<p>At work now, somewhat bedraggled and worse for the wear. Office only has DECAF at the moment with the fancy schmancy Keurig coffee maker/brewer thing. Horrors. Fortunately BandD saves the day with the wish of virtual Starbucks brew. All is not lost.</p>
<p>I can think of lots of stories with strong female characters in them, just not so much ‘chosen one’ stories. I read ‘The Once and Future King’ a million times in high school too. In middle school I loved ‘A Wrinkle in Time’ which has a strong female character --but it seems that her little brother was the ‘chosen one’ in that story (though it was years ago and my memory has little chunks missing). The latest Alice in Wonderland film portrayed Alice as a sort of ‘the one’ savior/heroine. </p>
<p>No call from MICA girl last night and I waited until nearly midnight. I was wondering how she fared with all the rain – she turned her nose up at things as mundane as rain coats and umbrellas – and she showed us this gigantic pad of newsprint and gigantic drawing board she got for one of her classes – I can see a gust of wind blowing her away while she’s trying to walk with those things – maybe like Dorothy (another heroine… but not a chosen one) she’ll land in Oz.</p>
<p>I better get to work. Talk to you all later.</p>
<p>she is THE chosen one, if you read up other OZs, thou I like Ozma better because she was “he”… heheheh</p>
<p>Oh how terrible about switters getting beaten up in DC?! Who beats up Harry Potter except his fat cousin? How tragic! It is tough looking like someone famous.</p>
<p>My husband looks very much like of Osama Bin Laden and when he wore his beard a little long people would get up and move away when he sat nearby. One trip through Heathrow a few years ago lead to a day of polite questions, pat downs, and missed flights (they have no worries about racial profiling there). I encourage him to keep his beard very short and wear glasses in public. His worst mistake was getting lost in DC and boarding a city bus in 2003. He wasn’t sure if it was going in the right direction so the driver, viewing him with suspicion, asked where did he want to go…Jose told him, with his hooded eyes and accent, “the white house or the capitol, it doesn’t matter to me.” He was lucky not to be arrested but instead was told to catch a cab by the driver!?. So much for protecting the citizenry from dangerous suspicious characters…the driver seemed perfectly happy to have Jose blow up the congress or president but not using his bus!</p>
<p>I did thru reading and understanding about now.
fammom, so famdad has glasses. is his hair parted in the center with bit of gray? I’ve never seen Osama with head gear off.</p>
<p>switters love, medical words are my last frontier. I thought “prefrontal lobe” does something to do with bathrobe ('course spelled “L” and “R” jumbled as usual) parted in front because of eh… ha*d on.
then again, maybe I am not so far off terms of getting nuances?
oh boy oh boy boy boy.</p>
<p>thanx for tempting book talks, can’t get to them awhile until I figure out about danger of cell phone ( read Cooper thread, folks!) and the other one about two Disney animators.
