Emptying the Nest

Thursday morning we headed up to Delhi to deliver Jason to his college. I had some nasty tummy trouble on the way up there. Let's gloss over the graphic details, but just say I suspect I have irritable bowel syndrome or something similar. Anyhow we waited two hours on line for the bus to be sure we would catch it. Lo and behold, we had the same bus driver who gave us such a hard time on the way back in February. However, he didn't remember us at all, which is not surprising since he must have seen a couple of thousand passengers since then. His lack of recognition was a great relief to me since last time I thought he was going to deliberately leave us off the bus.

We got to the hotel just fine and then walked into town to scope out the route and do a couple of errands at the campus. We saw the outside of the dorm and then went up to the bookstore where we bought Jason a cable lock for his computer. Then we went back into town and ate an early dinner at the Pizza Factory.

Around that time Jason started complaining of a headache and sore throat. At first I didn't want to believe anything was wrong but by the time we got back to the hotel it was clear he wasn't well. He tried his temperature and it was elevated a bit. So, he went to bed early, and we hoped for the best.

But on Friday morning it turned out that he was still sick and in fact had 102 temperature. I realized then that our original plan of wheeling the suitcases from the hotel all the way into town was just not going to fly. So I called campus security and they sent their "Bronco Bus" service down at 7 AM to pick us up with the luggage. That was a great help!

Everyone was very helpful. There were move in crews and orientation staffers and the Resident Advisors were on hand to help also. I was pleased with the number of people available to be of help and how nice they were.

Jason's roommate arrived with his parents, his sister and his little nephew who must be around 2. They brought tons of stuff for Jonathan, including a case of "cup a soup" and a case of bottled water. I somehow doubt he will need all that but I guess just as I have worried myself crazy about Jason's needs, Jonathan's mother has worried about his. We've just expressed it in different ways.

The dorm room seems tiny and it was in battered condition after several young men have occupied it over a number of years. Jason received a huge list of all the damages to the room. Now I have to wonder, if they charge the kids for damaging the room, you would think they would use the money to FIX it, but apparently not! One track light doesn't work..and they only have two. The land line phone did not have dial tone, either. So they'd better get that fixed in a big hurry.

After we got Jason unpacked we went out to the orientation tables and he checked in. He got his ID card, and several other items including a free tee shirt and a planner. We proceeded to the meeting for students with special needs and he got his program. What a killer. On Mondays he has classes with just a few breaks, from 7:30 AM till 5 in the afternoon. Fortunately that is his absolute worst day and it gets better after that. He has no class on Thursdays but I'm sure he will need to study that day anyhow.

After the meeting there was a barbecue. They served half chickens, cole slaw and a fruit and bean salsa. It was delicious but Jason was still not well and he didn't feel like eating much. He just had some tortellini and bread. He went back to the dorm and took a nap while Bruce and I walked into town and bought him a phone card and two looseleaf notebooks to keep his lab manuals in. He didn't have his chemistry book packaged up with the rest so he is going to have to buy that later.

When we got back and woke him up his temperature was even higher so we insisted he go to the infirmary. Fortunately it is just a stone's throw from his dorm. That's a very good thing. The nurse practitioner looked him over, determined it wasn't strep, and said he most likely just has a virus and needs to drink a lot and take tylenol and rest as much as he can. I hope he didn't go to the picnic today but I guess he probably made that decision for himself.

Finally they had a "convocation" at 3. This was a lovely ceremony where the college president and department heads put on their academic robes and marched to the stage with all sorts of fanfare. They asked the freshmen to stand and formally welcomed them to the college. A few professors made speeches. The head of the Vet Science department told them he is a science fiction fan. Well, that's great to know because Jason can have some common ground with him on a subject that isn't just the schoolwork. I'm sure he will manage to strike up a conversation about sci fi and fantasy. Also this prof said that when he began as a Delhi freshman 35 years ago, he was very unhappy and hated the college for the first few weeks. But then, he decided he was going to make it work, and obviously he not only made it work but returned as a professor.

At the end of the convocation we said goodbye to Jason, wished him well, and let him go off to meet with the orientation leaders while we headed off the campus and back into town.

He wasn't really far away yet, though. So it was hard to believe we won't see him till early October. Bruce and I took a walk through the town. It's not very big in terms of the downtown area. There's a supermarket, a couple of antique stores, an occult store, a few restaurants, some liquor stores, and a general store, but it's quite small and unexciting. All of the excitement will be on the campus and not off of it.

We ate out at an Italian restaurant but had tiny chef salads. By contrast the chef salad I had on Thursday evening in the Pizza Factory was enormous. Afterwards we walked back to the hotel and watched TV. Jason called around 8 and said he was feeling better, and I asked him to call in the morning too.

He called around 7:3o yesterday morning, said he was better, and I reminded him to do something about the land line, because the professors use that line to contact the students. He has a cell phone but since his didn't work on the campus he and Bruce traded chips on Friday. However we hadn't brought Bruce's charger so Jason has not kept his phone on. Therefore I wasn't able to call him. I asked him to email last night but he didn't, and he hasn't today either. It's getting me a bit antsy but I'm trying to keep it in perspective and not get overly nervous.

We had breakfast around 8 and another couple was there. They brought their son to the college but because he didn't reserve his dorm room early he got caught in an overflow situation. So he didn't have a room to move into, and the college was putting him up at the Buena Vista motel! It sounds good except that he has to walk to the college and back and that won't be so pleasant after dark. It might mean he doesn't get to some parties he would like to attend, plus he misses out on the dorm experience. However they said he would probably get to move into the dorms sometime during the term because not everyone ends up staying.

These people also told us that some of the students had to double and triple up way over their rooms' capacities and that kids were "stacked like cordwood" with 6 to 8 in some rooms that were meant for 3. That sounds pretty horrible especially given how much crap some of these kids lug up to the school with them. Just imagine all those cases of cup a soup and the kids trying to sleep curled up around them! Jason is certainly lucky that he got his request in early.

We caught the bus back to New York at a few minutes after ten. Around 15 minutes later we reached Margaretville. Now over the two days we were there we kept seeing people we knew from BSEC. There was a woman who reminded me of Joan, and another man who reminded Bruce of Kurt. So when I saw a woman who reminded me of Annette I didn't think anything much of it, but commented to Bruce that I've been seeing people I thought I recognized all weekend. Then the woman got on the bus, and it actually was Annette, returning from a few days in the country visiting a friend! That was a great surprise and certainly quite a coincidence. I'm glad we had someone to talk to on the way home or we might have felt like lost souls. I certainly do feel a bit like that right now, especially since Jason hasn't called or emailed yet since yesterday morning.

But, I will attempt to keep my nerves under control. I expected it to be difficult and scary, emptying the nest and letting our little birdie fly free. And I was right. I will try very hard to give him space and let him organize things the way he wants to, but in another day or two I'll break down and have to call to see that he is all right.