Mercer Family Weekend

At 3 something a.m., we loaded into the car and headed South - Mariah, Gib, Mike and I to visit Indie on the occasion of Mercer's Family Weekend. We've been looking forward to this since drop off day! We did not want to take 2 cars, and Taryn did not to be squished in the middle of the back seat. So she decided to attend to employment and a dance on Saturday night. She is going to hold out until fall break to see her sister.

We arrived around 10 at the college, with the hour time change for Georgia. Oh, and a change of clothes for me. I decided I didn't want to be all wrinkly when I got there and since I had to get out of bed at 2 a.m. I just figured I would go in my jammies. Hey, I wore the cutest ones I had. Yeah, they raised a few eyebrows.. you know, the kind where you can tell the gas station guy is wondering "are those clothes or pj's? she is wearing slippers, so..." I texted Indie and gave her a choice of seeing me sooner in my pj's or later if I changed. So we stopped and made the wardrobe change at the last rest stop before rolling into Macon. Nobody misses anybody THAT much!!

It was great to see Indie again! She looks wonderful. Sorry, no pictures!! We blew it and didn't take ANY!!!! I was so bummed when I realized that.

I really enjoyed it when people would call out to say Hi to her as we were walking along. It's great to see that in just 29 days she has a place on campus and a good group of friends. We did the morning session which was eminently miss-able, and then we ate lunch at the cafeteria which at the time I laughingly pointed out we almost always missed all the other times we've been there due to one reason or another. Turns out we wished we would have missed because it did not set well. I took one bite of the coleslaw and just knew not to eat it. Mike had already finished his. Big mistake. An hour later my stomach was churning so I took my always handy homeopathic for upset stomach. Took care of it like a charm.

We took Indie for a Poor College Student Target Run. She stocked up on necessities and some clearance rack clothes for a wilderness survival weekend trip coming up this Friday. She has to go with her Service Scholars for 2 nights sleeping on a tarp - no tent, no facilities, no make-up, no nothing! If you don't go you don't stay in SS. Mind you, this is SWAMP LAND Macon, GA. Way below the "Gnat Line" as my good ol' boy, redneck friend Ronnie explained to me; and is thick in the heart of what Indie has discovered to be giant-sized "Cockroach Kingdom". Down here in the South, there's a whole bunch of critters that don't even have names. I seriously remember when we moved here from Utah not recognizing half of the insect life and everyday going "Ewwww! What is THAT?!!?" So in an attempt to save my poor daughter's sanity (and mine) we Sawyered her up.
Jo Ann's husband Rulon turned me on to this stuff when he was our home teacher and I was going on and on about surviving the "buggage" at Girls Camp and if I would go or not because of it. This is the famous "Line of Death" stuff I used across my platform tent opening. A cockroach walked across the line minutes after I sprayed it and the nasty critter keeled over before it even got all it's feet across the line. HooYah! Nothing bothers you and if it tries...it dies. What a great motto. It should be on the front of the box. It doesn't just repel, it kills. We put it on all of Gib's clothes and gear and he has never had a bite or a tick or anything on all of his scouting trips. That huge Caution that is usually really small on boxes...yeah, it's highly toxic during the application process, but well worth it if you don't want to sleep with things crawling on you or pick ticks off ya. So before we left on Sunday we had Mike spray it all over Indie's sleeping bag, shoes and the Target clothes she bought for the special wilderness experience! She can hardly wait! She has enough to share with Lauren so her sleeping bag is a Line of Death zone too.

After we returned from the Target run, we went to a volleyball game. Mercer lost to East Tennessee. Mariah enjoyed watching the college girls play. Indie's room had people in it, and she is super considerate of them, but unfortunately they haven't returned the favor yet, so we went in search of an empty lounge to hang out in/nap, while Indie got ready for our evening out with Anthony and his folks. By then, Mike was in a world of hurt from the Fresh Food Company lunch and was popping some of my homeopathic meds too. We finally found a sofa across campus by the mailboxes and texted Indie to let her know where she could find us all asleep when she was ready to go. Isn't that special?! Gib was O-U-T let me tell you!!! I didn't think Mike was going to make it, but he was determined not to miss the evening with Anthony's family. So he popped a few more of my miracle in a bottle pills, and we took off for Loco's. We had such a fantastic time, I'm glad Mike survived. Anthony is Indie's best friend on campus and I can see why. A very nice & fun guy, easy to talk to, and his parents are the same. We had dinner and talked for a couple of hours. We kept laughing at the situation of poor Anthony's roommate, who is just a bit of a pest. Anyway, his parents ditched him shortly into the Family Weekend soon after discovering he had joined a fraternity and had tons of hickies all over his neck. Everytime Anthony's mom repeated the look of horror on the other mother's face when she saw the hickies on her sons neck we busted up in giggles all over again. I guess it's a mother thing of thank-goodness-it-wasn't-one-of-ours laugh!! I mean, how sad is it that your love is that conditional though. I felt really sorry for him that his folks just up and left him because of that. There'll be alot more of that behavior not less as a result of that kind of love.

Before we left on Sunday, we had a nice brunch with Indie at Olive Garden. She enjoyed getting off campus for another meal of real food. We enjoyed some family time with just us and laughing at Mariah's expense all weekend long over a bunch of silly stuff like the big smile on her face as I was passing her my lemon and then she dropped it in chocolate sauce. Poor Mariah, it's tough being youngest and the source of great amusement for us all. On the plus side, you'll be laughing at us and our Depends panty lines and tripping us in our walkers long before you will need one.

We had a great visit with Indie and really enjoyed meeting her friends. It was good to see her in her new home away from home. She is doing well. She has a ton of work to do coming up. Papers, tests and the dreaded survival weekend...it's going to be a mega-busy week. But she can do it! We have faith in her!

Now the drive home...the details would take up a whole 'nother blog!! Let's just say, we're glad we made it. Our new code names are King of Denial and Queen of Pessimists. I'm going to google "unexplained ear shrieking noise emitted from unknown part of car while driving under water" There was 4" rain on the road in a torrential downpour in the absolute worst part of Chattanooga. We had to pull over several times on the way home. We turned everything off and stopped and started the car several times, checked everything but the noise kept returning. When it finally stopped (after it stopped raining), a strange smoke, mist or condensation, or was it possibly carbon monoxide? (depending on whether you side with the King or Queen cast your vote now) started coming out from the air conditioner. The only good thing about the drive home was that it wasn't boring and because we had a sunroof the carbon monoxide was allowed to escape thus ensuring our very survival.

Taryn (and probably more likely Grammy!) - thanks for taking care of the the cats! Good job returning the house to it's former glory so it would look like you never even had a house party! Good job girl!!!

Indie - we love you and thanks for sharing your campus, friends and college experiences with us!!! Good luck with your workload this week and surviving this weekend!!