All The Feels Part 1

   It isn't enough that I am in Durango, dropping off my oldest at college.

   My youngest did not come with us.
   She has a new job, needed to work and,  ultimately, needed time "away" from us, I guess, which is funny 'cause she's never home, but whatever.
  
    We got up at 9 to have breakfast before the 10 a.m. check in time. Genoa is allergic to calendars or any distribution of information, so we were not sure if that was real. It was. We arrived and she checked herself in, which is when we discovered she didn't have a roommate. They put the kids' names on the dorm doors, and G's was the only name. After some debate she chose the bed with the tree blocking her view of the quad because it is next to the heat register. Since no roommate was imminent, we decided to spring for a fridge and a microwave.
  
    The Durango Walmart Has It Goin' On.
    We walked four steps and were faced with three different sizes of fridge choices. Three more steps and the microwaves appeared! $300.00 later we returned to Fort Lewis and schlepped the electronics up to Genoa's room. Which, by the way did I mention, is on the 2nd floor. I couldn't get a grip on the fridge box, so I put it down for a moment. Another passing parent asked if she could help. I answered "I don't think well, it's just, yes can you just load it on my arms?" That was the second time I realized I had lost my capacity for speech. It happened earlier in the dorm room, when G was unpacking and asked a question and I said "I um shma pants...uh.."  I saw that same parent later at orientation, and she said "I know you, you were almost strangled by a tree." I realized that from her perspective, my scarf had wound around my neck and arms and the box and it looked deadly. I was not, however, anywhere near the tree, I'm not sure where she got that.

    As we were leaving the parking lot for Walmart I noted a family saying good bye to their son. We hadn't even finished moving G in yet, and these people had already shown up, moved him in and moved on. Maybe he was a sophomore, but I doubted it based on the extended hug he was receiving. It never occurred to me to just drop G off. To slow down to 30 and push her out of the car.

   At the bookstore, Jim and I were purchasing the obligatory mugs and shirts, and Genoa and Rachel (her new friend) were walking toward us. I smiled, and Genoa waved books encased in plastic at me and proclaimed "Look what I did! I'm an adult! I bought my books!"

  When we crossed their path a few minutes later, she barely registered our presence. When we said "bye", she did not even notice we had left.
  
   Clearly, she's fine.


    I got a text from her about7 p m, she now has a roommate. She is native American from a res in Arizona, very shy and very sweet, and very unnerved that their suite mates already have boys over.


          She also texted me that she was at a party. Who tells their mom they are at a party? Genoa. Who else? All the feels.

       Clearly, she is going to be fine.