SUUSI, Day 1.
Jul. 21st, 2008 10:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivkaIt's actually a good thing I'm posting this morning instead of last night. I went to bed thinking, "Was SUUSI really a good idea?" This morning I remembered: Yeah. It totally is.
Wonder of wonders, we actually left Baltimore within 15 minutes of my target departure time. This has never happened since Alex was born. I attribute it to my father's presence - he took her for a walk around the block after breakfast, while Michael and I took care of final packing and loading. (It's a little bit of an act of faith, I must say, though, to send your three-year-old and your blind father off to explore the city together.)
The drive down was unremarkable except for one thing: we stopped for lunch in a little town off of I-81, and when we came out of the restaurant?![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bosssio and her son Anthony were right next to our car, getting something from theirs. Shock and amazement all around. We hadn't coordinated anything about our travel plans... sheer coincidence. Huh.
SUUSI's on a new campus this year: Radford University, about 15 miles south of our old site at Virginia Tech. The main draw of Radford is that it's a smaller campus that we have to ourselves - no other camps, conferences, or groups. The downside of Radford is that it's an entirely new campus for us - we don't know our way around at all. Also there is no sand volleyball court. Still reserving judgment about whether the downside or the upside predominates.
We arrived in Radford and found check-in without difficulty. Perhaps because the space was smaller and less optimally laid-out, check-in itself was much more confusing and disorganized than last year. We picked up registration packets, dropped the classes we were planning to drop (like, uh, my beer tasting), paid a cashier, picked up keys, linens, and meal cards, got our pictures taken for the Mugbook (by a professional photographer who just happens to come to SUUSI), checked Alex in at the youth table and got a Tyvek ankleband identifying her by last name and room number, and then Dad, Alex and I set off to find our dorms while Michael parked the car.
Our confirmation packets had assured us that a university employee would be in each dorm to answer questions or give directions. Ha. There was no one to be found, and no obvious person to call, as we tried to sort out issues like my father's missing pillow (they're supposed to be provided) and the mysterious absence of a kitchen in our dorm (it was supposed to have one, and I have medication that needs to be refrigerated). So the move-orient-unpack process was much more frustrating than it needed to be. Grr. On the upside, the older Alex gets the less luggage we need to bring to SUUSI. It was nice to not be juggling a portacrib and so forth.
Our room is small but adequate. We're on the first floor this year, which is nice, and we're surrounded by a bunch of people we know. The suite living rooms are sorely missed. Radford has two dorm rooms connected by a shared bath. It's nice to have a little more bathroom privacy, but it was great to have a living room so that you could, for example, put your kid to bed and then have a place to hang out while still supervising bedtime.
We went to dinner. Mass confusion. The dining hall just had SUUSI-ites, but it was enough smaller than Virginia Tech's commons that it still felt insanely crowded - plus, we didn't know where to find anything. Plus Alex had fallen into an incredibly annoying pattern of whining about being hungry when we weren't anywhere near meals, and then refusing to eat when we set a plate in front of her. I kind of bullied her into eating a little. I also ate a fish taco that was surprisingly good.
After dinner, the traditional SUUSI banner parade. It seemed to set off before everyone was ready and assembled, so there were lots of stragglers - making the whole thing less impressive. In keeping with this year's SUUSI theme of "Pilgrimage," the teens had assembled a sort of a Mayflower theme, wearing little white caps and carrying a banner that looked like a tall ship. We were drummed into the auditorium for Ingathering, and the banner carriers performed a lovely last-minute bit of choreography, sweeping down the aisles, crossing over, and weaving up the sides.
Ingathering was short and unremarkable, which was kind of nice. Afterward we formed two enormous concentric circles on the lawn, facing each other. The circles were broken at one point, and on each side of the break the inner and outer circles joined hands to make one enormous shape. Then we circled round until we'd come face-to-face with each of the other thousand-odd attendees. Alex spent the whole circle in Michael's arms with her head down on his shoulder, so I expected that we'd be taking her straight to bed afterwards. But when the circle broke up and the kids started running, she miraculously regained her energy. She sprinted around, enjoying the unaccustomed freedom and collecting vast quantities of pine cones in her skirt for reasons best known to herself.
Eventually we hauled her back to our room and went through the bedtime routine. Michael went off to the mandatory teen parent meeting (because of the teen from our church we're guardian-ing) and I stayed with Alex. She settled beautifully in her sleeping bag, looking at books, and didn't object when I went out to sit in the hall after about 15 minutes. Shortly thereafter, she was asleep.
I sat in the hallway, chatted a little withbosssio and a friend of hers from her home church, Brenna, updated my Participant Locator Form with our workshop locations, and did a little needlework. My first day at SUUSI had not been particularly fun, and I was tired. I went to bed around 10:30, to be woken at 1:30 because Alex had a nightmare and again at 2:30 because she had a prolonged coughing fit. Not a stellar start to a vacation.
