What goes around, comes around...

It's been a week now that Alexa has been officially a student at Cornell. Technically we are empty nesters but with my MIL living with us it doesn't feel like that. We just eliminated the teenage element. The move went pretty smoothly. Cornell has it's act together when it comes to moving in. We had to display a loading permit in our windshield that showed the date, time, and dorm we were moving into to just get into the lot. They had lots of staff and students in red shirts directing traffic, handing out hand cart tickets, calling out directions with a loudspeaker, checking the rooms offering help, even maintenance was there to collect boxes to be thrown out. Here is a little pictorial.

Donlon Hall. The kids in the red shirts under the overhang were responsible for directing people into the dorm and matching up families with students who had hand carts and were loading up possessions (like the gentlemen in the forefront) to take up to rooms.

As soon as you got permission to enter the unloading circle right in front of the dorm you were directed to where to park and instructed to quickly unload your car, place your belonging on the sidewalk or grass behind the barriers and then to move your car! No dilly dallying around here! They also gave you a ticket - for a handcart to help move your stuff inside, which was good as Alexa is on the fourth floor and yes, they have elevators, thank you! They were on number 360 when we got there and our number was 415...

Norm was directed to a lot or more appropriately a grassy area about a mile away from the dorm to park the car. He started to walk back but luckily they had shuttle buses and was able to catch a ride. The parking lots were like Disney World, license plates from every state you can image.

These shots are from the week before, when we got to bring 1/2 her stuff early. Thank you Sharon for the hand cart! As you can see we moved furniture! placing her bureau under her bed. We had to buy a step ladder because she couldn't get onto the bed it was so high!

Here are some of the 'afters'. AFTER we had everything brought in, after we put together her lamp and cubbies, after her roommate moved in, but BEFORE she had a chance to clean up/put away anything.

I could not resist this one, sorry sweetie! It was all about the duvet and duvet cover! Lex got the duvet in the cover but the cover is larger than the duvet and was not laying flat so Lex 'dived' into the duvet, inside the cover to straighten it out.

I still have a list of things to return, exchange and finish for her. The bulletin board in the first picture above needs to be hung. Got to send her the fixings for that. No extension cords but she can have power surge protectors with longer chords. A new mattress cover because the one we had had a broken zipper, more Command hooks. The list goes on and on. Also, I have to finish an art project or two, or three for her.

Lex sent away for these wooden monograms for herself and her roommate, Katie. I got one-two coats of paint on them but they need more, a little sanding and maybe a coat of poly. (Lex's is the pink one and yes, I know, it's backwards. I painted both sides).

The campus is beautiful and HUGE! After we moved her in we had booked a hotel room the closest I could get - Skaneateles, and we had about an hour drive to get there! It was a very nice drive but we had to find a laundromat because we had to do Alexa's laundry from the week before! I know, we shouldn't have but lets call it our parting gift. So this is how we spent our Friday night, doing laundry in Auburn...

Back to campus. We arrived the next day after doing her laundry, picking up fruit, granola bars, milk and the step ladder I mentioned. Dumped it all in her room and left! Lex was heading to lunch, she had orientation meetings after so we were pretty much done! Norm and I decided to walk from North Campus to Central Campus and go to the bookstore. We needed some Cornell swag... and took in the sights along the way. 

 Looking from where the tower (below) was down the large quad hill to where my BFF Barbara lived when she was a student. You can see Lake Cayuga in the upper right corner.

 The bell tower. They were having tours but after finding out I'd have to walk all the way up, I decided I need to at least her junior year before I had the stamina to do so.

 Ithaca is Gorges! This is from the one of the bridges that crosses over to the central campus, just beautiful! Below is a reprint from an old magazine about the same spot, Triphammer Falls.

Lastly, what goes around comes around. If you are friends with me on Facebook you saw this picture recently. The duck on the left comes from the hotel we stayed in in San Francisco on our way to China. The duck on the right came from the Cornell Bookstore. What a trip!