Spring Break in the Frozen Big Apple,Volume I

Instead of gearing up for a St. Patrick's Day parade (we have no son marching in it this year), I decided to spend a portion of my spring break in New York visiting my first-born son. Since many of my readers have been so thoughtful and generous to stay in touch with him and send him care packages, I thought I would upload some posts about my visit, so you all could learn more about his life up in the cold north.

I had planned to spend all of Friday with him, booking a 7 am flight, which would put me in the Bronx by 10:00. A tour of campus and the regiment's training ship was on the agenda. Unfortunately, Mother Nature and Delta Airlines had other plans, and I found myself circling over Washington, DC for two hours before landing at Dulles to refill the gas tank. Fortunately, the snow over New York lifted enough for our plane to make it to LaGuardia, but descending through those snow clouds had me saying the rosary all the way to the tarmac. By the time Davis and I hooked up, my first order of business was to find a liquor store.

Once here, though, we set out to have a good time. We took care of housework first, getting our rental car, finding that liquor store, buying some eggs I could cook along with the grits I brought with me (Davis hasn't had grits since Christmas. He has dark circles under his eyes as a result). But eventually we did make it to campus  just before dark, and Davis had time to show me his dorm room and pick up his pillow and peanut M&M's, a gift from Skippy.

To all the Remlerville readers who have sent care packages, thank you very much. Davis has enjoyed all his goodies, and he proudly showed me his "pantry," which is the foot locker he was issued upon arrival at SUNY Maritime. Overflow lives in his bottom desk drawer:

 And that's about half the storage space he has in the room. The rest of it, which consists of his closet, must stay in the same arrangement for inspection:

For any Remlerville readers who went to UGA, I can compare Davis's dorm to the mid-century dorms in Athens:  Russell, Creswell, Brumby, Hill, Mell. The architecture of the building is similar. the only difference is that 1) the rooms are smaller (maybe that's because  they've crammed three guys into Davis's room instead of the usual two) and 2) they're dim.

When we walked into Davis's room, I said, "This is pretty nice. Turn on the light so I can see it."

His reply: "The light is on."

Sure enough it was. SUNY Maritime's student housing units provide the boys with what looks like a 25 watt bulb. Davis also has a desk lamp, which illuminates his desk, but that's about it. I guess that's one way to encourage the guys to get outside and play.

But if you ever communicate with Davis on Skype or Facetime and you see him sitting at his desk with the door  in the background, you're pretty much looking at his whole room. If he's preparing for a career on a ship, he has to get used to those close quarters. Still, I think he was delighted to come with me to the local Residence Inn to enjoy the vast square footage that is my hotel room.

On Saturday's itinerary: Woodlawn Cemetery, a daylight campus tour, and East Hampton. Stay tuned!