Two Days before Anna leaves....August 21, 2016

In less than 48 hours, we will be on our way to Boston, to drop Anna off at college.  All of the shopping (most of which took place within the last 4 days....and the actual dorm room shopping literally took 35 minutes at Target on Thursday...), and all the years in preparing Anna for her life, will come to a close, largely, on Tuesday.

I wrote about dropping off Jack, in a post two years ago, almost to the day, which I called 7 Piles of Laundry.    Dropping off Jack was so different for me.   I was really excited for him. This time it seems so much more difficult.   Jack is different, and Anna seems to be going so far away, although she is actually much closer than Jack is, and it is so much easier to go up to Boston to see her, or to visit her.  

When I dropped off Jack, I kind of knew that it was the end of that special family unit.  In fact, when my children asked me who would upset me the most, I always said Jack, because that would be the beginning of the end.   Of course, we still see Jack, but last summer he spend several weeks in Rome, and this summer, he spent all but two weeks in Green Bay, and he already knows he will be in Pittsburgh next summer working for another company (My lord, those engineers really make great money and have no problem getting jobs!)

So, now the time before Anna leaves is being counted in hours.  Today, she was on her bed counting her money (which I figured out that she should deposit into a new bank tomorrow which also exists in Boston so she can use an ATM machine in Boston to take out money without having any problem) and I yelled up "Anna, you have to go to the mall to get those sneakers...you are leaving here in less than 48 hours!"

So, now the countdown begins.  Like a condemned prisoner, waiting for the hour of execution, I watch the clock count down, knowing each tick of the clock takes me closer to the moment when I say goodbye to Anna.   Okay, that may sound a little dramatic, but I have a clock here next to me that is ticking away....and I do kind of feel that way.