<p>switters:
will get that movie, I checked Target and they have it available. Thanks!
D didn’t get her school report either. I will ask her again when I got home tonight. She will fly back 17th, I asked her are you sure you know all the courses and which class room to go the next day of 18th? She said yes and hope she really know. She didn’t tell me her schedule, poor mom, want to know everything but …</p>
<p>fammom:
love your story about the project your S is hurry on!</p>
<p>my D is very relax at home, keeps on run 6 miles a day and sometime she went shopping with her friends or see a movie. She read a lot of books and last week she suddenly complain the half price book store is too limited and so many books she want is not there and we went to Borders and no of the books she want is there. Too late to order online and she will have to get it after she get back to NYC. </p>
<p>Still remember Bears asked about which books D read, still didn’t ask her the list. I know two books she just finished since she recommended to H:
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell</p>
<p>One more week to have her home, feel time fly …</p>
<p>Song of Solomon is one of my very very favorite books. It turned me into a reader of adult fiction I think I read it in early high school. Everyone in the world should read this book. </p>
<p>Im sure she knows her schedule, S seems to…luckily he doesnt have meanie English teacher again.</p>
<p>I havent read Tipping Point, but did read Blink, which I recommend. </p>
<p>Well after my whiney note from before, babyswitters and I are going to the movies tonight. Yay!! we are going to second run movie house to see I Love You, Phillip Morris…</p>
<p>Enjoy movie night…we are also doing movies but at home tonight</p>
<p>…we have a family “tradition” of movie night…Fridays, generally netflix, spanish language movie. Kid friends are welcome and we will put on subtitles (have to anyway if it is from Spain sometimes I can’t follow…its only fair because we put subitles on for H if it is some british film). The tradition isn’t every week but we shoot to have it once or twice a month. The kids moan because it seems all the movies are stories about people who are disappeared during dictatorship and there is some overlay/analogy of world cup soccer at the same time…or really bad Cuban movies …or really strange and disturbing ones …like “tango” or "quince</p>
<p>I just saw Precious recently. It is pretty great, but very very disturbing with many graphic scenes of incestual abuse. I had to turn it off a couple of times, and ended up watching it in batches because of how painful it was.</p>
<p>now we declare movie thread!!
maria full of grace!! fammom
I saw ABT nutcracker ( not that one everyone know:NYCB) couple days back because mommy friend’s D is dancing, and got bouquet of roses for the occasion- she is at the point now more of bouquet, not care package I have been given to her when she was a party girl or little Angel while she was with NYCB.
I got rather nice one for good price but first thing came to mind is
" where did they come from in this dead winter?" then flashback of Maria full of grace. the flower plant, the drug pellets made out of latex grove fingers, the airport, the girls.</p>
<p>Precious is something else all together. I went because I read book while ago and wanted to know how it would be executed. man.
yet, I was still thinking, “hey. they got upstairs in their apartment, at least two bedroom. and their intercom works! they can afford hunk of scrap meat. can keep hair and clothes neat.”
I know, I know, I am hopeless.
for those not sure, give the book to the kids and see what they say. it is short poem-sh and can do in one sitting.</p>
<p>Well I was down in the dumps over all the MICA drama. I thought about not posting anymore – but all of you have been such a great help and I feel like you’ve shared our journey, and I’ve shared yours. Bravegirl put on a brave face as we trekked down to Baltimore to collect her things.<br>
Mistake #1: Predicted ‘Norlund Intensity Effect’…hmm. Called MICA and inquired if we could reschedule because of the snow… no, they can’t. We have to go today. ugh.
Mistake #2: We had rented a uHaul truck to take Bravegirls ‘stuff’ down to Baltimore in the summer mostly because I’m a wimp when it comes to heat and humidity and our 15 year old van doesn’t have working AC anymore (it doesn’t have heat either, but somehow that’s more manageable than no AC in the summer). Why did we think we could fit it all in the van to come home – especially when she’s added to her art supply/art collection?
