Life and such: Reunion Class of '52 Day One

I got up relatively early and found mom already awake. I hope she got some sleep. I actually slept pretty well, which is unusual the night before leaving for a trip. But I felt pretty prepared and thought that 2 hours would be plenty to get the final touches accomplished before hitting the road. My tasks - make some lunch, clean out the car, pack the car and get mom in the car with everything she wanted and needed for the trip. I mostly succeeded.

Sadly, I forgot to follow up with mom's packing of her morning ablutions stuff - after we got that cool bag from Rite-Aid and everything. Oh well. As I tell mom, we aren't on the moon, so all of that stuff is easily purchased. I also forgot to pack a sweater/jacket sort of thing that she wanted to take. Oops. Other than that, at noon, we were sort of ready to go. We did have a few last minute things to handle, but nothing major. Yay!

On the way out of town, quick stop at the library to drop off an audio book, and then through the mail street (Linden) to drop off some mail.

The drive was uneventful and easy. No major traffic snares, not much in the way of precipitation. We stopped at a rest stop for a break, and to eat a little. And to get gas. Note to self (and anyone else who drives on the NYS Thurway): Indian Castle Service Area has the most expensive gas on the highway! Glarp!

The GPS took us directly to Alumnae House and there was a parking spot right in front! Yippee! Unfortunately, though we had paid for two people, they had only reserved us one room. With one twin bed. I love my mom, but not quite in that way. So they gave us a second room, which, fortuitously was only one door down! Yay! I do, though, get to walk up two flights of stairs to the bathrooms since the other residents of the floor (for the most part) are not used to Uni-sex bathrooms.

We have house guards all the time. Young students who are earning a little money. The first day we had three - one from Afghanistan (who made my bed) - one from Greece and one from Burma! Later, we had a nice young woman from Sierra Leone!

Dinner was at the Northampton Hotel. Weirdly arranged. Cash bar - yet there was only one bartender who was not very fast. And because of some MA regulation, one was only allowed to buy two drinks at a time. Grrr. The tables were in an upstairs dining room - fairly small and packed tightly together. The food was ok at best. The managers on duty finally found a cocktail server who was allowed to "run" alcoholic beverages. It took forever to get one. I ordered a beer with my salad and it came as I was eating my ice cream. All in all, not great service-wise, but that wasn't the point. The point was for people to be able to sit together and chat. And that worked out well!

We got back to the dorm around 9:30. I gt mom situated and then headed downtown for beer before bed. I found a nice place (which had been suggested by the Hotel staff) that had 44 taps! I had a delicious St. Ambrose Oatmeal Stout on nitrogen. Yay!

Long day, short night. More tomorrow!