pretty darn empty nest

Tuesday afternoon, Dylan loaded his stuff into the car and the two of us drove to Ashland. It was a lovely drive (once you get past Cottage Grove) and we pulled in around 7. We checked into our B&B (where Karen and I stayed last year), then strolled into town (1 block) to have dinner at a pretty good Italian restaurant.

I had a pretty good martini (gin, straight up, with two olives) and Dylan, thanks to his beard, calmly had two Heinekens.

We got up early Wednesday morning and headed over to the SOU campus, for many hours of orientation (parents and students were split up after the first hour). It was totally reassuring, with the staff continually demonstrating their professionalism, good sense, and genuine desire to help students succeed.

It was a warm day. After lunch, I ran around town doing chores and getting various questions answered. Dylan was done around 2:30, and he was clearly getting burned out. Still, he was already making new friends (and even ran into a kid from his middle school), but we had lots to do.

We got him checked in and moved in to his prison-like dorm room. He requested a double (with roommate) and was assigned a double-room, but he has it to himself (until they need to stick someone else into that room). It took multiple trips to the car to unload everything, and we were getting tired. Did I mention it was pretty darn warm?

After that, we still had to visit the local Wells Fargo, to get my name on his ATM account (so we can make deposits and monitor statements up here), and then visit the Bookstore, where he bought his first pile of books (not an enormously large pile either, for over $200). That was the last chore.

We drove back to the dorm, got out, gave him a hug and told him I loved him and that he was going to be great. We asked an innocent bystander to take a photo of us, and I drove away, looking at him in my rear-view mirror, and thinking about my parents driving away, leaving me standing by my freshman dorm in Baltimore, in September 1969.

It was not a total good-bye, though. We spoke on the phone three times while I was driving north, as I tried to diagnose a networking problem on his computer (they have Ethernet to every room, but he couldn't connect - I think it's a firewall issue).

I was on I-5 at 4:30 and walked into our house in Portland around 9, pretty darn burned out. I drove 70-75 most of the way, except for the rain between Eugene and Albany.

The animals were happy to see me. Karen had left the house around 6 pm, to go to the airport. She is in Pasadena thru next Monday afternoon, so I have over 4 days completely by myself. There is plenty to do around the house.

It's all very mysterious.