Dispatches From the West Coast

My daughter is far away from home, and apparently couldn't be happier about it. I can't confirm her happiness, because so far she has refused to call us. Through the magic of text messaging, we can assume she is alive and well in Los Angeles. The little snippets of phone-type have given us glimpses of her life at the moment.
We know she is staying in a dorm on a specific university campus. Otherwise, we must be content with fragments of information delivered by cellular device in one to two sentences dispatches:
"I'm busy. I'm sorry. I'll call when I can." (Still no call)
"I'm on a bus with two girls from Miami, one from Boston and one from Maine."
"I've let y'all slip out a couple of times. They think my southern accent is cool."
"In my suite, there's a girl from Hong Kong, Spain, Taiwan, Japan and Paris. Also from Michigan and California."
I like her geographical references: Two cities, three countries, two states.
"I've met some very awesome people, especially in my suite."
"There's much freedom. It's awesome"
"We sailed today at Marina del Rey" "I'm shopping at Westwood." That sounds pretty good to me, considering she's been there two days so far. She's gone for three more weeks.
The text messages my wife is getting have a different tone. While I'm getting raw data about activities, Mom is getting observational messages. She's reading about developing interpersonal relationships.
This trip was a little scary for my wife. She put her daughter on a plane and then cried as it taxied away. I'm excited that my daughter is having these kinds of experiences and interactions; although I admit I miss her.
I somehow suspect my daughter, as we knew her, will never return.

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