And then there’s the person who just moved into a new home and actually has to deliver on her promise to host the event this year.

Nancy LaFever, owner of Writerchic, LLC, Writing & Editing Services, and my go-to person for all things wine, just posted a great short article on this very topic (full disclosure, I contributed to it).

Check it out, pass it along.
http://www.mymove.com/blog/2012/11/hosting-30-for-thanksgiving-after-your-move.html

And to everyone, I wish you a joyous, warm, laugh-filled holiday.

Kent

Kent McDonald is a Certified Personal Chef, living and working in Phoenix, AZ. (c) All Rights Reserved , 2012

This isn’t the first time they’ve come to Boston to visit me. They moved me in freshman year of college and documented the entire trip and stayed for a week- isn’t being the oldest child fun?!

Since they’ve been up to visit a bunch of times, so we decided to do something different and go to Plymouth Rock for the day. It was a great day, perfect weather and very educational. When we got back to the city, we decided to drive downtown (Some advice from that experience:  Never drive. Ever.). Since my parents still don’t know where they are going, I had to play backseat driver the entire time. Almost hitting 3 cabs, 1 pizza delivery driver, 2 bikers and 55 curse words later, we arrived at Cheers! downtown and had a great dinner filled with Harpoons.

“I love you Sally.” he said. I kissed his lips. “I love you too babe, how are you?” he smiled “I’m good now…” I moved his curly hair back and kissed him again. “How was work?” he was hiding something. “Same old… Papers in and out.” and he would never admit what. I have a hunch he really doesn’t like work. “Babe, I love you.” I said. He kissed me, and pushed me towards him. I pulled back and smiled, his phone started ringing. Uh-oh.

“Drew Speaking.” he picked up, “No, you said that it could be done after my morning shift, meaning when I start at five…” he rolled his eyes. “Sir, all I have to do is adjust the names and dates, it will take two minutes. I’m on break.” he put his hand to his head. “Alright, thank you. Bye.” he said angrily. “Bye Drew. Have a good day.” I said annoyed. He came up to me, “I’m sorry Sally, but it’s all going to pay off in the end. Trust me baby, I love you.” he said walking out.

I cleaned up a little and started to play piano, my fingers almost hurt from hitting the keys so hard. I got up and went to the forest. “Why does he even work that much?” I asked myself, we have money… We have a paid house, a car. We’ve even discussed college and that he can go. I’m just waiting for him to have time so I can take him to the bank to put his name on my account. Maybe then he would see that we’re financially okay? Maybe…

*

Click Below To Listen

Several weeks before my first day, Fitchburg State sent out letters to students explaining how the first day would go. I liked how everything was organized and timestamped on one sheet of paper. Move-in times started at 7Fre:30am, so I decided to go around then to beat the crowd. I was happy to see it would be only freshmen on the first day.

Fast-forward to September 3rd, the first day for freshmen. My parents and I woke up, got ready, and made sure everything was packed. I said “good bye” to my brother and sister, as well as my pets, and we were on our way. As we got closer to campus, there were signs around the city giving directions to the Civic Center where move-in started, which was a big help.

At the Civic Center there were several “pitstops” to help make the move-in process smooth, I was pleased with how organized everything was. The first step was getting my key, schedule, and other important information. Once I got that, our car was directed into a line specific to my dorm building. Unfortunately, we had to wait a while before we were allowed through. I was surprised with the amount of people that were already here, considering the time.

After about 20-30 minutes of waiting, it was our turn to head to the residence halls. While all the roads were marked off, my dad somehow got us lost and we ended up in downtown Fitchburg. Using my phone, we found our way back near the main part of campus. There we waved down a police officer and explained our situation. Luckily he was nice enough to let us unload there instead of waiting in line again.

As a communication major, I have a lot of computer equipment and gear. But, Fitchburg State was prepared for students like me. They had upperclassmen and football players on standby with large rolling baskets, which was a big help. I was able to fit all of my computers, camera equipment, mini-fridge, clothes, and more into a few baskets. Then I went with them to my dorm room while my parents found a parking spot.

