The Eve of the Move

I always thought Eve would be a nice name; it’s certainly not one you’d see on key chains or Coke® bottles, but I don’t know if that’s necessarily a bad thing.

But anyway, as I told my  aunt on the phone today, this is the eve of the end of my quotidian life in Columbus, Ohio. How do I feel about that?

Fine.

[The next five paragraphs are a summary of the eve of moving off to college. If that is uninteresting to you, as it understandably may be, jump ahead to…wherever.] 

I spent today tying up some last minute strings; maybe that’ll be more so tomorrow. I got up to take my sister and brother to school for the penultimate time in a while, I assume. The loop, if you know Columbus at all, is basically down I-71 to Broad St. to the all-girls school in Columbus to drop my sister off, and then across I-670 west bound to Upper Arlington to drop my brother off at the school I attended for 13 years. I haven’t been a graduate for more than three months and I’ve already been invited back for alumni events. No donation requests...yet. 

On the way home I stopped off at Starbucks for coffee and CVS for some toiletry stuff. Back at the house I packed; I was probably about 60% packed already. A lot of what I accomplished this morning involved finalizing lists of stuff to do, acquire, and pack, as well as sorting through winter clothes and telling myself that I didn’t need to take all of the scarves that I set aside from when my family moved earlier this summer.

Other random things happened, too; I finished a book that I borrowed, I finally faxed my medical forms to SLC (the woman on the phone seemed overly thrilled to receive them), and my dad and I went to Skyline Chili before embarking on a considerably extensive shopping trip. I still have lots of random stuff to get, like snacks and mace (or pepper spray).

My sister had a cross country meet this evening. It seems like when she has meets they’re out on the far outskirts of the city. The thing about Columbus, which I actually like, is that one doesn’t have to drive more than 15 minutes away from the city to reach farm land. It was a lovely drive down and back; I passed the city skyline, drove through a storm and under a rainbow,  through the classic Ohio country side to Canal Winchester High School to watch my sister run with (a personal estimate of) 150 other girls.

I’ve only been to two cross country meets, but they’re probably my favorite sport to watch. First off, they’re brief; they last only about 30 minutes. Second off, it’s just people running, which makes me want to run, but then I remember that I’m a terrible runner. Third off, there’s lots of energy as a spectator, unlike my high school sport (softball). Despite the storm and baking sun, the weather was great, which adds lots to meets. Grace PRed with a way better time than I could ever imagine myself running.

On the drive home Grace read me sarcastic dating advice. I don’t really remember any of the things that well. Basically, don’t brag about your high school self because nobody cares. I’ll follow up on that sometime.

So then, home again, I packed up the newly obtained supplies and figured I should write a blog post because, hey, the eve of me leaving home is kind of big.

Or is it?

I’ll be back around Thanksgiving. That’s soon, right?

Wow. I just now had the urge to cry. But I’m not going to.

In my head I’ve been thinking of songs that would work for this instance in my life. Here’s what I’ve come up with:

            -She’s Leaving Home by The Beatles

            -Little Boxes by Pete Seeger

            -New York, New York by Frank Sinatra

            -New York State of Mind by Billy Joel

            -Leaves that are Green by Simon and Garfunkel

            -Empire State of Mind by Jay Z and Alicia Keys

            -Cool Kids by Echosmith  

            -Good Life by Onerepublic

            -These are Days by 10,000 Maniacs

If my life were a sitcom, hypothetically since I’m not sure it would be a successful sitcom, I think my opening credits would be to the song “The John Wayne” by Little Green Cars. I figured this out while walking around D.C. It’s a song that makes me feel “charged,” metaphorically, like I’m a cellphone or an electrical appliance that requires a wall charger.

But I digress.

The plan: Tomorrow afternoon I’m taking off with my stuff, packed up in our gray SUV, and my dad. We’re stopping in Cleveland for the evening and Dubois, Pennsylvania for the night. We’ll finish up the journey on Friday. I’m hoping to get to Bronxville by 14:00 so that the two of us can take a tour of campus. I’ve visited the bookishly-nerdy, supposedly hipster campus; dad has not. Hopefully he'll be as charmed by it as I am.

Move in is Saturday.

Hipster College, here I come.