madison's. Eventually we also lofted the roommate's bed. We had Darcy's side of the room put together by one o'clock. The roommate's side not so much. She had a crap ton of furniture and stuff.

At noon I called my friend Jim to have him let the dog out. I gave him our code to the garage and when he called back to tell me the job was complete an hour later, he told us we had left that morning with the door wide open. He drove up to find Elliot sitting at the front door watching him through the storm door. I guess we weren't as put together as we thought.

We left the dorm, had lunch, and then we shopped much to Tom's disappointment. We hit Target and then Walmart and then unloaded again and made it just in time before the rain came. We finished up the room with our purchases while her roommate and her friends built her furniture. We laughed and chatted and facetimed Madison to show her the room.

Then we left again and had dinner. By the time we said our good-byes it was 10:30 p.m. We were all tired and sweaty and dirty, but we were feeling pretty proud of ourselves. Darcy texted us by the time we arrived home to tell us she was showered and sitting on her lofted bed chatting with the roommate.

The dog was very happy to see us despite his three visits during the day of various friends who cared for him. He knew the suitcases we carried out meant a trip and he was thrilled it was a brief one. We reminded him that he is the lone kid left at home and we played with them and loved him and then we showered and fell into bed. Empty Nesting here we come!