I guess it could be one of the parental rights of passage. The dreaded freshman college drop-off day. It dreaded for several reasons. One, the kids shouldn't be or isn't ready to go. Two, the parents aren't ready for them to go. Three, there's just to much stuff. And four, it's not easy especially if you're coming from a distance or air travel is involved.
Well, for me at least, it was easy. She's ready. I'm ready. The amount of stuff wasn't all that bad. The school did a great job organizing the move in. And it was only a 40 minute ride for me to the City of Brotherly Love. I remember either moving in or out just about all of the kids from Scranton, Rutgers, Rowan and FIT. For our bunch the girls have rocked college with 3 for 4 graduating, and Erin could
complete the quadfecta, if that's what it's called. St. Joseph's is a small Catholic university located in Philly's west side in a neighborhood called, well, West Philadelphia. It was in that section where Will Smith's character was from in "The Fresh Prince of Bel Aire", "West Philadelphia born and raised....".
St. Joseph's is a small college with an enrollment of 4,100 students, which I think is better for our bloodline. Too big and I, well we, I think would get lost in the shuffle. It's a small campus also but those stairs.... . It's right on the Septa line and there's all kinds of trolleys and shuttles so it's in a good place, but like any city, or anywhere else, you have to beware of your surroundings. But Philly can be anything but Brotherly Love.
Erin and her roommate are both loves. She's from Maine and shares the same major which is Pre-Physicians Assistant. They're both in the accelerated three year program, so that's 17 credits a semester, good luck with that Erin, I know I couldn't get that done with any decent GPA. The girls overcame having the smallest corner room on the floor and organized and decorated it after we tried every furniture move combo to maximize the space.
And of course since St. Joseph's isn't too far from Lancaster Avenue I made it a point to swing by Orvis Haverford to try on that pair of Orvis PRO bootfoot waders before I pull the trigger. The only problem is size 11 seems to be the go-to size as both Princeton and Haverford didn't have any in stock.
I'm not pimping Orvis out but I will say this. If you're from New Jersey, or anywhere for that matter, and want to be a part of something, stop by your local, if you have one, Orvis store. Yes, they are usually located in some boushy neighborhood where women's clothes and dog beds are displayed front and center, but somewhere in that store is a cool fly fishing section manned or womanned by someone in the know who is fishy. And while your there take a peek at the classes and seminars they offer. It's usually talks, a fly tying night, or a day trip you can take part of. So like if you live in Central Jersey, and don't want to take the hike to Tights Lines in Parsippany, or hit the Bayshore or Atlantic Saltwater Flyrodders meetings, this can satiate your taste, or better yet you can take them all in.
Before I left the store the above hat caught my eye. I am really trying to resist advertising for other people anymore. But there I go and went having to buy that cool redfish hat before I left the store and
also grabbing a St. Joe's dad shirt at the bookstore. We're all about resisting labels, and being labeled, but there I go falling into the trap, buying things with someone else's label on it. I guess I'm just part of the bigger problem where we all need to be aligned with everything that isn't just us.
Little did I know but Lancaster Avenue is a major thoroughfare that basically runs from St. Joe's up to the campus of Villanova. It's there where Erin's girlfriend Sophie is a new Wildcat so I took her for a quick surprise visit before heading back to the city and said our goodbyes.
And before I hit New Jersey I met up with Laura to finsih up the transfer of ownership of Jim's boat. Now it'll just be off to NJ DMV for have it registered and put into my name. The fall is coming fast. I have to get that boat wet this fall. More to come on that.
