He’s home! He’s home!
5.15.09
Sean is home! But, somehow the day has been rather anticlimactic — which, interestingly, is the way he feels, too, now that finals are over.
I went to pick him up this morning, and despite how eager and excited I had been last night and early in the morning — truly! — somehow a sadness came over me while I was driving to Chad. In fact, I nearly lost it while sitting there at the stop light on Park Street next to Sellery. It struck me that in August, it had been three of us in a packed minivan trundling up this same street, and now it was one of us in an empty minivan. That wasn’t a cause for sadness, but I was sad anyway.
As the light changed, I pulled myself together and called Sean to say that I was late, as always, but nearly there, and he said he was waiting in the Chad parking lot. Sure enough, he was right there at the entrance, practically jumping out at me.
I wanted to say something profound to mark the moment of our greeting, but it was hard to know what to say. So much has happened in this school year gone by, but even larger have been the social and emotional adjustments that he’s made. I didn’t want to tip my fragile mom-self over the edge by getting all sentimental.
As with move-in, they had quite the parking operation set up — guys directing you where to park, and time parameters being set about how long you could be there. One gentleman directed me to drive up over the curb like all the other parents had done. It was one of those fear-but-trust moments.
After kind of an awkward hug — really, I don’t think either one of us knew what to do — we headed upstairs and started packing things into the laundry baskets (that I’d barely remembered to take along) and putting them into the hallway.
Then Sean went downstairs to get one of those great laundry carts. Problem was, this one wasn’t so great. It made such a horrific shrieking, squealing noise all the way down the hallway that we took to calling it the Dying Wildebeest. We filled up the ’Beest with not nearly as much stuff as I’d hoped — it hardly made a dent in what we had to move — and took it down to the elevator. I swear my clothes went out of style during the time it took for the elevator to arrive because it was either always full or always going the wrong way. We made a deal that if we ever made it down once, we’d give the accursed ’Beest back and take loads down the stairs instead.
So that’s what we did, and you know, I’m sure it went much faster that way. We had room to spare in the minivan, even after the bike went in.
And finally, off we went toward home, leaving only the piano, the carpeting, the posters on the walls, and an extension cord that I couldn’t get out until Sean and Alex unlofted the bed. We got Sean some lunch, bought him some new pots for Frond and Fern (the two plants that have been with him this whole year, and that he has not managed to kill), and unloaded the minivan — not a small job. Along with the stuff that Claire and I brought home several weeks ago, he seems to have a mountain of stuff! How could he have fit all of it into his room?! Truly, it’s hard to fathom.
Alex flew home from his out-of-state job (which, by the way, is going to end officially very soon), and I handled off the second leg of the operation to him. In the meantime, Sean had fallen asleep. He’s still kind of sick from… well, whatever it is… and he didn’t get much sleep last night between deciding to do his laundry at 2am or so (why? not sure) and coughing for several hours when he should have been sleeping.
Alex woke Sean up, and off the two of them went to finish the job. I did some work at home and then headed out to do some errands. When I returned, they said that Sean’s laptop had crashed somehow, and that the piano was worse for wear after being moved. I think I’ll ask about those things later. I just hope that the carpeting made it home okay, and that Sean got checked out properly with his house fellow, and that he got the posters scraped off the wall without doing any damage, and that he got to see his roommate once more to say goodbye.
Sean got himself an appointment to have the computer fixed tomorrow, but for now, we’re off to the show that he’s in — opening night!
Life just keeps handing us things to do, and things to think about, and changes to navigate. I think we all need some good sleep, but until we get some, it’s great to be home again as a complete family.
I went to pick him up this morning, and despite how eager and excited I had been last night and early in the morning — truly! — somehow a sadness came over me while I was driving to Chad. In fact, I nearly lost it while sitting there at the stop light on Park Street next to Sellery. It struck me that in August, it had been three of us in a packed minivan trundling up this same street, and now it was one of us in an empty minivan. That wasn’t a cause for sadness, but I was sad anyway.
As the light changed, I pulled myself together and called Sean to say that I was late, as always, but nearly there, and he said he was waiting in the Chad parking lot. Sure enough, he was right there at the entrance, practically jumping out at me.
I wanted to say something profound to mark the moment of our greeting, but it was hard to know what to say. So much has happened in this school year gone by, but even larger have been the social and emotional adjustments that he’s made. I didn’t want to tip my fragile mom-self over the edge by getting all sentimental.
As with move-in, they had quite the parking operation set up — guys directing you where to park, and time parameters being set about how long you could be there. One gentleman directed me to drive up over the curb like all the other parents had done. It was one of those fear-but-trust moments.
After kind of an awkward hug — really, I don’t think either one of us knew what to do — we headed upstairs and started packing things into the laundry baskets (that I’d barely remembered to take along) and putting them into the hallway.
Then Sean went downstairs to get one of those great laundry carts. Problem was, this one wasn’t so great. It made such a horrific shrieking, squealing noise all the way down the hallway that we took to calling it the Dying Wildebeest. We filled up the ’Beest with not nearly as much stuff as I’d hoped — it hardly made a dent in what we had to move — and took it down to the elevator. I swear my clothes went out of style during the time it took for the elevator to arrive because it was either always full or always going the wrong way. We made a deal that if we ever made it down once, we’d give the accursed ’Beest back and take loads down the stairs instead.
So that’s what we did, and you know, I’m sure it went much faster that way. We had room to spare in the minivan, even after the bike went in.
And finally, off we went toward home, leaving only the piano, the carpeting, the posters on the walls, and an extension cord that I couldn’t get out until Sean and Alex unlofted the bed. We got Sean some lunch, bought him some new pots for Frond and Fern (the two plants that have been with him this whole year, and that he has not managed to kill), and unloaded the minivan — not a small job. Along with the stuff that Claire and I brought home several weeks ago, he seems to have a mountain of stuff! How could he have fit all of it into his room?! Truly, it’s hard to fathom.
Alex flew home from his out-of-state job (which, by the way, is going to end officially very soon), and I handled off the second leg of the operation to him. In the meantime, Sean had fallen asleep. He’s still kind of sick from… well, whatever it is… and he didn’t get much sleep last night between deciding to do his laundry at 2am or so (why? not sure) and coughing for several hours when he should have been sleeping.
Alex woke Sean up, and off the two of them went to finish the job. I did some work at home and then headed out to do some errands. When I returned, they said that Sean’s laptop had crashed somehow, and that the piano was worse for wear after being moved. I think I’ll ask about those things later. I just hope that the carpeting made it home okay, and that Sean got checked out properly with his house fellow, and that he got the posters scraped off the wall without doing any damage, and that he got to see his roommate once more to say goodbye.
Sean got himself an appointment to have the computer fixed tomorrow, but for now, we’re off to the show that he’s in — opening night!
Life just keeps handing us things to do, and things to think about, and changes to navigate. I think we all need some good sleep, but until we get some, it’s great to be home again as a complete family.