B&N ( aka private library/study/escape pod from roomies, partner, other toxic family members /tots’ playground for rainy days - for folks who doesn’t make 80K and up) in NYC might go into civil war stage between founder and biggest stock holder. hope our neighboring shop won’t tank…</p>
<p>No Bears, prefrontal lobe stuff isnt sexual, it has to do with judgement, and how all men are boys until at least 25. And so as the mother of a boy having a subscription service to the local emergency room and so on. </p>
<p>I used to teach a two week class at work. This was when S was in middle school. At the beginning of each two week session we would set class rules. One of them being cell phone use and so on. I would have to say tot he class "Look, I dont care if you answer your cell phone, because I expect to get a call from my sons school at some point in the next couple of weeks (or any couple of weeks) telling me he was being suspended for something. And I always got that call. After teaching that class 4 times I finally stopped because I had somehow mystically tied that class up with little Swits inability to stay out of trouble. So it was like Teach the class- Get The Call.</p>
<p>Flash forward to a few years later, and I was running done the list of things he got suspended for in middle school, and none of them seemed like a big deal. NOT EVEN ONE. It was all stuff like wrestling with a friend while standing in line for gym class. Defending himself when some really big kid grabbed him, punching a jerk who punched him first, cutting class to kiss a girl under the stairwell (he didnt get caught for the kiss). It was funny in retrospect, but I spent much of middle school with my heart in my throat. </p>
<p>So this goes back to the Boy Girl thing which I am trying to seed this thread with. There is the Hero Myth and the Chosen. We punish risk takers when they are young, but worship them when they are older. Since girls learn to behave sooner, maybe we are squishing the hero out of them at the same time.</p>
<p>Visited D2 at MICA today. She has been sick and really needed help to clean her room. Pitiful, but it’s also near her birthday so I succumbed. Everyone has really interesting work in their rooms but I can’t shed the feeling that I’m really relieved that I never have to be a college freshman again!!! It was nice to wander around Baltimore and fantasize about the beautiful old houses. </p>
<p>D2 is planning on being a guide during NPD in December. What goes around, comes around! I don’t know why this pleases me so much. It will be such a different take on NPD. No massive lines to wait in, no confusion, no stress, just a bunch of hopeful shining faces to lead around.</p>
<p>B&D, You’re right, Ozma is great. And how about Jinjur, and her army of girls with knitting needles!! LOVE those book,s but only the ones by L Frank himself. The ones done by his succeessors never quite did it for me.</p>
<p>so the prefrontal lobe …I cracked up with the idea that it is related to bathrobes and sexuality…not that far off when you step back and think about it…today was a perfect example of risk-boys/men and why their mothers suffer…</p>
<p>Call S at CMU because the conversation on Wednesday (the required call) was rushed because he had so much work…no word all week/weekend so I just can’t help it…I call. He sounds good but he is welding…as he says “I am always welding” …but he needs to talk to me (for a moment I feel all warm and good) …“because I need help filling out a form because I had an accident”…what happened? “Cut my head open”. How? “dodging an almond”…I had to ask for a several repetitions but he apparently dodged a nut and ran into something. Did you have to go to the doctor…“yes campus security and a friend took me to the emergency room”…which hospital?..“don’t remember, shady-something”…Did you need stitches?
“no, they superglued me but there was a lot of blood”. Will it scar? “probably it looks pretty gruesome”…Can you get someone to send me a cell phone photo? “no because you will freak out”. I pointed out that my backup plan for him was Hollywood if the art thing doesn’t work out so where does this leave us…he laughed and promised to call in half an hour…still waiting…still waiting.</p>
<p>I don’t even know what day this happened. He is over 18 so they don’t call me. Never mind that our insurance has to pay for him. AHHEHEHEHE (just a little scream…I feel a lot better). </p>