After all of my belongings were in my room, we left with my roommate for some breakfast at Bickford’s. When we finished breakfast, we made a quick stop at Market Basket before heading back to campus. Once I said “good bye” to my parents, my roommate and I went back to our room to unpack and get ready for orientation.

We’ve had some crazy times, rough times, great times and unexpected times. We expect more of all of them and hope for less of the rough times and plenty more of the rest. We love and miss you all!

Love,
Isaac and Emmie (though Isaac will likely NEVER write a thing on this blog. Thanks for all the help, right?)

And an energy drink.

Tomorrow is move-in day.

I’m twenty million different emotions. Not really because I don’t think there’s that many emotions, but I have a lot of feelings right now.

The past two days… Well honestly I wasn’t that into them. Weird?

My last in person voice lesson went really well. We’re going to continue as skype lessons! Yay! Then I had dinner with the fam. You know what bugs me about my family? They think I’m a bitch. And they laugh about it. And you know what?, I’m not a bitch! I’m a really nice caring person. But around them, yes I’m a bitch but that’s because it’s what they expect and how they treat me. I brought up how I really hope to be an R.A next year & my mom says how you have to listen to people whine. And I say that’s fine, I’m good with that. & her and my brother start cracking up! They going into like ten minutes of “joking” about me telling people to fuck off when they ask me for advice & the like. Ummmm no.
And then they wonder why I don’t want to talk to them about things! Hello! They’ve basically assumed this about me my whole life because when I was little I was quiet & didn’t like talking so they took it as me being mean. Now that’s all I am to them & I get basically made fun of if I try to be nice. So fuck em. Oh mom also started crying during dinner.

I’m so excited to get to school & be THE nicest person at school. Because that’s who I am.

Then it was off to boyfriend time. He surprised me by actually wanting to go out. We had a wonderful date night. Went on the ferris wheel for the first time & went to Cyber Dog (this bomb vegan hot dog place) It was a lovely night really. The thing that was annoying? He kept talking like it was our last date! Like I was moving to a different state or something. I kept reminding him I’m twenty minutes away & he’d just nod and say “But it won’t be the same. We’re not going to see each other the same amount.” Then would go on talking like it’s our last date. It really put a damper on the whole night. But we had a nice sleep over & really if he hadn’t kept harping it would’ve been a perfect night.

I’m not sure our relationship can survive the change in schedule. Based on how clingy & almost desperate sounding he’s acting at this moment? We’re not going to last very long. I’m an independent girl & I can’t have you whining all the time.

The end half of the day was spent with family again. They were being too nice. It was annoying. After we packed the car Mom started crying again & launched into the “You can always come home!” talk… Kay.

Otherwise….
Well I’m all packed! Expect the stuff I’ll need to use in the morning then pack. I have to be up in like three and a half hours. Moms next to me & snoring on the couch because she can’t be away right now. It sounds horrible but I’m going to have to ignore her for a while when I first move in. If I give her too much leeway at first she’ll be breathing down my neck the whole year. Ugh.

I’m sorry for the lengthy ramble. I’m just nervous.

Hopefully I can squeeze in a post that makes sense tomorrow.

Here we go. In eight hours… This. Is. Real.

Alex M. wins the prize — she was the first North Dormer to move in!

Move-in Day went off without a glitch. The WUSAs were out by the clock-tower bright and ready to “peel the banana” with Chancellor Mark Wrighton and his wife, Risa Zwerling Wrighton. From there the teams dispersed to their residential colleges and waited for the students to arrive.

The gate opened at 8am to let new students and families in, marking the moment when the South40 became the epicenter of excitement and energy for the year to come.

I was working with the Wayman Crow staff (Awww yeah WayCrow!) and we had an awesome day meeting the new Dardick students and moving them into their rooms! #SoMuchCrowLove

Wayman Crow Staff at Check-in

Dardick WUSAs!

