Outside Counsel

To Geneseo over the weekend to drop off CLA, her many, many possessions and her porcupine. I was impressed with the system they had devised for this process: historically drop-off day at most colleges somewhat resembles a reverse re-enactment of Dunkirk performed with station wagons, but this was pretty orderly. You pulled up next to an unloading area near the dorm, where student volunteers off-load your car into little tractors. While the parents take the car to a satellite lot, the student signs in, and the tractors (they called them "Gators", but there was a different name on the side) go to the loading dock for the dorm and unload. Worked great, although we had to be discrete about bringing in the porcupine. (I should mention also that although CLA had a fair amount of stuff, it was a pretty modest collection relative to some of the things we saw being brought in. Flat screen TVs?)

The textbook process has been streamlined as well. You can pre-order online, or just show up with your class list. There was a tent with folding chairs outside the Sundance textbook annex, along with a tank full of ice and bottled water. From time to time there was a pizza delivery. You wait outside for a bit, then when things thin out inside the hippie in charge lets another group in. I hadn't brought anything to read, so LCA and I went up to the Main Street store and bought books to tide us over.

I'd heard about the 33 1/3 series, and meant to pick up one but hadn't gotten to it. Continuum International Publishing created the series, which are extended essays about notable rock'n'roll albums. I debated getting the volume on "Highway 61 Revisited" but settled on "Exile on Main Street". It was just about right, long enough so that I had a little left over to read the next day, and a thoughtful piece of writing as well. As I run down the list I can see that there are quite of few of these little books I'm going to want to read (and I can think of one or two that I'd like to write as well).