<p>God knows what he was doing but I am sure it was foolish. His whole attitude about the accident, insurance, calling me just seems so boyish… typical of his age to go through this drama, treat it like one big joke and then just compartmentalize it and put it away into the back of his mind until I call which reminds him of the insurance form. I am pretty ****ed he didn’t take the initiative to call and tell me about this…nevermind that I gave him an insurance card for his wallet. Now double work to do the insurance claim…this is the problem with an undeveloped frontal lobe…impetuous behavior, short term memory, compartmentalize…</p>
<p>O’m goodness, thoughts are with you. Please do update us on his condition.</p>
<p>Dodging an almond? He’s dealing with heavy equipment and welding things on a daily basis and gets hurt, how? I’m picturing boys throwing almonds around and his hitting his head on a cabinet or something to get away from it. If it hadn’t ended up at the ER it would be comical. </p>
<p>Gruesome or not, if they used dermabond it couldn’t have been that big or deep of a cut (it helps to keep thinking that anyway). My youngest D had a cut on her forehead that they closed that way and you would need a magnifying glass to see anything different about the area. Hopefully, he didn’t lose too much sleep and hasn’t been in too much pain. We want them to learn in college, but not necessarily this kind of thing! I’m sure it’s worse for you and his Dad, far away and wondering how bad it really is. Does he have skype? Then you can see him and talk to him and get some reassurance. </p>
<p>D2 had someone accidentally pour boiling water over her arm last week. A horrible night for all of us (of course it happened at night, after student health had closed). H called our local ER for advice and gave instructions to D who went to student health the next day. She lost a day or two of being able to work, but did her reading instead. When I saw her on Saturday, it was fine. She had called us soon after it happened though but that may have been only because she was sitting on the fence about going to the ER. </p>
<p>I think it always hurts the parents more. I hope he’s all healed soon!</p>
<p>About the frontal lobe - I had heard that the frontal (precortex?) isn’t fully developed until age 25 (the age when you can finally rent a car - they must have known). It does govern impulse control and judgement, but also conscience.</p>
<p>Yikes! Switters kid attacked on the metro (well ok, I surmise at some point in the past); FAMMoM kid bonked in the head and Greenwitch’s D with scalded skin… I sure hope everyone is nursing their wounds and getting back to business (that includes Moms too!).</p>
<p>I’ve read about the prefrontal cortex business too – being not fully developed until 25 – also in kids with very high IQs, there is a marked delay in full maturation – I should try to look up that study again. </p>
<p>So the extremely introverted and socially awkward MICA girl has suddenly developed a texting craze – 249 texts in 6 days. We’re wondering who the boy is. Unfortunately for her, they are all out-of-system texts, so she will start getting charged $.20/text, which at her current rate will add up really fast. We are preparing to confront kid about the phone bill. Fortunately for us, we have the kids on prepaid plans – so she can’t rack up unreasonable charges, her phone just stops working (this irks her to no end, and this morning she texted me to have her dad add more money to her phone again). But she is going to have to foot the bill for the excess charges herself. I know that will go over like a lead balloon. </p>
<p>Greenwitch, didn’t you say your kid was sick on too? On top of the burned arm? How did she fare with the deluge last week?</p>
<p>Sorry to hear about the accident Greenwitch. Burns are so painful. I am surprised she healed so quickly. It does make you wonder about the wisdom of letting them work with all these dangerous things to make great art.</p>
<p>I called the health clinic at the school to see if they would be willing to look at the paperwork from the hospital and the cut and make sure he was healing as expected. No surprise, they said he would have to make an appointment. He has to do this because he is an adult… (how can they say this with a serious tone of voice when S has been wounded playing with almonds!? and I am paying the health service fee!?). I knew this would be their response, but I thought it may be helpful to have the nurse greet him with…“oh you are the kid who racked up hundreds of dollars in ER bills because of a nut.” </p>
<p>So I called him today when I knew he was out of class. He said he was working on an essay due in 3 hours so perhaps it would be better to talk after his afternoon class at 3:30. Nope, no call. </p>
