The Trip to College

We got up early Thursday morning to make the trip upstate for Jason's "Advantage Day" at college. I was nervous about possible snow since the weather reports were saying there would be at least two inches Thursday and Thursday night. We did get the snow as we were traveling up, a little past Kingston. From inside a bus, it was pretty, watching the snow sugarfrost the evergreens. The snow didn't slow the bus down all that much either.

I wasn't too pleased with the bus driver. There was something about him, some indefinable attitude, that rubbed me the wrong way. On the way up I wasn't sure what it was. He did let us off at the motel as we asked though we had to remind him several times beforehand.

The motel itself was a trip. It was like stepping back in time. No one was at the desk at first and we had to ring a buzzer. They had us pay in advance which is very unusual. Generally you pay at check out. I guess they have sometimes been stiffed and being a small place, can't handle that.

The room was all right but old fashioned. There was a color TV with cable stations but no VCR or DVD player. There was no hair dryer or coffee maker as you see in hotels now. But the worst part was that the toilet didn't flush. We had to call the owner in twice to fix it for us. And this was just for a one night stay and then up in the morning to get to the school.

Since it was snowing hard we were pretty much trapped in the room. Bruce got antsy and went out for a walk to see if he could make it into town and buy us any food, but he turned back because it was late and starting to get dark. We watched TV all afternoon and into the evening. Jason found a channel that showed old Star Trek episodes from Voyager and The Next Generation. We also watched an old episode of Gunsmoke that was pretty funny. Later stuff like "Crime Scene" and "Haunting" came on. The "Haunting" episodes were downright scary this time, with evil spirits inhabiting them. Jason got nervous and came over to stick close with me. He hasn't done that since he was little and there was a loud thunderstorm.

For dinner we ordered from The Pizza Factory. Prices were so reasonable that I was afraid the portions would be small. So we ordered more food than we normally would, and of course the portions turned out to be gigantic! I had chicken wings and a tossed salad, Jason had pizza, and Bruce had a chef salad, and then we still had huge mozzerella sticks and linguine with meat sauce to contend with.

In the morning, I was a little worried about whether the campus police would show up in time, so I asked some people at the breakfast whether they could drive us to the campus. The first family's car was too crowded but I found a young man who was with his father and they agreed to take us. We drove over together and sat with the father at the parents' orientation, while the kids took their tests.

We got a lot of information. I wrote some of it down but I couldn't keep up with it all. Anyhow I liked what I heard. They are strict on certain points so the students are unlikely to be total party animals. And they work on getting the students into activities that are an alternative to drinking.

We ate in the student dining hall for $5.75 a person. That was quite a deal. I had a nacho salad that was very tasty. Now I am aware that when parents are present they make a special effort to produce a good meal, but even so they had a salad bar and it seemed like pretty good food overall. We sat with a father and daughter who lived nearby, so she would be commuting. Of course the parents talked and the kids didn't say a word to each other. I am sure once we are not in the picture they will speak with each other much more easily.

After lunch they had advisement to set up a temporary schedule. As usual Jason scored low on the English part of the test and they wanted him to take a remedial English class. I butted in on that and said it was not necessary. He's always done badly on standardized tests yet he does fine in class and he got an 88 on the English Regents which is mostly essays. So I am positive that he could handle Freshman Composition, and he doesn't need an extra class to make his schedule even harder in the spring.

As it is he will have 17 credits but only 3 of the classes should be a ton of work. The others I think will be more reasonable.

When we left, we caught a ride into town with another family. Then began the only bad hour and a half of the trip. We hadn't known that the students were beginning a break and that there was a bus stop on campus used for student break time. So we saw a bus bound for New York but they refused to pick us up before going to the campus. By the time it came back down to the bus stop it was full and the driver said there was another bus right behind it. But as we were waiting the crowd of students was growing and the next bus took a different street and never even came to the bus stop!

The bus from Oneonta seemed to be our hope but it arrived in town and headed up to the campus. So of course that one filled up completely also. I called the bus company and asked for them to put on extra buses and to come directly to the town stop instead of going to the campus.

By the time a bus that had some seats arrived it was four and we had been standing in the cold for an hour. My toes were freezing. Bruce's hands were freezing too (he didn't have his gloves). When this bus opened up we saw it was the same driver we had on the way up. This time he confirmed my feeling that he wasn't a hell of a nice guy. First when he got out I asked if he was going to New York. He said he didn't know what was happening but HE was going home. How is that for an evasive answer! Then he asked someone to count how many people were waiting. He finished loading luggage on for people going to NYC (even though he wouldn't answer when I asked him), and then he made us wait longer while he took a head count. I said, there's no need, when the bus is full he'll know he can't take any more people.

He said, "I like to count and if you don't like it you can take the next bus." I said, we have been waiting for an hour, we were the first ones here, and we are getting on THIS bus. So Bruce and I gave our tickets and got on and then he started taking tickets from the other students and ignoring Jason who was holding out his ticket. I yelled, Jason, make sure he gets your ticket, and I said to the bus driver, let my son get on!

So he did but I had a feeling he was trying to be a real bastard and separate us. He also would not let on a kid who was going to Kingston even though he was stopping there. A royal asshole if you ask me. Then when we got to Woodstock he picked up a woman and made a big deal because her ticket was expired by a few weeks. Made her get off the bus at Kingston and buy a new ticket. Then another woman wanted to get on and he made her wait in the cold for a while. He was just a petty tyrant enjoying his little fiefdom and making people suffer.

Anyhow, at least Jason won't have to face him all the time, with any luck. I think Jason was quite excited about the campus and the upcoming classes. So this should be great for him. I'm happy, and happy we got to see it on one of it's not so beautiful days. Since it is in the Catskills, though, the campus is surrounded by mountains and the view is beautiful. That should be soothing to the mind as well.