Rachel’s (RA for Dardick 2) Locator Board

Francis (RA on Dardick 2) and Me (WUSA on Dardick 2)

Residents on Dardick 3 moving in

Move-in Crew

Estimates say that nearly a quarter million students from around the globe descend upon the Hub each fall to learn at our local colleges — which will make traffic a living hell for those of us that rely on commuting through Boston’s busy streets.

So how will we get through all this? How will we get through this next week full of gridlocked traffic, crowded streets, noisy moving trucks, tenacious mothers and anxious co-eds? Why, a helpful playlist should do the trick!

Here’s the official WZLX playlist for College Move In Week…

Bob Seger, “Night Moves”

Rolling Stones, “You Gotta Move”

Bad Company, “Movin’ On”

Steppenwolf, “Move Over”

Grand Funk Railroad, “Got This Thing On The Move”

Billy Joel, “Movin’ Out”

The Jeffersons Theme Song, “Moving On Up”

Andrew Celani — WZLX.com

See also:

• WZLX Back To School Playlist
• 3 Classic Shark Songs for the Great Whites Hanging Out in Cape Cod

This year, I worked as a tech for the incoming frosh–I helped them troubleshoot troublesome mobile devices, connect to the wifi, and set up their email. Since my normal job consists mostly of windexing tables in a room that has computers, I was mostly there to deal with the easy cases and charm moms while the professionals fixed the most difficult machines. This all would have been great (paid!) fun, had it not been for the fact that I had to be at school at 7 am on Saturday morning.

Let me tell you about the last time I was at school at 7 am on a Saturday:

Oh wait, I can’t. Because it has never happened. I got up at 5:30, and it was still the same color as it had been when I went to bed four hours before. It was the sort of thing where my body wasn’t even tired–just disoriented.

So, of the four hats I have worn for freshman move-in (freshman, RA, transfer student, and tech), this was certainly the earliest. To my employer’s credit, everyone felt so bad about the hours that they gave us a great breakfast buffet to choose from. And at least I wasn’t a manager–they had to be there at 6:30.

As for the actual tech support, it was not as bad as I was worried it was going to be. The senior techs were sharing horror stories before the weekend began (think pirated foreign-language copies of Windows that use non-Roman alphabets), but we were mostly dealing with OSX, thank god. The few foreign-language screens that I saw were in Korean, and they were mostly phone–changing it to English was easy enough.

The Korean phones did lead to one of my favorite Emory-tastic moments: a Korean international student having her phone set up for email by a Chinese international student tech. The discussion was in English, the screen was in Korean, and the router was in Georgia. Everyone walked away happy.

We were expecting the bad cases to happen on Saturday in the chaos of move-in. We were deceived. Instead, they dropped out of the ether on Sunday morning, when we had grown complacent.

One case in particular stood out: it took (all told) about $200 worth of labor to fix, and about four hours of in-person work. It was exhausting, and everyone was on edge by the end of it. A senior staffer took the case and had exactly the right personality to convince the folks involved (a student and a set of parents) that a) everything was going to be okay and b) we understood why they were frustrated. It seems like that would be easier to convey to people, but it is so, so hard (and so, so critical in university work). For bonus points, he did it without ever agreeing that we had broken the Office suite licensing on the computer (which we hadn’t, but which the parent blamed us for).

Many toasts were given in this man’s honor. I had a lovely chat with one of the parents about my major. Everything was okay.

The freshmen are kind of weird to see beginning their first year as I’m beginning my last. (At Emory. Not in, like, life.) They are so keyed up and so convinced that anything that does not go right right this minute will end in tragedy for them. They will never get the classes they want, and they will die alone. More importantly, they won’t get into med school.

And I sympathize with that, sort of. They have no way of knowing what parts of the 900 things that they’re being told will be important, and what parts of the 900 things will never come up after orientation weekend. And there is no sense of perspective: this is the thing that they’ve been training for since they were four, and they can’t fuck it up now. (It is the same way that many folks I know were about grad school until about three months ago when we all moved off campus and lost the will to care/adopted pets/started drinking legal beer.)