Mistake #3: I had hurt my back shoveling last week when we got home from California and have been gingerly trying to avoid back spasms. So I go to the dorm and pack??? Bad idea. I’m going to pay for this in spades.
Mistake #4: Having left at o-dark-thirty this morning to try to avoid the worst of the snow, I didn’t check CC and see Greenwitch’s reminder about the gluten free bakery – so we missed out on that. It would have been a nice break this afternoon.</p>
<p>Anyway, I don’t know what happened to that horrible-terrible-spoiled-rotten girl that I left to her own devices that day last August. Bravegirl had a bit of trouble getting out of bed this morning, but other than that, she was a trooper. She put a brave face on and let us help her get packed up and get out of there. Of course no one else was around, so she didn’t need to be embarrassed by us. She also did most of the unloading of the van once we got home. I didn’t hear a single complaint the whole day. She is even fighting a nasty cold but she still pitched in and did her part. It took us about four hours to pack everything up in the dorm. There was a lot of gluten free food - -mostly dry goods and canned soups. I worked on the kitchen stuff while Bravegirl started on her room. H got to haul everything out to the van – through the gatehouse and around to the parking lot - they wouldn’t open the emergency exit for us. There was the freezer and microwave, coffee maker, and then two boxes of kitchen ‘stuff’ and a cooler for the remaining frozen food. She had a printer and an umbrella stand. Then her desk and chair. At least the desk kind of folded up. She had a file box sort of thing and then a little plastic drawer thing that was in the wardrobe. four portfolio cases. Three drawing boards (why?). The lamp from the drawing table. We filled another large box with all sorts of stuff… trash can, bins of i-dont’-know-what, iHome, boots, umbrella and then a duffle bag and three large suitcases and a foot locker - and another box with ‘liquids’ that she didn’t want to freeze or have upended. Fortunately there was enough room left for her to sit. </p>
<p>It turned out that I had the snowy drive this morning. We left Baltimore around 3pm and most of the snow had stopped. Manga-girl reported that we had about six inches at home. She and Aspie girls had orders to get the driveway shoveled before we got home. For once, Aspie girl didn’t take us completely literally and only shovel enough room to get the car on the drive - -she and Manga-girl shoveled a path to the back door as well. H drove home because I tend to get double vision when I drive at night and I’m tired, so that worked out okay. We got home by 7:45. The drive this morning took much longer because of the snow. </p>
<p>Bravegirl is going to take a couple of art classes at the art center she’s gone to before. She is looking forward to our trip to China later this month. She is supposed to go to NYC on her own on Monday to get our visas. Hopefully she’ll do that. She’s balking at calling the social worker; though she did get my point when I asked her “what changes when you do nothing?” and she said “nothing”. So I hope she realizes that she needs to do things to work on herself, particularly if she wants to give MICA another shot in the fall. I guess I’ll look forward to a ‘relaunch’. I just hope we don’t go through this too many times.</p>
<p>Oh Gmom, mistake #4 is all my fault. I should have posted a day earlier to be sure you saw it. I’m glad to hear you’re back safe and sound. With all you’ve been through, you should consider yourself Bravemom too. </p>
<p>I’m dreading the unpacking and unloading at the end of the year. That walk through Commons and the gatehouse gets longer and longer and D2 always has a huge bag of dirty laundry for someone to bring. For D1, we’re thinking of renting a self storage place to keep her things over the summer to avoid multiple trips or needing a uhaul. We’re all too old for this!</p>
<p>yes, most of us are not film school people, digmedia or few others know those things do not post in “launch” much, I think.
you can PM and ask specific question or start thread (I see you did about Calarts, sorry hijacking. I was wondering where kmazza was while I was in the Chapman land, couldn’t help!)</p>
<p>Gmom wow…is all I can say. I am trying to visualize how three people and all you said could fit in the van… or you have one of those, what’s that? swagger wagon?
new era for you brave pair.