But it gets better! Almost 4 hours into day 2, and I'm feeling perfectly content and happy. But that's a subject for tomorrow.
Wonder of wonders, we actually left Baltimore within 15 minutes of my target departure time. This has never happened since Alex was born. I attribute it to my father's presence - he took her for a walk around the block after breakfast, while Michael and I took care of final packing and loading. (It's a little bit of an act of faith, I must say, though, to send your three-year-old and your blind father off to explore the city together.)
The drive down was unremarkable except for one thing: we stopped for lunch in a little town off of I-81, and when we came out of the restaurant?
bosssio and her son Anthony were right next to our car, getting something from theirs. Shock and amazement all around. We hadn't coordinated anything about our travel plans... sheer coincidence. Huh.SUUSI's on a new campus this year: Radford University, about 15 miles south of our old site at Virginia Tech. The main draw of Radford is that it's a smaller campus that we have to ourselves - no other camps, conferences, or groups. The downside of Radford is that it's an entirely new campus for us - we don't know our way around at all. Also there is no sand volleyball court. Still reserving judgment about whether the downside or the upside predominates.
We arrived in Radford and found check-in without difficulty. Perhaps because the space was smaller and less optimally laid-out, check-in itself was much more confusing and disorganized than last year. We picked up registration packets, dropped the classes we were planning to drop (like, uh, my beer tasting), paid a cashier, picked up keys, linens, and meal cards, got our pictures taken for the Mugbook (by a professional photographer who just happens to come to SUUSI), checked Alex in at the youth table and got a Tyvek ankleband identifying her by last name and room number, and then Dad, Alex and I set off to find our dorms while Michael parked the car.
Our confirmation packets had assured us that a university employee would be in each dorm to answer questions or give directions. Ha. There was no one to be found, and no obvious person to call, as we tried to sort out issues like my father's missing pillow (they're supposed to be provided) and the mysterious absence of a kitchen in our dorm (it was supposed to have one, and I have medication that needs to be refrigerated). So the move-orient-unpack process was much more frustrating than it needed to be. Grr. On the upside, the older Alex gets the less luggage we need to bring to SUUSI. It was nice to not be juggling a portacrib and so forth.
Our room is small but adequate. We're on the first floor this year, which is nice, and we're surrounded by a bunch of people we know. The suite living rooms are sorely missed. Radford has two dorm rooms connected by a shared bath. It's nice to have a little more bathroom privacy, but it was great to have a living room so that you could, for example, put your kid to bed and then have a place to hang out while still supervising bedtime.
We went to dinner. Mass confusion. The dining hall just had SUUSI-ites, but it was enough smaller than Virginia Tech's commons that it still felt insanely crowded - plus, we didn't know where to find anything. Plus Alex had fallen into an incredibly annoying pattern of whining about being hungry when we weren't anywhere near meals, and then refusing to eat when we set a plate in front of her. I kind of bullied her into eating a little. I also ate a fish taco that was surprisingly good.
After dinner, the traditional SUUSI banner parade. It seemed to set off before everyone was ready and assembled, so there were lots of stragglers - making the whole thing less impressive. In keeping with this year's SUUSI theme of "Pilgrimage," the teens had assembled a sort of a Mayflower theme, wearing little white caps and carrying a banner that looked like a tall ship. We were drummed into the auditorium for Ingathering, and the banner carriers performed a lovely last-minute bit of choreography, sweeping down the aisles, crossing over, and weaving up the sides.
Ingathering was short and unremarkable, which was kind of nice. Afterward we formed two enormous concentric circles on the lawn, facing each other. The circles were broken at one point, and on each side of the break the inner and outer circles joined hands to make one enormous shape. Then we circled round until we'd come face-to-face with each of the other thousand-odd attendees. Alex spent the whole circle in Michael's arms with her head down on his shoulder, so I expected that we'd be taking her straight to bed afterwards. But when the circle broke up and the kids started running, she miraculously regained her energy. She sprinted around, enjoying the unaccustomed freedom and collecting vast quantities of pine cones in her skirt for reasons best known to herself.
Eventually we hauled her back to our room and went through the bedtime routine. Michael went off to the mandatory teen parent meeting (because of the teen from our church we're guardian-ing) and I stayed with Alex. She settled beautifully in her sleeping bag, looking at books, and didn't object when I went out to sit in the hall after about 15 minutes. Shortly thereafter, she was asleep.
I sat in the hallway, chatted a little with
bosssio and a friend of hers from her home church, Brenna, updated my Participant Locator Form with our workshop locations, and did a little needlework. My first day at SUUSI had not been particularly fun, and I was tired. I went to bed around 10:30, to be woken at 1:30 because Alex had a nightmare and again at 2:30 because she had a prolonged coughing fit. Not a stellar start to a vacation.But it gets better! Almost 4 hours into day 2, and I'm feeling perfectly content and happy. But that's a subject for tomorrow.
