Back to school

This past Monday we took Jonathan back to college after his two week Christmas break.  It was nice having home, though we barely saw him; not because he wasn’t home much, but because he stayed in his room 24/7 playing World of Warcraft, coming out for food, drink, and to make wisecracks.  But just knowing he was just down the hall was comforting. I could walk down the hall and just look at him, ask him a question, or give him a hug anytime I wanted.  I miss that when he’s gone.  We did watch a few movies together, and of course, spent Christmas and New Year’s Eve and Day together, but yeah, pretty much he was in his room.  Had the weather been better, he might have gone snowboarding with his friend, JW, who was home from school at Georgia Tech for the holidays, but it rained most of the time, making conditions at Schweitzer pretty pathetic.  The 6 or 8 inches of snow we had in the yard is completely melted.

Anyway, I was an idiot.  We had plans to meet the Harrisons for lunch at noon.  I figured we’d move Jonathan into his room, then zip over to Red Robin for lunch, no problemo.  Well, by the time we got the cars loaded with all Jonathan’s stuff, it was already 10:00 AM.  That meant we wouldn’t get to Whitworth until probably 11:30, leaving less than half an hour to unload and get to Red Robin by noon.  So, I called JoAnn to tell her we’d have to make it 12:30 instead of noon.  No problem, says JoAnn.  We get to Whitworth at about 11:40 after contending with bad roads about halfway between Sandpoint and Spokane – surprisingly, it was snowing like mad for about 6 or 7 miles, making travel a bit treacherous – only to find the dorm locked.  What???  No one is around anywhere, no kids are unloading, what is going on?  Just then we spot a security truck making its rounds.  Jonathan asks the guy what the deal is and we find out we can’t get into the dorms until 1:00 PM.  Duh!  No wonder Harrisons wanted to meet at noon.  By now it IS noon.  I quickly dial up JoAnn again and tell her we’re at Whitworth and will go ahead and see them at Red Robin now.  We hooked up finally at about 12:20 or so.  They must have thought we were really rude to not even be able to make our lunch date on time!  I had no idea we couldn’t get into the dorms until 1.  I thought they’d open at 10:00 like they do during initial move-in.  I should have looked at the little calendar on my fridge a little more closely, which I did do when I got home. It clearly states the time for moving in is 1:00 PM.  What a dork!  

We had a great lunch visit with the Harrisons.  Every time we get together it just reinforces just how much I like them!  JoAnn and I click so well it’s amazing.  We thought Lynsey would be with them.  To Jonathan’s disappointment, she was not.  He was really looking forward to seeing her and trying to convince her to choose Whitworth over Pacific.  Nathan looked great – and a lot thinner!  I guess walking all over the UK for three months and not eating dorm food helped him shed a few pounds, though he didn’t really need to.  We sat at the tables in the perfect arrangement – JoAnn and I sat next to each other, the two Toms sat across from one another, and the boys sat across from each other on the other side of the Toms.  We initially started out all talking to each other, mostly listening to Nathan talk about his trip.  Eventually, as is usually the case, JoAnn and I talked to each other, the Toms talked to each other, and the boys talked to each other.  Our table was abuzz with three different conversations.  It was perfect!  I wish we’d had more time together, and more time to listen to Nathan’s stories about his trip, but we had boys to move in and the Harrisons were faced with a 6 or 7 hour drive back to Troutdale, so at 1:30 we each headed to our cars and to move our boys into their dorms.  It went by much too quickly.  I just wish they lived closer so we could hang out.  I think we’d have so much fun together.  I know, for a fact, that JoAnn and I would!  She just rocks!  

So, the boys are involved in their Jan Term classes (ice skating and bowling for Jonathan and a filmmaking class for Nathan), and our house is a bit too quiet for my tastes again, but that’s as it should be.  Jonathan is loving ice skating – his first time ever on ice skates was Wednesday.  It’s a very social class filled with a lot of his friends.  I am not so sure how bowling is going.  He said something about it being filled with mostly upper classmen and having some guys who lived upstairs in his dorm last year that he didn’t really get along with in it, but it’s bowling, which is always better than, say, calculus.  I hope Nathan’s filmmaking class is all he’d hoped it would be.  I’ll be looking forward to his blog posts about it.  I’m assuming the Harrisons made it home safely. I did worry about them having to drive so far so late (they both had to work the next day).  I should call JoAnn and see how the return trip went.  I do hope I get a chance to talk to Nathan at some point about his trip.  I hope Jonathan gets to do some sort of study abroad course during his tenure at Whitworth.  At least we’ll all get a chance to see a bit of the UK in May!  Can’t wait!