And she's off!

To college that is. Today is the day that we send No. 2 off to school in Nebraska. I got off work at a little before midnight last night, had to run to Wal-Mart to buy all those last minute essentials that we forgot (you know, the little stuff like notebooks to take notes in class, a stapler to put papers together, etc). So at about 1:30 I'm sitting in the living room putting stuff together. At about 3:30 I finally get to bed. At 5 I am up again because she and her dad are getting the last of her stuff in the car to take the drive (not quite 5 hours to Lincoln). At 5:30, I am driving around the neighborhood to find my dog (who camouflages amazingly well in the dark as he is black and gray and a little white), because in the madness of leaving for college, the door to the house was left standing open long enough for the friendly animal to sneak away. At 6 I was waking up the 8th grader to get to 6:30 a.m. cross country practice (a 20-minute drive to the middle school each direction), and at 7 it's time to make sure the 6th grader gets up and catches his bus. I finally fall into bed at about 7:20, setting an alarm for 9:30 because I have to teach an 11 a.m. speech class. This is why we are glad that there is only one first day of moving to college!

In the next day or two, I should have a photo to share of what it looks like when one 18-year-old moves into a residence hall several hours from home. I understand it's not pretty! But most textbooks are purchased — thank heaven for the scholarship that helps pay for them — and a new room mate is assigned, and classes start Monday. Whew!

Now, off to nap for a short while before I have to head off to another night at the paper. If I don't sleep I will be guilty of letting errors pass through my stories, and I just can't have that!