This evening had a nice road trip down to Buies Creek to attend Campbell’s street fair along the main street of the campus near the camel sculpture.
The getting there was a bit more interesting than it probably should have been as it was rush hour in the greater Raleigh area so the obvious brilliant play was to bugger off for the back roads of Johnston County and avoid the traffic.
Well, that kind of worked but not until dealing with occasional tailbacks as we worked our way over to NC-210 and being a bit overeager in making a left turn that dumped us into a neighbourhood ending in a cul-de-sac. Whoopsie! Fortunately, this navigational faux pas was sorted fairly quickly and we eventually made it over I-40 (at exit 319) on NC-210 and once we were past NC-50, we were able to put our foot down and make up some time along the Old Stage Road.
Fortunately, the parking gods were smiling upon us and we got a decent spot with just a short walk to the main street which was closed off by the coppers and then there was Katie all in black with a bit of orange proclaiming her Camel-ness. 🙂
She was very definitely a very beautiful sight for these so very sore eyes!
Turning out of the car park a few days ago was hard enough but resisting the urge to text her or call her over the entire weekend until we were on the way this evening was absolutely excruciating.
It wasn’t that I didn’t *WANT* to.
But I’d promised myself that I’d move heaven and earth to ensure that she’d have the weekend to herself to be able to settle in and get to know her roommates and just generally enjoy the freedom and joy that comes from finally being “on her own” without me hovering about or bugging her about the details.
And so it was that I’d see the phone and then the urge to text her would start welling up like a newly drilled oil well about to blow it’s top and it took every ounce of willpower I had and more than a few pounds of that magical substance I didn’t know was there to put the thing away and find something…*ANYTHING*…to distract me until the feeling subsided.
Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
The. Whole. Bloody. Weekend.
I wouldn’t wish that upon my worst enemy. Seriously…it was brutal!
When Monday came round, the usual weekly routines involving two labradoodles and Alex made it much easier but I still missed her terribly. Looking over to the sofa where she’d normally curl up for a bit of a nap with Mistletoe perched above her head on the top of the sofa guarding her like a Siamese cat and not seeing her there kind of sucked.
Funny thing that…I just noticed that Mistletoe hasn’t been up on her perch or even on that sofa ever since Katie left for Campbell.
I do have to say that Mistletoe has certainly handled the change much better than I’d imagined she would. Mind you, there have been plenty of times where she made me think about offering the Oxford Dictionary of the English Language a picture of her when she’s rocking the *PATHETIC* as a sample illustration but then she turns her attention to fighting with Mocha and I’m guessing that’s her way of distracting herself from not having Katie readily available.
So yeah…I was definitely looking forward to seeing Katie this evening and it sure didn’t disappoint.
The street fair is actually a rather brilliant idea where all of the various campus clubs and organisations and more than a few local churches could make their pitch for interested students. Alex certainly took full advantage of bogarting as much swag from the booths as he could get away with!
We did meet up with Miss Lindsay (Katie’s new roommate) and it does seem that they’re getting on quite well with each other. It seems that the quad they share across an interconnecting washroom seemed to sort out the roommates between the giggling and gregarious and always with the ready wit and conversation (that’d be Katie and Miss Lindsay) and the more reserved ones in the other room.
We had a picnic starting with the haute cuisine of Brightleaf hot dogs (well, Katie and Alex did…if I’m doing a hot dog, it’s going to be a Nathan’s or a Hebrew National and that only about once every ten years!).
The culinary hit turned out to be one of the churches that was rocking four pots frying up some fries that they were pushing through what looked like a horizontal meat grinder. They’d pop the spud in the chamber and bring down the handle and out would come perfectly sliced fries.
That booth was very popular and you’d think the cooking time of fries would be a limiting factor but they did an amazing job keeping the fries coming!
Sadly, all good things must come to an end and it was time for us to head back toward Clayton and Raleigh and leave Katie to head on back to Burkot Hall and get herself sorted for her first classes starting the next day at 1000 hours.
As Julia and Alex were making the turn round the arena to head back to the Traverse, I’m sure they were wondering why I’d stopped and was looking in the opposite direction.
I was trying to see Katie one last time in the last rays of the sunlight of the day and sure enough after a bit of a squint, I could see her across the street making her way toward the other traffic circle near her dorm.
She was walking along as if she was completely comfortable in her new home and ready to take on what challenges may come her way. I’m sure the realities of how much of a difference real college is from high school will come soon enough but for now, that’s one Camel on the march to her future.
Seeing that was worth a couple of tears of joy (and I am *NOT* ashamed to admit to them!) knowing that she’s where she needs to be and that I could turn the Traverse away this time with some measure of peace until the next time our paths may cross.