And she's off!

Two weeks ago we delivered Josie to the University of Rochester, where she plans to study Physics and Astronomy. All the important stuff went really well, though there was plenty of complaining in parent Facebook groups about long move-in lines. What did they expect, I wonder? Probably 1500 students had to arrive the same day. Seemed to me it was handled beautifully. There were plenty of signs and directions, and given our sheer numbers, the queue seemed about right. Once we reached the dorm itself, the football team (yes) emptied our minivan in about 3 minutes flat. In all the muscular enthusiasm for grabbing anything not structurally attached to the car, I stayed in the driver's seat and kept a close eye on my coffee.

Jo has a first floor double on the Freshman Quad. Her randomly assigned roommate, Hayley, had already settled in when we arrived. Her side of the room, decked out in careful proportions of navy, white and gray, looked like one of the "sponsored by Bed Bath & Beyond" model rooms displayed on college tours. Half a dozen overstuffed throw pillows on the bed (where is she going to sleep?). Vase with silk flowers on the windowsill (soon knocked to the floor by a Genesee River breeze). Botanical prints hung in precisely offset formation over the bed, with another framed on the desk, price tag still attached.

My girl eyed this staged perfection only briefly before digging out her Boba Fett poster, her light sabers, her L'Manburg banner (Tommy Innit followers unite), and the bright red and yellow flowered duvet she made herself over the summer, thinking a cinderblock room might need some cheering up. She hauled a giant computer monitor onto her desk and set about unspooling wires and connecting power strips. 

The equivalent space on Hayley's desk holds a giant lighted makeup mirror. 

All you need from a roommate, I told Josie, is not to be mean, and not to be gross. Happily, it seems Hayley is neither. By all reports they're getting along fine, each already busy with different friends and activities. Hayley's hitting the frat parties. Jo convenes late night card games in the dorm lounge and herds her crew onto shuttle busses to explore the area before they're snowed in, which everyone promises will happen any minute. She's scoped out the campus tunnels, identified which dining hall has the best omelets and which the best salads, found her classrooms, explored some riverside trails. She's ready. I'm so proud. 

Also bereft, of which more later.