Yes folks, we're packing up the Queenager for her big move to college next week. (Dabs eyes and stifles a howling great sob.)
The Ball & Chain is insisting on driving her the 800 or so miles, as Americans do. We had a bit of a disagreement over this as I think we could easily have taken her "stuff"on the plane and bought whatever she needed when we got to Washington DC. He insists that all the shops in DC will have run out of everything, and also that she has too much stuff. He clearly hasn't been through her closet recently. She wears the same boots all winter, the same sandals all summer and the same three of four jeans and t-shirts all year round no matter the temp. Obviously he's feeling the manly urge to take a road trip. The Q has other ideas, but since it's her stuff, she's the passenger.
Fortunately both boys have commitments till the Friday of next week so I'm flying there with them. (Tee hee).
It takes me back to when I left Tyneside for Bristol University in another lifetime. Since it's about 300 miles, and they had two younger kids in school, my parents put me on the train and waved me off. (I have to say that didn't bother me at all.) When I got to the other end, I hailed a taxi, the driver said something in his Brizzle accent, and I hadn't a clue what it was. It turned out to be "Are you going to the University my lover?" but at the time I just pretended I'd understood and jumped in. He could have been declaring himself a maniac on the loose for all I knew. Fortunately, once inside, he asked me which Hall (dorm) I was headed for and I understood that bit.
I remember having a lot of stuff to take, - in particular a rather large stereo. (No teeny I-pods and docks in them days,) I travelled with two suitcases of clothes and immediate essentials, and then shipped a humungous trunk by rail, which arrived about 10 days later. It had been my aunt's from when she emigrated to Canada (then came back) and it really was huge. The kind that is now used as a very large coffee table. When the British Rail man came to pick it up, he had to go back for a colleague because it was too heavy for one person. When it arrived at my Hall, I had to bat my eyelids at 4 male students to get it from the mail room to my bedroom. Lord knows what I had in it, but when I finally left uni, it stayed behind. Probably the center of attention in someone's living room now.
Anyway, we have a large pile of stuff on the dining room table and apparently it's going to take no time at all to get her all packed up. I have warned her that I'm not staying up till all hours the night before she leaves, and she says she'll sort her stuff out. Hmmm.
PS. Would-be burglars - the house is alarmed to the teeth, and a neighbo(u)r is staying here while we're gone. Don't even think about it.