It was good to see the freshmen in all their wigged-out, keyed-up glory. It was a nice reminder of why I should get excited about the school year (and a terrifying reminder that it’s coming up*). It was also a good indication that the things that seem like Super Big Deals (see: my thesis) right now are going to be laughably stupid in like six months.

So, weekend tech employment: granting perspective and approximately $120. Not a bad tradeoff, even if I will never do it again.

* After I wrote this sentence, I realized that school starts in three days and nearly fainted. What? How did that happen? I am not ready.

Check out these move-in tips on UPenn’s Housing website, print out parking passes in advance at Campus Express, and have your belongings boxed up neatly for easier move-ability. FH will have a table staffed with RAs and GAs right in the front of the Quad. We are there to answer your on-the-fly questions and supply you with iced coffee and lemonade for fuel!

See this cart? It’s your new best friend. These babies help make the moving process so much better – just load them up with your stuff and wheel them to the front door of your building! Carts are available for check out from the Information Center for 1 hour blocks of time. Please be advised that almost all of the rooms in FH are only accessible by steps. Don’t despair! The flights aren’t so bad and it will be over before you know it. Then you’ll say your goodbyes and the thrilling rollercoaster ride that is New Student Orientation will begin!

(Still packing? Here is Housing’s list of most essential things to bring with.)

So, after Katie’s parents’ credit cards were flagged for a $200+ grocery bill and gas (God forbid they get back to Rochester) and Ashlee’s left her with a bunny she’d previously abandoned at their house, being the adults we were, we decided to make our dinners for the week. Ashlee cooked up her meat while Katie portioned hers out for the freezer. Exhausted from all the shopping and arranging, they wondered what the delicious smell swirling around the apartment was.

Snapshot of the discussion:

“Whatever they’re cooking upstairs smells really good.”– Katie.

“You’re right. I wonder what they’re cooking.”–Ashlee

“It smells like sweet potatoes.”–Katie

“I think it’s banana bread.”–Ashlee

2 hours later:

“Shit, I forgot about the pork chops!”–Ashlee

“Yeah, I wondered about that.”–Katie

Emanating from the oven was no longer the aromatic scent of peach pork chops, but rather it was crispy, black goo, of what was once peaches and pork chops.

Oven: 1  Ashlee: 0  Katie: -1 9×13 glass pan

SCRANTON — Boxes and boxes of stuff, suitcases full of clothes, bins filled with school supplies.

It’s royal move-in day here at the University of Scranton.

Hundreds of freshman packed the halls for the start of the year.

And to the surprise of many parents and students. Were welcomed with door to door service by hundreds of volunteers.

“It took five hours to pack that truck, it took ten minutes for them to unpack it, so we’re thrilled,” said Dara Mastrodomenico, a parent.

The volunteers are part of the purple people helpers, students who helped the freshman move in all of their belongings.

As soon as students arrive, the movers jump right in and start carting items to their rooms.

The volunteers say they know what it’s like to have to move their stuff on their own.

“I really appreciated it last year it’s so much easier and it’s fun, especially seeing the dad’s faces, they love it, so they don’t have to do all the work,” said Megan Rohleder, a volunteer.

And it’s such a big help students said, especially when you’re in the car for several hours. The volunteers make moving somewhat enjoyable.

“They do it all, my bins are pretty heavy, I’m glad i don’t have to lift those,” Amanda Daru, a freshman.

“It makes it so much easier they just came and took everything out of our car, and it was done in two minutes so it was great,” said Megan Zimmerman, a freshman.

Since I’m an Honors Program mentor I got to move in before my other roomies and practically more than half of the school. Everyone is moving in today so there are boxes and crap all through the kitchen and living room. Not really excited, just apprehensive about new roommates since I’ve had so many bad situations in the best. Who knows, this year could go smoothly in that area.

