With a 12 hour drive down to Georgia staring us in the face, we woke up last Wednesday morning at 5 am, hoping to beat the traffic around Washington DC. We had packed everything the night before, and we were on our way south by 5:30 in the morning. Traffic was heavy, but it was still moving along at that time of the morning.
We crossed the Potomac River at 6:30. In the picture on the right, you can see the cranes working on new construction at National Harbor, just as the sun is beginning to peek over the horizon. In spite of the very early hour, the crews were already at work, and the cranes were moving things around as we passed by. We were hoping to make it down to my Mom's house a little after 7. She lives south of Washington and north of Richmond, and we were hoping to have some breakfast with her while we waited out the Richmond morning traffic.
We stopped at a couple of Starbucks for caffeination on the way down. Don't you love the bike racks out front? I love how Starbucks goes about finding ways to support artists and keep them in business. You and I see a cute sculpture. A working artist sees this as a commission that will go towards paying the rent, and will keep them in business. It's funny weird when you think of it that way, isn't it? 
Finally, we arrived in Georgia. I love the tree lined streets here, and the moss covered trees. I wouldn't want to live here, mind you. The humidity is freaking horrible, and I would melt. Literally. Since the humidity is so high, there is no place for your sweat to go. It just stays on you. The day we got down there, the temperature was over 90, and so was the humidity. Oh yeah, now I remember why there's a demarcation line that I will NEVER move south of - the North/South Carolina border! Did I mention the bugs? The south has some pretty serious bugs. They don't get killed off by the frosts down there. Another reason I live in Maryland. It's nice to be reminded of these things once in a while!
We moved daughter into her dorm. These dorms were originally an old motel, and they have been converted into college dorm rooms. So, if you think of an old motel filled with 2 double beds and room to walk around, and then take out the motel furniture, you've actually got a pretty spacious room! When we walked into the room, husband and I were pacing it out. We both lived in the old dorms at Virginia Tech, and my dorm room, fronting the drillfield was smaller than his. Even so, her room, shared with one other person is the same size as 4 of the dorm rooms in my old building. Am I jealous? Ummm.... yes.. The hallways are hallways - nothing exciting going on there. Since every room has it's own bathroom, every floor is coed by room. Very different experience from when we went to school! Girls dorms and boys dorms back then! Not even co-ed by floor! The picture below shows the area around her drafting table and dresser. There's room for a really big area rug on the floor - and her bed is on the other side of the room.
Funny story here - when we were moving daughter in, we noticed a young man trying to shove a wheeled cart into one of the doors, even though there was stuff hanging out of the right side of the cart, he kept pushing and pushing the cart into the door and it kept bouncing back. I looked at husband and muttered "Art School NOT Engineering School". We assume that young man is not going into sculpture or architecture....
Lastly, this tower of books in the book store really caught my eye. All of these books are withdrawn library books from the local public library. They are old volumes of U.S. Laws. I know that these were added to the online collection at the Law Library of Congress not all that long ago. I'm just really glad to know that the books still exist, and that they are being treated as the works of art that they are. The information contained inside of them is still valuable - and in this installation, it might not be immediately accessible, but it is available. (Librarian rant. I'll expand upon this at some future point.)
Husband and I left on Saturday afternoon and began the long drive home. We stopped on the road Saturday night and then got home on yesterday afternoon in time to watch the Ravens lose.
Her classes start today! Here's hoping to a fantastic semester for her and all of the class of 2019 - wherever they may be!
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