Another from my Surviving Empty Nest series of blog posts, reprinted here.
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I thought I knew everything about buying dorm room necessities. I knew squat.
I had installed two boys into dorm rooms multiple times. I had been lulled into thinking that all college kids were as simple as Medieval priests or Peace Corp volunteers or other people who get off on the vow of poverty.
“Do you need a shelf to put books on?” I asked my son, when I was helping him unpack into his dorm room two years ago.
“No, I’ll just use this old cardboard box I grabbed from the common room garbage can,” he said. “Once the Pepsi and pizza sauce dries off of it, it’ll be fine.”
“What color bedspread do you want?” I asked him when we were shopping for his dorm room supplies.
“The unbleached muslin is fine, or what about that one on sale?
“It has Bratz dolls on it.”
“Whatever.”
When shopping with my boys, they got into the pattern of repeating back to me whatever item it was that I was asking about.
“What kind of pillow do you want?
“Mom. It’s a pillow.”
“Do you want this extension cord with the V shaped outlets or the one with the safety switch? The brown one or the green one?”
“Mom. It’s a cord.”
So I learned to just be cool about the dorm room stuff and act all nonchalant.
Dude. It’s a dorm room.
Then along comes my daughter, who – let’s be clear about this – is not a princess, is not a girly-girl, is not spoiled in the least. So I was a little thrown when we went to Bed Bath & Beyond for our big dorm room shopping trip and left with only a handful of things crossed off our list.
“Bedspread,” I read off the list. “Here’s one. It’s black and will hide dirt.”
“I was thinking I should get a really warm down comforter and a duvet cover,” my daughter said.
“OK, here’s a down comforter . . .”
“Well, which one should we get? Which one is warmest?” she said. “I want to be really warm.”
The duvet cover wasn’t easy either.
“I want it to be a dark color but not necessarily a solid color. But not a print. Maybe something with a very, very small pattern on it.” Yeah. We didn’t find one that day.
Pillows had to be lined up and tested. Sheet sets had to be opened and felt for softness. Even the hangers had to be mulled over. She ended up getting two sets of soft fuzzy hangers in tropical coordinating, contrasting colors.
In the end, I’m sure her dorm room will be a lot more functional than her brothers’ rooms were. And it will probably be better looking. And she’ll make her roommate happier. And most importantly, we’re sure not to have a repeat of the Clashing Extension Cord Disaster of 2010.
