Not Exactly A Five Star Hotel

Entry 1

I lost my first entry in the ether. 

Willow is in love with the dog sitter. This is amazing news for me. She keeps sitting on her lap. Willow has been on several long walks, which just makes it even better.

We stayed in Swansea last night and met up with Amy, "I'm not your therapist" Lanham and her husband Mark. Abby had shipped a ton of things to them and we went to retrieve them. They fed us pizza and showed up their new giant home. Their basement is about 1600 square feet. The place is beautiful and the sound of crickets coupled with the blue moon took me back to summers in Massachusetts with Jenny--visiting her grandmother and aunts.

We stayed at the Swansea Holiday Inn Express-sparing no expense on this trip. It was fine, although it clearly has seen its better days. I love quirky, and was surprised to find the painted ceiling in the storage room, a kind of rural, trailer park homage to the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

ROAD TRIP!

Somehow, after much repacking and reshuffling, everything fit. We drove what seemed like forever after leaving Swansea, going through Rhode Island on our way to South Hadley. We ended up at the wrong Hampton Inn, around 12:30, but didn't discover that until much later. Realizing we had hours before we could check in, we ventured to lunch in South Hadley.

Abby wanted to eat lunch at the same place she and I visited last summer on our tour, a place called Johhny's Bar and Grill, which sits directly across from campus. Afterward, we visited the Odyssey bookstore and got some merchandise before heading over to campus. As we were walking along, a woman on the phone with her mother, turned and asked if she could be of any help. Abby declined, but I asked where
Mandell Dormitory

Abby's dorm is located. The woman (who told us she was Francesca from Miami), excited she had just been selected as a campus tour guide, offered to show us. She led us up to the bridge  we needed to cross to get to Abby's dorm. She talked with Abby all the way there, while Jane, Leiney and I held back. Once near the bridge, Francesca handed us off to an RA to the dorm next to Abby's.

Tomorrow's the big move-in day. I can't wait.








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