<p>My plan is the following. He must make and keep an appointment tomorrow, skype or send a photo via phone and send me copies of documents (for insurance and anxiety reduction purposes). Failure to do so will mean that I will drive to Pittsburgh on Friday (because he has only one class)…so I can check on him. Yes…I am willing and able to use my flex day for this. I am hopeful he will cave to the threat of parental visit. CCers can place bets on the outcome of this strategy…I think the odds are even for parent vs art student.</p>
<p>fammom - I bet he’ll come through. I’m not sure why I think this, but maybe he’s starting to see that he’s pushed you far enough. No one wants to make their Mom crack!</p>
<p>Gmom - yes, D2 got sick just after the burn. Went to student health, but they wouldn’t see her until later that day. They didn’t give her a flu test, just a strep test (which was negative). She was worried, because she had H1N1 flu last September, but this was just a bad cold. She did OK with all the rain but said it was annoying to bring her things to class double bagged in giant garbage bags. Those 6 hour classes are great on rainy days since at least you don’t have to change classes too often!</p>
<p>As as for dangerous substances - she was burned with someone else’s tea! It happened at work and made her realize that she needs to cut back on that for now. She’ll only be on a “sub list” instead of having regular shifts (whew… I never thought she would have enough time as a freshman). The good news is that the tea spiller felt bad and came back with a gift card for her as a way of saying sorry.</p>
<p>Well…the threats of parent swooping down to take him the doctor was entirely effective. He did make it to the school clinic…they cleaned him up a bit, said there should be some scaring but not much (a .5 inch nick mark, probably) and he is doing just fine. He has filled out all the insurance paperwork (he thinks) and will keep copies of everything. He seemed much more up and looking forward to having his friend visit. He did a great job reassuring me that he was OK and had everything under control. </p>
<p>So…he seems to be very successfully launched into undergrad if somewhat battered so I should take pride. Why am I just a little sad?</p>
<p>FAMMoM, glad that DS is okay. A little worse for wear, but he’ll survive. I guess I’d be sad too… probably has to do with wanting to be ‘needed’ and then suddenly find out you’re not needed. I know I was so happy to be bringing the MICA kid food… must be a maternal thing.</p>
<p>Will you all find this as pathetic as I do? We just put more money in her account on the 5th, and warned her about her sudden surge in texting… then she sent this today:</p>
<p>Hi dad. I’m very sorry to tell you this but my phone ran out of balance
again. I thought I was being more careful to control the amount of texting I
was doing but I guess this is going to take even more restraint. Lesson
learned. I can pay you back for refilling my balance again so early. But I
really need to have my phone recharged again ASAP, because I was in the
process of making plans with someone to hang out tonight.
I’m very sorry and ashamed to have to ask you to do this again when you and
mom just got done telling me how I need to be more careful with the
off-network texts. I really thought I was managing but now I know that
keeping my phone balance in check is going to require even more effort than I
initially thought. Tomorrow night I will call home so we can talk in more
detail then.
Please understand that I know I made mistakes and that I’m willing to learn
from them, and that the reason I’m asking you to recharge my phone again so
early is because I don’t want what little of a social life I have to be
sacrificed.
Thanks, I love you!</p>
<p>She knows who to go to about this. DH forwarded this to me after he added $ to her account. Kind of annoying because he should have consulted me about it. I know the kid is socially awkward and this is a big deal to her… BUT, that’s why she should have had a job last summer… so she cold pay for stuff like this herself. I would have told her (which is why she probably didn’t ask ME) that I’m not sitting here working full time so she can have unlimited texting with some guy (probably with too many tatoos – and I know he has a girl friend). My gut tells me this will not end well. As for her ‘I can pay you back…’ she spent most of ‘her’ money on her lip piercing – and her account is supposed to be used for things like books and supplies and other necessities… not texting. </p>
<p>Grrrr. But I know I can’t have it both ways. I just thought we were already being reasonable by recharging her phone as much as we have, and we both just got done telling her she has to knock it off.</p>
<p>Just wanted to thank you all for the very enjoyable accounts of life away from home.
