This is an older picture. I didn't feel like taking a picture today. And it matches the subject matter, as you will see in a moment.

I drove Jim into work this morning, and as I was driving through the University area, I got thinking about going to college. A lot of the new and returning students will be moving in this weekend (if they're not already there), because classes start Monday. This got me to thinking about my arrival at college as a freshman, and then I realized that was 9 years ago, almost to the day. Good Lord, I'm old.

The night before I went to college, I remember going to a movie with a friend of mine from Geneseo named Kate. I couldn't tell you what movie we saw. I remember being kind of sad because I was leaving home. After I got home from the movie, I was surprised by my best friend Molly - she came over to my house to spend the night because it was our last night together as high school girls. That meant a lot to me.

The next morning we piled into the car (me, my mom and my dad) and started the nearly 2 hour drive to take me to college. I remember it seeming really early (probably because Molly and I stayed up half the night talking and giggling). I also remember that Molly gave me a card to read in the car and I started crying while reading it. She's a good friend.

As we got closer to the campus, we started seeing these crazy signs that said things like "Almost there!" and "No turning back now!" and "Mom, get out the tissues!". We pulled up to my dorm and suddenly a group of people my age descended upon our car and started taking all of my stuff out. They asked me what room I was in and I barely had time to yell out "520!" before they took off. Turns out, they were the orientation committee, and part of their job was to carry the freshman's stuff in. Which was pretty cool, especially since I was on the 5th floor.

After getting my keys and welcome packet in the lobby, and narrowly escaping a bat capture operation by the elevators, I went up to my room. I kind of knew what to expect because I went to my brother's college (SUNY Cortland), where they had 3 guys packed into a double room. My room was spacious by comparison.

I had written a letter to my roommate, and got one in return, but that was about it. She was already moved in, because she played soccer and had arrived a week earlier. She also had already made a ton of friends on the soccer team, knew her way around the campus and was friends with all the RAs. This was really intimidating to me, and she really didn't go out of her way to make me feel more welcome. She pegged me as a geek within about 5 minutes of meeting me (which I kind of was, but still...) and pretty much ignored me for the 4 months we lived together. Yes, I'm still bitter. Having her for a roommate almost caused me to transfer after a semester. Once we parted ways, I started liking college a lot more.

Anyway, after setting up my room, I remember walking around the campus with my mom and dad and feeling like I couldn't wait for them to leave, but also wanting to get back in the car and go back home with them. When it was time for them to leave, my mom cried a little in the parking lot (I'm her baby after all) and they took off. I took a deep breath, and headed back to the dorm. My college career was about to begin. I can't believe how young I was.

Warning: clicking on these links will launch a new browser window.

The editor of Mademoiselle has resigned. Now if we could only get rid of Bonnie Fuller.

Would you believe I still haven't seen "Who Wants to Be A Millionaire?" I didn't know it was on every night! I tried to watch it last night, but Jim was watching "World's Most Manly Explosions" or something on Fox.

A Garth Brooks tribute album? He's neither dead, nor underappreciated. Did I miss something?

Salon has an interesting pair of features: a story of heroin addiction, told from the point of view of the son, who was the drug user, and his mother.

This site is an interesting concept (and less annoying than Ain't It Cool News) but the "news" is a bit stale.

I love when pop icons collide. Have I mentioned that Jim wants to get an Irish Wolfhound, and I think they all look like Bea Arthur?

Of all the annoying buzzwords, I think I hate "Let's take this offline" the most.