Knitting Therapy

Hanging out at Mac, moving my sister in. She's currently off at some orientating thingamabob, so I'm just sitting around, enjoying her wireless web access. In two very short weeks, I'll be the one hitting the road, off to Chi-town.



It's really weird, being the big sister, here. I don't do much big sistering, anymore, since I'm gone so often. The wee sister wasn't there to help me move in - she was in a play back home, and couldn't get to IA for the move-in day. But Mac's move-in is pretty crazy, unlike the ruralness of G-i-G. There are students out directing traffic, and the street that goes through THEIR campus is a heck of a lot busier than 8th. These kids actually have to look where they're going. It's like wo.

Her roommate is really shy, too. Just her dad drove her down from Oregon (reminding me a bit of my dear mindmaven's first Grinnell experience) but the roomie arrived quite late with only one load of stuff. Three boxes (quite small), one suitcase (not nearly so large as Bertha. Maybe half a Bertha), and her cello. I wish I could pack that spartanly!

Instead, I've got the three tubs and the underbed storage container stacked in the basement, and the two boxes stacked next to them, all packed already. I won't be taking Bertha, but the regular suitcase is ready to be loaded with summer clothes, and the winter clothes are in the tubs. I'm trying to organise - my I-house room has a bookshelf (yayy!) but I have no clue what size it'll be. I might be trapped in a room smaller than the second year one on H3 that was really only single sized anyway.

And the sister has been worried. She's been so stressed out that she's stressing me out. I've done this moving thing before. Not to this extent, yes, not actually moving out without plans to move back in for the summer. But I went away for college, I did the adult thing, I spent months in London and came back in one piece. I worked for NBC for two weeks, crammed in a tiny hotel room with Shelly and gbuugg and got to work every morning on time, if not bright and bushy-tailed. I can do this. I don't need to be stressing about it, even if I know almost noone there, and have yet to really speak to Erin since the school year ended.

I worry I won't have time to write anymore, even if my writing is largely of the fanfiction variety, done for my benefit and never to see the publisher. I'm worried I'll be so busy with Arabic that I won't make friends, except for the seven other people in my classes, the twenty total in my programme. (Twenty! There are only twenty people in my programme! That's like being stuck for two years with half the GILers, and mindmaven and gbuugg remember how sick we got of them by the end of four blooming months!) I'm worried I won't have time to play with my lovely photoshop, or draw, and I'm not planning to take my paints with me. Perhaps I should take my guitar, since I won't have a piano nearby. Then, at least, I'd have music. I desperately want to join a choir, since I wouldn't have to have J.R. anymore, but would I even have time for that? Or to start swing dancing with Erin, or to track down some gamers so I won't go completely insane?

And what about the whole dating scene? Grinnell wasn't really the place for any of that. Evil, taken, or gay, (one or the other, or else they're your brother) the whole lot of them, so I haven't really gone on a date since You Know Who.

No. Not Voldemort. Though Tom Riddle really was a right sexy lego bastard. Eh, gbuugg?

So those are the worries, a whole pile. And I know I'll be fine. I'm just sick to death of the waiting game. I'm sick of mom and dad thinking about sending the sister off, and how to get her ready, and what she's worried about and what she fears. I've got a few things I could use, too, psychologically speaking. I'm starting a new thing just as much as she is, so it's natural that I'm jealous about how much attention she's getting. I'll get over it. Besides, starting tomorrow (after work) it's my turn to be the focus of getting ready. The two weeks of waiting are going to slip by ridiculously fast, I'm sure. It's already September. In no time at all, I'll be down in Chi-town unpacking my things. It's just going to be stressful until then.

I envy all of you already in Grinnell, already starting your classes, already sure about what's going on. I wish I were there. Miss you.