Well, this off to college thing just is becoming more real all the time. I made the first payment for Micah's fall semester tonight. It's amazing how quickly a little more than a month's blood, sweat and tears can be spent. Just the click of a button and it's gone. Just a few short weeks and we will be down to just the three of us here at home. The college called today and Micah's roommate assignment is not going to live in Beckman hall and so he would have the room all to himself. They wanted to know if he would consider changing rooms to be on the first floor with someone else who was now all by himself. He said, sure, why not? So we will be getting info on the next room assignment soon. We picked up a few dorm items and some summer clothing that was on clearance this weekend. Got him some laundry detergent sheets that are detergent and fabric softener all in one. He has to do virtually no thinking to do his laundry. I heard about these from a friend at work whose son just loves them. One by one, the items on Mom's checklist of "things to do before going to college" are getting done. This is a good thing but kind of scary too. I keep wondering if I have taught him everything he needs to know about life before he heads out into the 'real' world. I guess time alone will tell.
After I shed a few tears parting with that tuition money, the phone rang and for once it was for me. A good friend and former co-worker, Dort Garrett, called to relay a message from a friend. She had called and visited withFr. Angelos (or Nathan which we just can't stop calling him) on the phone this weekend. He asked her to phone me and tell me that he has Micah's graduation picture on his desk and thinks of him and our family often. He is a Christian Coptic priest in Boston and is a very special friend of our family. Before he became a priest, he was a doctor in the clinic where both Dort and I worked together. He had such tremendous talent in the medical field but felt a higher calling to become a priest. It broke our hearts to see him go. I think of him often and wish that I could see him. He asked Dort to tell me this message because he just hates to write. He loves to receive letters, but hates to write them.
It was good to visit with Dort too although her health is not doing well. We both discussed our lives as they are and caught up on what each other's families are doing. It felt good to connect again and I should not wait so long to visit with her. We almost lost her a couple of years ago and since that time she has not been able to return to work. It is difficult for her to remain on task even in conversation and loses track of what she was talking about easily. I had to remind her of our topic of conversation and finish her thoughts when she just couldn't. She was a brilliant pianist and now cannot play much at all. She cannot play at church or in public anymore but is slowly starting to play for herself at home, though not up to her standards but hopefully that will come back. I know if that happened to me how sad I would feel if I could not play my piano and music is as big a part of her life as it is of mine. I made sure before she hung up that I told her how much I loved her and I realized how very much I miss both Fr. Angelos and Dort. That brings even more tears to my eyes.
We took a little jaunt this weekend to Gilbertville to celebrate mass with Fr. Huber on Sunday. He gave us the tour of the church and the rectory. The church is beautiful and the rectory is huge! He has some great historical pieces in the house and some neat furniture and etc. He even has a heated massage chair! If he stays too long there, he will soon be needing a lift chair along with the heat and massage (they do make 'em you know, Fr.!). We went out for lunch with him and had a great visit. Hopefully we can do it again sometime. It was so good to see him again.
After leaving Gilbertville, we headed to Diane and Marty's in Manchester. We visited with them for a little bit and headed to Dubuque where we let Micah drive around and get a feel for the area around the college. Micah then drove from Dubuque to Manchester and when we got there, Mike drove us around the Lake Delhi area where we viewed the flood damage. We then went back to Diane and Marty's where we spent the night and took off after breakfast in the a.m. When we got to Waterloo/Cedar Falls area, we went to Gabby's to see her digs and took her out to lunch and then we headed home. Not much for a vacation but hopefully we will make it down to the state fair and Mike's aunt and uncle's 50th wedding anniversary celebration later this month. What is summer without a trip to the state fair?!?
I need to get the sweet corn put in the freezer and keep hoping that someday I will come home from work and Mike and the boys will have it all done for me but alas, that has not yet happened. It doesn't hurt to dream!
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