Thank God I have tomorrow off, and can rest a bit
As Ray has noted, we got Em to RIT. Into the dorm, into the milieu of information.
As I've said elsewhere, my digestive troubles resolved themselves, with the assistance of some brown rice at lunch time. Maybe it also helps that we're over the hump of this day. I had a good time at dinner, but I still selected fairly healthy stuff: roasted summer veggies, a couple skewers of steak and shrimp, a salad. The most indulgent thing I ate was mashed potatoes, which at least were bland, which is good for the IBS issues.
I'm proud, dammit, of having held myself together enough to do much of the physical work. Loading the truck, driving, and offloading. Ray helped with the truck loading, schlepped from the drop-off point to Em's room, and drove home. But I feel good about the impression I seemed to give when we pulled up to the dock of the dorm, and I pulled out the truck/trolley my friend loaned me, and I started heaving stuff out of the back. Several student volunteers were present to help unload, but given what I'd been told, I hadn't been expecting them and frankly, they weren't that helpful. As Ray mentioned to me later, a couple of them inside the building directing people would have helped, rather than offloading our vehicles and letting us find our way from there. And I'd guess that the typical role of a mom in these circumstances is to stand by, watching others lift and tote. Ha. I may be old, I may be tired and (a little) sick, but I'm not dead, dammit, which I'd have to be to only stand and watch.
Yellow. It's not common in vehicle colors. I think it's funny that when we were coming back from the dorm via the shuttle bus to the family parking lots, my truck stood out like a sore thumb. I remarked just now to Ray that Rochester is way more conservative in those terms than Buffalo is, and he agreed. It must be a blue-collar/white collar thing. Sad, because in my not-so-humble opinion, until you've driven a yellow vehicle you haven't truly lived, people.
I also this it's funny that evidently this university expects people to be drones. For instance, they expect them to only do certain things in certain orders. Okay, moving into the dorm is only between 3:30 and 5:00 p.m., because there are eleven floors and that way the highest floors go first, etc.. Got it. But the Resource Center, where the orientation starts, is only open till 6 p.m. (the printed material said 6:30. but nevermind). So I said, let's get there early enough that we can go to the Resource Center first, then move into the dorm. Wooo, people! I guess we were living dangerously by some people's standards. I figured out after the fact that they truly had people programmed. They were not expecting folks like us, who ascertain where point A and point B are, then decide for themselves in what order to hit point A and point B.
My feet and legs held up far better than I had any reason to expect them to. Emily was noting (not complaining, mind, just saying) she would be sore tomorrow. And she may not be, and I may be, but somehow I managed not to whimp out/fall apart/whatever. I hydrated, I kept my sunglasses on, I kept trudging through. At one point, a campus ambulance headed out from their dispatch point, as I was walking up a foot path from a parking lot. The ambulance, despite having emergency lights flashing, slowed and the driver gestured for me to cross ahead of him. Lovely moment, almost as lovely as when, in driving around to locate that parking lot, I saw a couple of cars halted by the progress of some geese walking across the roads.
Ah, one more thought. When Ray and I went to college, everything was very "antielitist". I don't remember much in the way of ritual. So I'm opting out of the stuff tomorrow. One event of which is the convocation. I don't think we had one at the college I went to. Which leads to another thought. I attended a college which was barely recognized as being part of the SUNY (State University of New York) system at the time. Emily, when she checked in today, was given two tee-shirts. One brown, for her to wear tomorrow, identifying her as an RIT student. The other is purple, emblazoned with the logo of the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences. In presenting it, the student/volunteer called Friday "college day". I felt like such a fucking hayseed when I heard this, as I didn't understand the difference between RIT and a college ("Isn't every day here college day?"). But I do now. :-( Wow.
Then again, folks, I think I have as much on the ball as the next person, I am a sweet and loving and adorable person whom people gravitate to at work (and they don't give degrees in that, kids, let's be real), and I've lived a good, even excellent life despite being uh, hampered by my educational background. Ah, one of my favorite guotations comes to mind: Samuel B. Clemons, aka Mark Twain said, "I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." He said it well.
