Preschool Part 1 - Setting the shopping scene

It occurred to me that I am doing myself and anyone interested a disservice by not in some way chronicling the run-up to my daughter's starting college. Drop-off is in about 84 hours, give or take. I'm going to try to take care and express only my own feelings and not share things that are not mine to share.

This is one of those times in my life when I kind of wish I was the clueless dad. I could come home from work and, depending on which kind of scenario I care to imagine, either put on my slippers and retire to the library for a dry martini and a smoke while my wife made dinner and my kids did things that I was unaware of, or I would strip down to my undershirt, open up a beer and park myself in front of the TV ignoring everyone until dinner. Instead, I've managed to place myself in the middle of everything going on in my house, sometimes intentionally and sometimes not. I am a caretaker, in that I spend much of my evenings taking care of stuff for other people.

This week has brought an avalanche of new stuff into the house. Since it's bound to rumble out of here as quickly as it rumbled in, it is all sitting in a 72 cubic foot (something like 6x4x3) pile in the front hallway. Only a few of the things, the rug and shelves, for example, are visible. The rest lie snuggled in plastic bags from Target, Staples, Bed Bath and Beyond and beyond. This is prior to the trip to the mall, which is set to take place tomorrow and which I will thankfully not be part of, except perhaps to answer a phone call from either my wife complaining about my daughter or vice versa.

My neighbor, who has a son, tells me that he packed most of the things that were in his room, along with some new sheets and towels, and that's it. Living in a houseful of girls, this is inconceivable to me. For girls, every transition is a shopping opportunity. "I'm going to ______ so I need to buy ______." Or ______, _________, ___________ and ________. And for the linguistically challenged among you, in this construction, the word "I" means 'you" and "buy" means "buy me." It's a subtle but important distinction. My daughter, who can be kind of dramatic, enforces this process by being pretty much impossible except when she is in the state of having something bought for her, at which time she is soothed.

Just in case everything is not bought on a timely basis, the college runs shuttle busses to BB&B all day on move-in day, so I am not worried.