On top of moving in, I’ve spent the past four days cramming in Honors Program events. They lasted pretty much all day. Tuesday we had all day orientation where we had a trainer from The Mentoring Partnership of Southwestern Pennsylvania come and do a presentation for us. We learned about what role a mentor plays and how a mentor relationship is different from natural relationships (friends, parents, etc). It was really interested and a good learning experience.

After the presentation we had a free lunch…WOOT. The Honors Program is well-known for providing free food during their events so I devoured some delicious R&B’s Pizza (best pizza in downtown and my personal favorite). When we were done chowing down, we learned how to make towels animals for our resident mentees. I made two towel dogs and one towel elephant. They were kinda cool but kinda cheesy…meh oh well. We also put together some goodies bags for all of the new Honors students.

While delivering the goodies to their rooms I met one of my mentees on the elevator so that was cool.

On Wednesday we had the new Honors students move in so we helped them out with that and set up a move in table where we gave them their room keys and all that fun moving in stuff. Later that night we had an orientation dinner in the park. They served sandwiches and salads. A bit informal, but the food was good. We were supposed to play a group game but most of the kids bailed so it never happened. This is where everyone got to meet their mentees, but a lot of them didn’t show up. I only met one of mentees there and the mentee I met on Tuesday was there as well.

After the dinner another mentor and I took some of the mentees on a walk all around downtown which was a lot of fun. I was able to get to know some of the new students and they were able to learn about the city so it was a win/win situation.

Thursday we did a City As text activity which is where all the mentee groups paired up and toured different sections of Pittsburgh. After touring around the groups came back to school and put a presentation together to give the next morning to fellow Honors students. My group got downtown so again I walked all over downtown and North Shore showing kids around. It was a beautiful day and I had a pretty good time, plus we had some bangin grub at Mullen’s.

Friday morning we had the City As Text presentations and then we did a community service activity with the Animal Rescue League. Near the school we had cuddle a kitty for a dollar and in Market Square we had pet a puppy for a dollar. We also had a pet gift basket raffle for $1. It went really really well and I think we made a lot of money for ARL. People in the city really responded to seeing cute little kitties and puppies in the middle of downtown ha.

That was the last long day of Honors Program activities and events so now I have all weekend to chill out and the first day of class on Monday to look forward too. I’m not completely done with my room, but when I am, I will defiantly post pictures.

Toodles for now!

PS. I almost forgot to mention that in September I’m having a back to school giveaway in honor of the blogs belated one year anniversary. I know I’m way late on the giveaway considering the anniversary date was August 8, but hey, its free stuff. Keep checking back to hear more.

Since I worked my job until virtually the last possible minute, I left myself only about three/four days to prepare for the move. I had to buy a new duvet, lamp, and some food-related stuff; however, a lot of what I brought last year I was able to take it with me this semester as well. This move was also much smoother because I took so much less.

I started by packing my clothes, leaving out only enough for me to wear in the days leading up to the move-in.

(Side note: living an hour away from home gives me the luxury of keeping my winter clothes there! That’s why everything fit so nicely into a mere two containers.)

Next came all the “stuff”: essentially, anything that wasn’t grocery-related. Notebooks, paper, lotion, my Keurig…you get the gist. This process was a bit…messier.

Needless to say, I had a pretty full trash bag at the end of that day! After all of that, my mom and I went grocery shopping and picked up some necessities – K-Cups for coffee, tissues, soap, etc. Then I moved everything downstairs and processed to condense this…

…into 5 Rubbermaid containers, one small rolling cart, and a very large Space Saver bag (which I TOTALLY recommend!). My dad was sure to bring along our own dolly – another heavy recommendation, as any rentable moving carts are likely limited and first-come-first-serve. We got everything up in two short trips, and then it was just a matter of setting up our room!

I have a little more set up than is pictured, as I took these pictures briefly after moving in, but this gives you the general feel for my room.