As I've said elsewhere, my digestive troubles resolved themselves, with the assistance of some brown rice at lunch time. Maybe it also helps that we're over the hump of this day. I had a good time at dinner, but I still selected fairly healthy stuff: roasted summer veggies, a couple skewers of steak and shrimp, a salad. The most indulgent thing I ate was mashed potatoes, which at least were bland, which is good for the IBS issues.
I'm proud, dammit, of having held myself together enough to do much of the physical work. Loading the truck, driving, and offloading. Ray helped with the truck loading, schlepped from the drop-off point to Em's room, and drove home. But I feel good about the impression I seemed to give when we pulled up to the dock of the dorm, and I pulled out the truck/trolley my friend loaned me, and I started heaving stuff out of the back. Several student volunteers were present to help unload, but given what I'd been told, I hadn't been expecting them and frankly, they weren't that helpful. As Ray mentioned to me later, a couple of them inside the building directing people would have helped, rather than offloading our vehicles and letting us find our way from there. And I'd guess that the typical role of a mom in these circumstances is to stand by, watching others lift and tote. Ha. I may be old, I may be tired and (a little) sick, but I'm not dead, dammit, which I'd have to be to only stand and watch.
Yellow. It's not common in vehicle colors. I think it's funny that when we were coming back from the dorm via the shuttle bus to the family parking lots, my truck stood out like a sore thumb. I remarked just now to Ray that Rochester is way more conservative in those terms than Buffalo is, and he agreed. It must be a blue-collar/white collar thing. Sad, because in my not-so-humble opinion, until you've driven a yellow vehicle you haven't truly lived, people.
I also this it's funny that evidently this university expects people to be drones. For instance, they expect them to only do certain things in certain orders. Okay, moving into the dorm is only between 3:30 and 5:00 p.m., because there are eleven floors and that way the highest floors go first, etc.. Got it. But the Resource Center, where the orientation starts, is only open till 6 p.m. (the printed material said 6:30. but nevermind). So I said, let's get there early enough that we can go to the Resource Center first, then move into the dorm. Wooo, people! I guess we were living dangerously by some people's standards. I figured out after the fact that they truly had people programmed. They were not expecting folks like us, who ascertain where point A and point B are, then decide for themselves in what order to hit point A and point B.
My feet and legs held up far better than I had any reason to expect them to. Emily was noting (not complaining, mind, just saying) she would be sore tomorrow. And she may not be, and I may be, but somehow I managed not to whimp out/fall apart/whatever. I hydrated, I kept my sunglasses on, I kept trudging through. At one point, a campus ambulance headed out from their dispatch point, as I was walking up a foot path from a parking lot. The ambulance, despite having emergency lights flashing, slowed and the driver gestured for me to cross ahead of him. Lovely moment, almost as lovely as when, in driving around to locate that parking lot, I saw a couple of cars halted by the progress of some geese walking across the roads.
Ah, one more thought. When Ray and I went to college, everything was very "antielitist". I don't remember much in the way of ritual. So I'm opting out of the stuff tomorrow. One event of which is the convocation. I don't think we had one at the college I went to. Which leads to another thought. I attended a college which was barely recognized as being part of the SUNY (State University of New York) system at the time. Emily, when she checked in today, was given two tee-shirts. One brown, for her to wear tomorrow, identifying her as an RIT student. The other is purple, emblazoned with the logo of the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences. In presenting it, the student/volunteer called Friday "college day". I felt like such a fucking hayseed when I heard this, as I didn't understand the difference between RIT and a college ("Isn't every day here college day?"). But I do now. :-( Wow.
Then again, folks, I think I have as much on the ball as the next person, I am a sweet and loving and adorable person whom people gravitate to at work (and they don't give degrees in that, kids, let's be real), and I've lived a good, even excellent life despite being uh, hampered by my educational background. Ah, one of my favorite guotations comes to mind: Samuel B. Clemons, aka Mark Twain said, "I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." He said it well.