Orientation

MONDAY: Anna and I left early for Athens. Stopped her by Dunkin Donuts and she saw two girls she knew. There was a crowd checking in to the dorm but we saw several more people we knew. I rode over to the student center with roommate Emily’s dad – the girls took the bus. One of the orientation leaders was one of Will’s former baseball teammates. Meetings all morning, including one with the art department. During lunch I walked back to the down and drove my car over to the shaded student center deck. More meetings after lunch but at 2:30 I headed home. Stopped by the office to take care of some college scholarship stuff. It took 2-1/2 hours! By then I was worn out and hot and sticky from the day, but I stopped on the way home to mail four eBay packages. I also got a haircut. Got home at 8:45.      

TUESDAY: Drove back to Athens with hitting much traffic. I noticed my car was running hot so I stopped at Kroger for water. There was a resource fair so I went around gathering info on lots of different things: the bookstore, food service, golf course, Christian organizations, study abroad, etc. Emily wanted free T-shirts so I directed the girls to those places. We figured out Anna’s 11 am interview in the art building was a long walk, so I drove her and missed my meeting. I put water in my car and spent the hour working on emergencies at work. This completely drained my cell phone battery. Picked up Anna. She had been the first to arrive at the art building, so she got the first interview.

We ate lunch at the new Bolton Dining Hall. Huge, like a two-story church built from stone and wood and glass with views of the stadium and student center on one side and trees and a creek on the other. Lots of choices every day. We stayed downstairs. I got pork tenderloin, sweet potato soufflé, potato salad, slaw, corn on the cobb, and Brunswick Stew. When Anna went to register for classes I stayed inside the air conditioning and explored the dining hall. In addition to the cafeteria type food we ate were the following stations: a Mexican taco bar, fresh fruit, breakfast items served all day (including eggs made to order), Italian, Chinese, sub sandwiches, burgers and hot dogs, milkshakes made to order, a dessert bakery and hand-dipped ice cream, and cereal. Instead of ice cream I tried a bacon cheeseburger, since I hadn’t finished the tough piece of pork. The all-important buns were right out of a grocery store pack, and the frozen patty was just ok. I was stuffed. I sat for another hour and people watched. Lots of football players eating, but none I recognized.

After an hour I tried to charge my phone on my laptop, and add more water to the radiator. Anna and Emily had to quickly pick up their bags from the dorm and get back to get their ID, so I drove them. After taking some pictures we headed for home. When I had to stop the Civic’s heat gauge would climb, so I would turn off the car at lights. We arrived home just after five, all hot and tired. C and MC were moving furniture in the living room. Going forward we will have less furniture in there so it will be less cluttered.

I had to drive M down to his church cornhole tourney. More traffic. The cell battery was still low so I was only able to catch up a little. Stopped by Wendy’s and two thrift stores. M brought two leftover PaPa John’s pizzas home. I checked the Civic and saw why it was overheating: I had forgotten to put the cap back on the reservoir. Solved that problem.  

I was still sticky from the day and the dog was restless, so I slept on the couch. I’ll compare last night’s sleep to other nights – I bet the quality was up. Took almost 8000 steps Monday and over 9100 on Tuesday. Also lots more stairs than usual. My leg wasn’t worse. It was the heat that wore me out.