2018/08/21

So many things went wrong, dropping Benjamin off at Warren Wilson; it's a struggle even to remember all the major ones.

Spoiler: he's all moved in and stuff, with only annoyance-level obstacles left to deal with.

Prologue, Fork A

Since learners' permits for B & Z ended up not happening over the summer, we really needed to get B a picture ID, kind of at the last minute -- which is what gave rise to half a day of panic when we could find neither his birth certificate nor his Social Security card and the minimal circumstantial evidence available suggested they were last in my care, followed by another half a day standing in line at the DMV a couple of days later, last week or so.

[ add pixture of DMV line ]

I had what Harena would call a "weenie burger" that we should bring the documents we had used to establish his isentity for the DMV, even though the whole point of that exercise was to make it unnecessary to bring them, because what if I had misunderstood the documentation requirements for WW registration.

...but we decided to play it safe by leaving them, rather than risk losing track of them again.

Prologue, Fork B

It was also during this week that we seemed to acquire an Electronic Device Curse. Benjamin's mouse became erratic and then, after changing the battery, died completely. My mouse was working fine when I left it one Sunday morning, and then when I came back some minutes later was completely unresponsive. My smartwatch mysteriously died overnight, and no efforts at revival have produced the least sign of life. (At least it was free; easy come, easy go.)

So I suppose the events that followed our arrival in Asheville should not have come as any surprise, following the pattern as they did.

Part 1: Arrival (CW: gross)

Lacking time to have our usual breakfast at Waffle House, we had to settle for making use of Quality Inn's low-quality breakfast buffet. Benjamin was not happy about this, but went along with it... and almost immediately started feeling nauseous.

On the plus side, Warren Wilson's new-ish president had completely revamped the new-student arrival process from when we last experienced it in 2015. There were multiple teams of helper-students at every corner, multiple parking locations, and other rearrangements.

On the minus side... we made it through the line to the main parking lot, then through the parking lot, then were finally checked by someone with a clipboard who told us where to go, and then started heading out of the parking lot to B's dorm so he could move in. Unfortunately, while we were getting through the line to get across the street to said dorm, he started throwing up.

It was kind of a perfect storm of timing and aim. We couldn't pull over for him to get out. We didn't have access to any plastic bags yet (we'd forgotten to bring them and hadn't yet obtained any). The first salvo went inside; I told him to try to aim out the window, which he did -- and a bunch of it got inside the window slot as well. (At least it didn't smell of anything much except

Finally, we got across the street and pulled up in front of the dorm, where we were approached by a helper-student from whom we were able to requisition cleaning supplies. I escorted B to a shower so he could clean himself off and change clothes.

Somewhere in all that, we were asked what room he was in, and we didn't know; it turned out we were supposed to have gone somewhere else to get a key first. When asked whether I would rather go get a key or clean up the barf, I said the latter -- partly because I thought that getting the key required doing the full sign-in, because that's how it had worked in 2015, and I was dreading that because of all the uncertainties around B's paperwork.

A helper-student said she would go off and get a key, but then time went by and she wasn't heard from again, so Z volunteered to go with B to get the key; I handed him the paperwork folder and explained the situation quickly, and off they went.

I got the car reasonably well cleaned up; B & Z reappeared with a key, and we finally got him moved in (me unloading stuff from the car to the sidewalk, and them taking it in).

Part 2: Paperwork

It turned out that we should in fact have brought the identity documentation because I had in fact misunderstood the requirements -- who could have foreseen?

Fortunately this was not the complete roadblock it could have been; it just means we need to mail them B's birth certificate (prepaid priority envelope provided) and he may have to hold off working for a day or two next week and then make up the time later.

The medical paperwork, which I had been dreading rather more, was not a problem.

writing in progress