Move In Day

Yesterday was move in day for all the freshmen at Sonoma State University, including HolyCoast Daughter. Anticipating a big crowd, we left the hotel at 9am for the 10am check-in, and to our pleasant surprise found that they started handing out keys early and were already checking in the new students when we got to the campus at 9:20. We quickly picked up her keys and headed to the dorm room with a truckload of stuff.

She's got a great suite - probably bigger than our first apartment. There are two pretty large bedrooms (2 girls each), one large bathroom, a big storage closet plus a coat closet, a full kitchen, dining room and living room. Not bad.

We hauled stuff for awhile and pretty much had the move in done and most of it put away by noon. We figured out a few things we still needed to buy, so after a highly nutritious lunch at McDonalds (conveniently located across the street from the campus), we headed to Lowes and Target to pick up the remaining items. We were not alone. Both stores, and especially Target, were jammed with college students and their parents buying the last minute stuff they forgot to bring. The hottest item - ethernet cables to hook into the school's network. A lot of kids didn't read the website info about what they would need, and Target quickly sold out (we brought one).

During the afternoon we put the finishing touches on the room and the four suitemates started the process of figuring out how to live together. Their first project was to complete the housing form listing any existing damage to the suite so they wouldn't get charged for it later. They then headed off to the bookstore to pick up their books and tour the campus a bit.

In the evening the school hosted a welcome barbecue for all the new students and parents out by the lakes (good food and great atmosphere if you like ducks and geese watching you eat). We finally said our goodbyes at around 6:30 and headed back to the hotel. We'll check in with her briefly this morning to see if we've forgotten anything and then it's back on the road for the seven hour trip home.

It'll be pretty strange not having her around every day, but I can already tell she'll fit right into the college schedule and lifestyle pretty well. I'm jealous - it looks like fun.