...In which our heroine has two weeks.

I knew this was going to happen.

I knew that as soon as I got back from Lollapalooza, the reality of leaving for college would set in. It really struck me this morning as Cassie and I drove back from Clifton in the twilight of dawn today, the silence speaking volumes. Driving through the dawn past exits, all various paths leading to home that I've known for the past eighteen years that are soon to become not commonality, but simply a memory of "my hometown," I felt the shift. She knew, and I knew, that our times together were coming to an end. At least the times as we've known them for the past four years.

Mom knew when she started crying when we went to go buy jeans at the mall last week. She knew it was our last real time of back to school shopping, and that she'd never have to bitch again about going to the mall to buy clothes for the school year.

Dad knew when we stayed up having one of our epic father/daughter chats the night I got back from Lolla until 2 AM. It was us talking about music--me about the weekend, him as always showing me relics from a bygone time (Frank Zappa videos.) He told me he's worried about whose going to keep him cool once I leave.

Both grandmothers and an aunt and uncle knew this week as they offered to hang out--go to dinner or walk around, just to spend time.

...Now I'm sad. Reality has crept up on me as I washed my college linens or bought pasta in bulk for the dorm. Of course I'm excited but now the true gravity of my leaving has snuck up, seemingly overnight. It doesn't help that getting my wisdom teeth out will put a damper on the last week at home.

Of course music tells the truth about how I feel--"Every new beginning comes from some other new beginning's end." I wrote my last Odin's piece with that line in it but now as it becomes true, I am a little bummed that life as I've known it is indeed ending.

But then I look at the Weeks of Welcome events at Columbia, or think about how nice it'll be to not have to get up before eight for school ever again, and I feel better. I think about all the cool movies we're going to watch on Kathleen's (a roommate) projector or what posters are going up in my dorm room. I think about all the new beginnings on the way and I don't feel so bad.

At least not that bad.