A cheery hello from our Nation's Capitol.Hello. :)
I have had a very pleasant day (except for just now when I erased my entry and had to start over because touchpads suck.) K has been delightful since she woke up at 6:30 am, by which time I was loading the car. (She offered to help, but I was done by the time she was dressed. But this was okay; keep reading.)
There was no traffic anywhere along the way, and I mean anywhere. If you've ever driven in the DC area, you will know that the Beltway without traffic simply does not exist, but today it did. At one point I had to look for a speed limit sign for the first time ever; I didn't even know there was a speed limit on the Beltway because no one ever moves faster than a crawl anyway. But it's 50 and I was going faster than that. It was great.
The kid's apartment is in a lovely neighborhood, and my hotel is only a half-block away. When we arrived at her building, she had all kinds of forms to fill out for the building manager, who was very very pleasant as well. Then I backed up the car to the service entrance, and waited just inside the door with all the stuff while she brought it all upstairs, making about six trips, I think. So that makes up for me loading the car.
Here's the reason for the multiple trips with all her stuff. Our car is very small, and although we've always had to rent a van before to take a kid to college, we didn't this time because we have the luxury of not having to move in everything on one day since she's not moving into a dorm, but an apartment. The Hubs and I are going down on a Saturday in January with the rest of her stuff, but we made a first trip today because I'm on vacation so I have the time. Most of the stuff we bought today was her clothes, books, blankets and like that. Some old shelves we had in the basement for her to use here.
As it happens, I don't have any old furniture laying around that she needs, namely a bed, a desk, a dresser. All that has to come from someplace. The bed is being delivered next week, and it so happens my hotel is across the street from a giant office supply store, so I'll pick up the desk (we saw one there on sale today) when I get up in the morning. Here's the thing:
I have a whole lot of phobias, big and small, which you may have happened to notice before (No, not me! Never!) and just making this trip is a huge leap forward for me. Not only did I drive the whole way, I have driven in a city. I especially fear city driving, although I've done it before -- I was younger then -- and would never under any circumstances at all drive in Manhattan, not now, not ever. But I'm especially quirky about driving around in strange places and possibly getting lost. Voila. It is way easier for me to buy stuff at the Ikea in New Jersey and lug it to DC then it is to try to find the Ikea in Maryland and buy the stuff here. Or to try and find a Target. I can go to the office store because it's across the street, I can't get lost, and I can already see that this is a very drivable neighborhood.
Also, rather than use the time here to shop, we're going to attempt a bit of sightseeing in the morning, which people who live here probably hardly ever do. As long as the weather is nice, and it looks like it's going to be, then we're going to try to go see the World War II Memorial in the morning before we head home. If I get there, I'll have pictures.
So I'm in the hotel, hooked up to the Internet via dialup, typing and losing diary entries, and watching Lost. K is in her apartment working out the logistics of furniture arranging with the roommate who's there. I just talked to the Hubs on the phone, who says that the Internet is down there. Ironic, somehow.
Like so many other things, I was more keyed up in the anticipation of than in the actual execution of this event, this trip. I didn't feel that I was nervous about it, but I've definitely been keyed up in the last week or so, maybe it was this. But this is okay. Update tomorrow, I hope.
