The Launch

The last step of the launch has finally occurred: Tyler is away at college, in his dorm, out on his own, at the New School, in New York City. The day was a long one in NYC for us, starting from the 6:57am train on the LIRR. We arrived at Penn in time to reach B and H photo by 9:15am. I needed to return the "nifty fifty" that arrived broken to SF. The Nifty Fifty is a 50mm f/1.4 Canon lens that I purchased for the Haiti trip. I will be using an older Rebel body from Dina's sister (all this info is for the camera buffs).
Then we headed over to the UNFPA office to try to get copies of Adding It Up and Women are the Fabric. I had a feeling that somewhere in NYC there was a storehouse of UNFPA publications. Well, we found it!! And Jay filled my backpack with info for the MANA board. It was all very heavy, but I was delighted.
Grand Central is only a few blocks from the UNFPA office so we headed over there to meet Tyler and Mary. A quick cab ride got us all to The New School for THE TRANSITION. Tyler unpacked in his dorm room while we found the local pizzeria for meatball and chicken parm wedges. Tyler is going to see what REAL italian food is like!
We had various tours and orientations and I was pleased at how the school told us over and over again how they were going to keep our children safe. They sure know how to treat a gal. The school is so awesome. It is in a really clean, hip part of Greenwich Village. The buildings are spread out over a four or five block area so NYC is really their campus. Tyler was already finding his way around without us. I loved it! (I better, given the price tag!!)
But it truly felt like The Moment we had all been waiting for with trepidation, excitement, tears and relief. After meeting Tyler's godfather (my cousin Adam) and his partner, David, for a lovely Mexican dinner, Tyler finally left to be with the other students.
The cab ride and LIRR journey back finally allowed the empty feeling to settle in. When I get back to SF, he won't be there.
It has been quite a ride, but we have spiraled around and around, finally coming to rest at a place of mutual respect and admiration. He just texted back, "Love you too!"