Day 3 — Vassar and Home
Breathtaking.
That’s the first word that comes to mind to describe the sights that met our eyes this morning when we drove onto the Vassar campus. Many more follow — gorgeous, tranquil, pristine, inviting, autumnal, picturesque…surreal actually.
While Charli reveled in a day at soccer camp, I strolled about the fall-colored campus, wide-eyed, muttering over and over,”Beautiful...just beautiful!”
I don’t know enough about architecture to adequately describe the stately structures scattered across the campus. The library, crafted of grey stone with spires reaching to the sky, hosted three floors of warm, rich spaces in which to study poetry, art, science, mathematics...or just become engrossed in a novel, as I saw one student doing. The sun shone in through stained glass onto rich tapestries hanging in the domed entryway. Along with more modern literature were older volumes with aged covers and spines. I felt smarter for just having walked around in there.
I spied a sign posted in one of the study areas — After-Hours Study Spaces 12 am - 8 am. They were speaking Charli’s love language right there.
I grabbed a hearty breakfast at Julie’s Cafe. Perfect over-easy eggs, sausage links, home fries, and whole wheat toast (to sop up the egg yolk). Later I enjoyed a tropical green tea from a local coffee shop. So refreshing!
Back at soccer camp, I watched Charli in skills drills and finally a scrimmage on one of the most perfectly manicured fields you could ever imagine, surrounded by a white wooden fence and golden, red, and green foliage. The soccer field is always home to her, wherever she finds one. I loved watching her play and knowing how appreciative she is of the opportunity to be at this camp.
Quick change after camp, and we headed to the Newark airport. If you’ve ever ridden in the car with sweaty shin guards, you know what an act of love and sacrifice it is.
We got to the airport on time, but it was close. I just couldn’t bring myself to pull Charli from the game early.
Standing in line to board, I kept singing an Ariana Grande song. Then after making a comment about sitting in the middle seat, I improvised a catchy remake of Maren Morris’ “Baby, why don’t you just seat me in the middle, in the middle.”
Remember that green tea? I usually avoid caffeine because, among other undesirable side effects, it revs me up...in an annoying sort of way. As we stood in line to board, I wrote a little Maren Morgan remake about our seating placement. “Baby, why don’t you just seat me in the middle...I’m losin’ my mind just a little, just a little.” Charli asked, “Mom, did you have caffeine?”
About to take off. Writing on the runway.
Tomorrow...BYE, BYE bunion and plantar fasciitis! OH, there’s an N Sync remake just begging to be written!
