Back to school 2022

@baseball mom2020 posted:

Had planned on just a drop-off, but sons dorm was filthy dirty. Black mold in AC and shower. Hair in shower drain, broken blinds, used tooth flossers and hair from a razor in the bathroom cabinet, spaghetti sauce on backsplash of range. You can imagine the toilet.Took us 3 hours , 2 large containers of Clorox wipes, a gallon of bleach and a big box of wet stiffer pads to get the place decent. After all that I didn't have it in me to be sad about leaving him lol!!!

This is really shocking for a dorm.  I did this exact thing once, but it was an off-campus apartment.  I told all the boys that they each got ONE apartment cleaning, and no more.

@baseball mom2020 posted:

Had planned on just a drop-off, but sons dorm was filthy dirty. Black mold in AC and shower. Hair in shower drain, broken blinds, used tooth flossers and hair from a razor in the bathroom cabinet, spaghetti sauce on backsplash of range. You can imagine the toilet.Took us 3 hours , 2 large containers of Clorox wipes, a gallon of bleach and a big box of wet stiffer pads to get the place decent. After all that I didn't have it in me to be sad about leaving him lol!!!

I am on a parents page, and unfortunately many other dorms were in the same shape!!!!

Your son is fortunate you were with him--no doubt many kids didn't have anyone there to help.  I have seen off-campus apartments in similarly bad shape, but there's no excuse for that in a dorm room.

I drove my son to school a few days ago.  When he stepped inside his new dorm room (he's a sophomore), he found that the carpet was completely soaked through and there was standing water in several places.  The AC unit's drain line had clogged and water had been backing up into the room for (many?) days.  I helped him with talking through what to do, but the boy handled things himself:  Went to the Housing Office to request a repair, which was fairly easy.  Then explained to someone there, and then to that person's manager, and then to that person's manager, that just fixing the leak wasn't good enough, since the floor was still soaked.  (Can it really be that university housing officials don't understand the risks they create for students and the school if they let a mold infestation get going?)  It took three days to clean up and dry out the room (and more conversations with Housing to explain that he needed a temporary room while they did work), but as of last night he's in his assigned dorm room.  Thank goodness this didn't happen his first year--he at least had friends he could crash with if necessary and generally knew the proverbial drill of getting started at college.

Was a hectic few days, but the school handled things pretty well (with some prodding).  And I got to see that the boy is actually growing up--he made clear he did not want me or his mom to talk to anyone about his housing issues unless and until he asked us to, and he seems to have handled things very well.  (His dad likely would have lost his cool at some point dealing with the Housing bureaucracy...)

My son came home for LDW.

He never played any organized football. For him it was always basketball and baseball and finally just baseball. So, I asked him last night "What's it like having 34 teammates?"

And, he said: I'll tell you one thing, there's not one single place I can go to on campus without seeing one of my teammates and saying hi to them.

That's the benefit of being a freshman athlete - you have an instant fraternity. You're not alone and far from home and not knowing anyone.

Kid talked for 4 hours last night about his coaches, his workouts, the practices and the team without being prompted or asked. Sounds like he's loving the baseball parts of being in college.

The academic requirements...that's another story. But he's only been in classes for 2 weeks.

That's great, Francis7!  But, you didn't tell us - did you cry when you dropped him off?

@anotherparent posted:

That's great, Francis7!  But, you didn't tell us - did you cry when you dropped him off?

It sucked dropping him off. But me crying wasn't going to help anything. (My wife did enough for both us.) So, I kept it in.

@anotherparent posted:

That's great, Francis7!  But, you didn't tell us - did you cry when you dropped him off?

My kid drove himself to juco, so it was a big moment - but I think leaving them at college would be significantly worse. I hid a lot of stuff within the stuff he was taking, so I was looking forward to his reaction (he never gave me the satisfaction).

Where it hit me was the next morning - I used to get up around six, make an enormous packed lunch and start the 4 eggs mixed with 1/4 lb of lean turkey and some spinach. Also, fresh fruit and 8 oz of liquid egg whites as a beverage (yuk) - qualification: this started his HS senior year, prior to that he'd gag on a protein bar...

The house felt empty and I felt as if I'd been laid-off at work: I'm sorry Mr. Stephan, your role is no longer required. Your position doesn't create the value it once did, and your services just are not needed. The mornings we're like a gut punch for a few days as I adjusted. He was also the last one to leave home, so it amplified the feelings.

It's funny, this morning he sent me this link of him pitching for Hill as a freshmen - only a few months out of HS. It's funny to look back and see how raw he was (didn't pitch much in HS). That was 8 years ago... Enjoy every moment, it goes by so fast!

Got back last night from dropping off the kid. The move in day was on Thursday and was beautifully choregraphed chaos. I was so impressed how the school was able to get ~650 freshman moved in that day. There were lots of upperclassmen that helped coordinate it, I really hoped they got something out it like a tuition discount, yeah right.  We got him moved in a couple of hours and met his 3 room mates and parents, then the boys were off to their orientation and other social and academic events. Some of the parents were leaving that day so we promised to get dinner on the school's family weekend. In all we saw the kid for 10 minutes after we moved his stuff in. The next day we attended a full day parent orientation and was only able to have lunch with him for about 20 minutes in the cafeteria before he left to meet with his guidance counselor. During the morning parent orientation the Dean of Students mentioned at 2AM he and campus security had to escort about 200 kids back to their dorms from a campus frat house party. My kid at lunch admitted he was one of them...I think I was able to keep the groaning to a minimum, was more impressed the better half was cool as a cucumber. We basically had to say farewell in the cafeteria, looking back I am glad it was done in a public space to keep the emotions in check...her not me.  I was OK until we got back and I went into his room to retrieve my spare car key fob that he never returned...of course. After looking at his baseball awards over the years, pictures and other mementos,  it quickly snuck up on me and I was quietly sobbing. I haven't had too many emotional moments and I did not want this to spiral to a full blown blubbering, so I went to the wife and she immediately let her tear dam burst which quickly dried mine. We did get a brief calls from him, with updates kept under 3 sentences, I guess it is better than the vague 1 word answers we typically get. Luckily for us we still have the younger one who loves to gab so we can still get our fill  somewhere. He told me he is lifting 3x a week with the team and he planned a BP session on the field today. I am glad he is taking the initiative with this.

Will they survive?!

2 of three roommates decide to go buy groceries. Third will not get up.

They buy several hundred and return. Now he wakes up and tells them his Mom is on her way and has bought $400 of groceries!

Question: How long does it take three college players to eat 60 bananas?!