When my nephew decided that he would attend the University of Michigan, I didn’t realize how much that would affect Inday.  I was happy for him, of course, but it seemed a distant reality.  A few months, my sister called to ask me to be part of the move-in committee.  And yes, I am kaladkarin and chiching, I said, “Ok.” And so here I am in Ann Arbor, Michigan, ensconced in my queen sized bed at the Red Roof Inn writing this entry.

I arrived in New York on Monday afternoon and by 6am was heading back to the airport for our flight to Detroit.  In between, we finished packing our bags, had dinner at Ippudo and got caught up with each other’s lives.  Of course, I had no sleep that night so I was looking forward to the flight.  We landed in Detroit with no hassle…or so we thought.  We had recovered five of our six bags from the carousel, when it suddenly stopped and the sign flashed “Complete!” Wait, where’s my bag???  Yes my bag, with all my clothes, computer and cell phone chargers, plus some of my nephews things were lost.  We filed a report with Delta and with American Express and then crossed our fingers and headed to the rental car office.

Whenever I visit San Francisco I always drive myself around (as well as drive my brother crazy) but given the convenient location of my brother’s place, I hadn’t had to drive on the freeway in years.  But this time, I was going to drive from Detroit to Ann Arbor, neither of which I had ever visited.  We rented a Ford Edge, a car I had never driven.  So, armed with lots of prayers, high blood medication and with fingers crossed we were off.   Thankfully, we arrived at the University of Michigan without incident, my legs were cramping from tension, but we survived the drive and soon we were in my nephew’s dorm room unpacking.  It went smoother than we thought it would and before we knew it were on our way to Target for some last minute shopping and also to buy some “just in case they don’t find my bags” clothes.  Not satisfied with our purchases, we also stopped by Bed, Bath & Beyond for more stuff.  And then went back to the dorm room for more organizing.  By the time we left the campus it was already around 9pm and it was raining pretty hard.  So imagine my inner voice shrieking in panic and my inner second voice reciting every prayer I had ever learned.  By the time we arrived at the hotel, I was just about ready to cry.   Until my sister told me that the airline found the bag.  Whoohooo!

Day 2 meant returning all the things we bought for me in Target, plus more dorm stuff for the boy.  And then it was time to buy the all-important TV.  We were so proud of ourselves for the rewards and freebies we got from Best Buy until we realized the speakers wouldn’t work.  So we headed back to the store, speakers in tow, and found out the problem was that we bought the wrong TV.  This meant a change in Day 3’s agenda.  What was supposed to be a leisurely day became a hectic one.  We had to bring the TV back to Best Buy, finish some bank stuff before returning the rental car.  But alas, we were running behind schedule, the return in Best Buy took longer than expected so we had to return the car and walk to the bank.  Google maps said it would be a 3 minute drive, so we thought “not a bad walk”.  It wouldn’t have been, but this all happened at 2pm when the sun was high up there so we were quite the sweaty bunch by the time we entered the bank.  The rest of the day meant souvenir shopping at M Den, a walk around the Central Campus and coffee at Starbucks.  We had our last dinner with the college boy before he headed to a party in school and we headed to bed.

And tomorrow, we leave the college boy behind and head to Chicago for more adventures and a well-deserved movers vacation

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That’s all for now….bow.