Speaking of which, I am aware that some incoming freshmen or first-year dorm-dwellers are probably uncertain about what their room may look like. To add some perspective, although I am a sophomore, this dorm is considered a “freshman” dorm, as a majority of first years at my school are housed here. It is VERY large (something like 3,000 students) and my particular floor is one of a select few that are newly renovated. I lived on a non-renovated floor last year, and though this is a definite improvement from such, I had no problem with the 40-odd-years-old room for my first two semesters. The closet is small, the storage space is somewhat “odd”, but everything is totally doable. My best advice would be to simply keep an open mind about what you can expect, and ultimately, prepare for the worst! Better to be pleasantly surprised than mortified. Besides, it’s not the end of the world if you don’t like it – at the end of the day, it’s not your forever home, it’s just a room.

I woke up around 6:30am to move in at 10:30am… make sure you give yourself enough time! Packing the car is a huge pain in the ass, and I can’t tell you how complicated it can be if you don’t get it right the first time.

Get ready the night before. Seriously. Do all of your nightly routines earlier and do some of your morning ones as well. Shower, dry your hair, pack, masturbate, whatever it is that you do, do it then. You will save yourself so much time and energy.

Packing. Pack the essentials first. This includes large containers for storage, toiletries, textbooks, school supplies, and clothes. Your decor is pretty essential, but definitely can go last (plus, you want delicate things to go on top so that way they have less of a chance of being damaged during your trip to school). When packing your clothes, it really depends where you’re going and how far from home you are. If you’re like me, you probably have 18 gajillion clothes for each week of the year. If you’re far from home, choose a few of your favorite outfits. Honestly, I had three suitcases, but one of those was filled with jeans, capris, and shorts, one with sweatshirts and jackets, and the last with tops and dresses. If you’re close to home like me, you can always take a few outfits for the first month of school when it’s still warm but will start to cool down, and then switch some out when you go home. I brought late summer-mid-fall clothes with me so, hopefully, I will be set when I get into mid to late-October. I also packed basic jewelry, entertaining books, decorations, pictures of family & friends, tissues, laundry equipment (including a hamper), hair products, and a printer (definitely leaving out a few things in here, but you get the idea). Drew provides a laptop to every student, so I didn’t need to bring one of those!

Arriving on Campus. I cannot stress this enough: Have all of your paperwork done and handed in ON TIME. I checked and double-checked that I had everything done and I STILL was not done. I got to campus and the line was seriously out the gate filled with cars, but be patient! The lines move quickly. Anyway, once I went to check in, they found that I was missing a certain form that would wave me from their health insurance. Don’t bother with the school’s health insurance if you already have it! Drew requires health insurance for all of their students and will provide it. However, you have the option to waive it if you have your own, and if so, you will have $1,000 taken off your bill. Sweet! But alas, I did not get this done before coming here. So after forty minutes of sitting in the business office, everything was complete and I was able to check in and start the actual moving in process. I also was able to get my student ID, which will be used to get into buildings, certain events, the gym, check out books from the library, and scan to get meals at the dining hall.

Pack rat. I have so much shit in this tiny space it’s not even funny. My roommate and I coordinated so our bedding colors match and so do our decor. It’s very cute! You probably won’t have much time to unpack while your parents are still there (there are other activities after the move in and check in process, so you may be whisked away to those). If you stay close to home, suitcases work well, HOWEVER, be warned: if you don’t have time to unpack, they can and WILL take up space in your room. Lesson learned… next time, I will use garbage bags, which are cheap, sturdy, compact, and disposable!

My roommate’s name is Shar and she’s very sweet! We haven’t had a massive amount of time to bond, but we have a lot in common. We didn’t pick each other out beforehand, meaning, we didn’t request to room together, the school put us together. Don’t listen to all of the horror stories people will tell you! Poor rooming situations do happen, but your school will probably put a significant amount of effort into making sure you and your roommate have things in common and similar living habits. Trust me, this is just as important to them as it is to you, because they don’t want to deal with roommate changes. No one does.