Back to college.....

I headed back to college yesterday, and moved in a dorm.

No, I'm not having a mid-life crisis and returning to school. Caitlin, my 19-year old, is beginning her sophomore year at Alabama. So Mom and I moved her in yesterday.

It's always fun to see young men and women enjoying the best years of their lives. We rode up on an elevator with two frat boys who had obviously been...."enjoying" themselves a little. Since there were, at that time, four parents on the elevator, they were doing their best to seem "normal," and avoided breathing, or any other bodily expulsions, in our general direction, to quote Spamalot. The other Dad turned to me and said, "It looks like they've been to the Library."

To their credit, the young men were perfectly polite, and smiled hearing that, knowing that we knew their "secret."

Ahh, such was the times.

College for Caitlin is in Tuscaloosa, just an hour away from home. It's always a bit of a melancholy time for me when we move her in, knowing that it's part of life, growing up, and moving away--albeit, not really moving very far, and only temporary--for now. I enjoy moving her--one of the few times "Dad" can be of real assistance, hauling things, parallel parking to get a better angle for unloading, hooking up the computer to the internet, the cable to the TV, etc. And with a family of five, it's not often that Mom and I get to spend much time with her alone. So the drive, the unloading, and the helping to "fix up" her room are kinda precious, when you think of it that way.

And then there were four.

It was a good summer having Caitlin home, but now we're down to four. With Sarah and Andrew doing more and more things with their friends in their "free" time, we're quickly becoming a more "normal" sized family of two children.

I won't know what to do. Maybe I'll take up a hobby with my free time.