Well, at least it sounds like everyone is surviving but I’m sure a few mom and dads have a few more gray hairs no doubt. And the email about the phone running out of service was priceless…really priceless. I’m really enjoying these kids and their adventures, just a few gasps until I realize no one is seriously injured (the head wound, oh my_</p>
<p>From my front by the way we have a much greater attention to diet so wanted weight loss and a roomie who is “great” but makes my kid look like a real housekeeper which is hysterically funny…my kid is, or rather I guess I should say was, never never good about picking up the room. And an unnervingly adult take on things during phone conversations. I’m waiting for a “shoe to drop” seems a bit too calm in the waters right now.</p>
<p>Well we talked to MICA girl last night and came to a more suitable arrangement about the phone. We’ll change her plan to give her unlimited texting – it’s $10 more a month (still on prepaid plan) but that beats the constant recharging of her phone account when she spends all her $$ on the out of network texting and then has the phone shut off when the balance goes to zero. Her therapist sent me a message, sigh, that was almost as pathetic as MICA girls, chiding us to not ‘act in anger’ (we weren’t angry, we told MICA girl that we needed to find some other solution, and that she needed to work WITH us, which we/she did) and that “texting was how all of the college kids communicate, and that she was friends with a boy and making friends, and WASN’T that, after all, what we wanted?”…Plus the therapist pointed out that MICA girl had been using the phone to talk/text with her (which we never had a problem with, we just wanted them to switch their conversations to Skype or gmail/phone). Anyway, MICA girl still hasn’t gone back to the dining hall (why doesn’t that boy-with-too-many-tatoos-and-claims-of-wanting-to-hurt-his-gf invite her to go to the dining hall to get something to eat?) FB stalking is scary.</p>
<p>MICA girl will brave the Bolt Bus ($20 Baltimore to NY) to come home on Friday. I will drive her back on Tuesday, depending on how I can swing the work situation). She mentioned that they have upcoming “midterm reviews” where they bring in all the work they’ve done for each class and have it reviewed by the teacher. I’m not sure why she should be stressed out about this, the work is already done (if she’s been staying on top of her assignments, which she claims she has) and so then there doesn’t seem to be anything more she could do about it. I don’t know if you can present extra work for extra credit or something. But she was nervous about that. I asked her about homework over the break when she comes home and she kind of hemmed and hawed about that – she does have ‘some’ but I think she wasn’t planning to bring stuff home with her to work on… so maybe she’ll have to settle for going back on Monday rather than Tuesday. We’ll see what happens. But I was curious when she mentioned ‘midterms’ and I knew that they don’t have any ‘tests’ until Jr. year.</p>
<p>Other news… I found out my termination date for my job (that I got in May right after we made the plunge to send in the MICA acceptance – sort of a leap of faith-- that promptly got squashed when there was a hostile takeover of my company on my first day at work) and I get to stay until the bitter, bitter end – June 30, 2011. So that’s at least nine more months of employment and that should pay for a couple more semesters at MICA – throw in the severance package and I can probably cover about three more semesters. Then unemployment… maybe sort of a backdoor way to financial aid for college… sheesh. Who knows, maybe another job will land in my lap.</p>
<p>arty- thanks for bumping the thread. I am embarrassed to say that I can’t figure out where your kid is in school. I keep trawling the sqee thread and I just cant find it.</p>
<p>GM- the little voice inside my head was voting for unlimited texting. We wouldnt survive without it at my house. I FB stalked my S’s gf too. turned out ok, but she left a really really cute boy behind (or whereever he went off to school-way hipper looking than my kid, eyebrow piercing, dreds) so there could eventually be drama…</p>
<p>Where is Bears?</p>
<p>MICA midterms — D2 has this too next week except that painting has been pushed back a week for her class. I’m a bit worried about that because I don’t want her feeling like she has to come home with all her painting cr@p, or having to go back early. That’s really not an option since she has 2 appts on Tuesday morning! </p>
<p>I’m glad to hear about unlimited texting. Make sure your cell phone provider doesn’t pull any “oh, we started that at the next billing cycle, so the week in between doesn’t count and you owe us $200”. They tried that on us when we switched to plain old unlimited calling. H has many faults, but he can sure park himself on the phone and just remain unmoved until the walls of Jericho come tumbling down! We get the bills now and laugh at the thousands of texts that D1 manages to send or receive each month. Thank goodness for unlimited texting. </p>
<p>In more MICA news, the giant roll of tarpaper has been returned. D2 was mistaken, it turns out the the teacher bought one for the class to use for something. I haven’t heard WHAT yet, but hope to soon. That trip to Home Depot was fruitful anyway because she needed tin snips for the same class. I don’t know where she puts everything in her little dorm room!</p>