Art students league is great place for certain kind of kids (not mine, but his fav teacher and his best students were there) if she can commute.</p>
<p>It seems no-nonsense Russian immigrant style. what they are trying to do is actually refreshing and nice. I will go spy.</p>
<p>This is precisely what we have done (and will do again) for our daughter who is a student at SCAD. Consider a climate-controlled space if any art supplies are to be stored; for our daughter that was a must in the south Georgia heat and humidity. A 5X5 space was perfect for all the items-a large desk chair, some shelving and other small furniture pieces, and everything else packed in plastic bins for easy stacking. </p>
<p>We also stored some large art projects she completed that we knew would not fit in the car for the trip home with everything else. When we returned with her in the fall, we knew we’d have an empty car and be able to transport them home at that time.</p>
<p>The storage place was fabulous; lots of students used their facility. 4 months rent was about $170. I paid it all in advance so as to not worry about making payments over the summer, and put my reservation in for the upcoming summer when we picked everything up in the fall.</p>
<p>If you do go the storage facility route, start looking NOW and get a reservation in. I started in March last year and struggled to find a spot that had room, as most folks had already reserved.</p>
<p>^^^Great advice! Especially since D2 is out in the country and there aren’t too many storage options. How are you liking SCAD? Do you know anything about their interior design major?</p>
<p>We’ve been very pleased with SCAD and our daughter seems to be thriving there. Last year’s foundation studies were brutal to get through, just like most art schools, but things have settled a bit and she finds she has more time now to participate in much more of what the school offers socially and activity-wise. </p>
<p>I know the school gets knocked by some posters here at CC, but its been the right choice for our daughter. Right out of the gate she is developing all the tools and resources she will need to actually have a career using her art (graphics design major) - one of her main assignments in a class last quarter was to develop her personal web space with portfolio and contact information. One class had an assignment that was real-world: an actual client came in and needed a new logo design, so everyone in the class developed a logo as their ‘project’ and one was actually chosen. They experienced client meetings and learned about professional presentations. One student’s work was chosen and he was paid for his work.</p>
<p>Unfortunately I can’t offer much information in the interior design major. Most of my daughter’s friends there are involved in film/sound, photography and graphic design.</p>
<p>@Greenwitch: I’m cautiously hopeful that we aren’t altogether done with MICA and Baltimore yet. We’ll see. In that case, I hope the bakery will still be there!</p>
<p>@Bears: The van…we bought it in 1996 when we thought we would like to camp a lot. We actually took it to Yellowstone that summer and the five of us slept inside! Quite an accomplishment. The kids were 1.5, 4, and 5 – so they were small enough that we could manage it (though it wasn’t the most comfortable accommodations in the world) – it actually can seat fifteen people if it had the back back seat. It seats 12 with room for luggage in the back. It was great for girl scout trips back in the day. The New York climate has not been kind to it, but we’re nursing it along because we can’t afford a new car right now. In fact, with D1 home for some time we need to consider the commuting options. Art Student League or Garrison art center are the most feasible though she’d have to get off her butt and walk to the train station. She really likes Katonah art center though, and for that she needs a car. H and I could carpool, but he keeps really crazy research scientist hours whereas I have to keep kind of normal office hours. But we’ll figure something out. What is LIC? and the russian thing? </p>
<p>My back doesn’t seem too bad this morning. Hurray! But I swear the house looks like something out of hoarders. All the boxes: My Mom died last year and while I was in California we had to divide up the family photos and sentimental bric-a-brac. I don’t know where I’m going to put all this stuff. Some things I didn’t even really ‘want’ but it seemed wrong to throw it away. I need to refresh myself with ‘throw out fifty things’. Last time I did that I challenged H to it – I threw out 50 things and he threw out 1. Figures. I can see that this will take some time to sort all this stuff out. We had planned on storage in Baltimore – at Thanksgiving I’d asked D1 to ask her room mates if they wanted to share a storage space for the summer. But it’s all here now. Maybe I’ll look for a storage unit close to home (I’m sure H will be thrilled).</p>
<p>LIC I meant Long Island City, across the river from Manhattan’s East side and is part of the Queens. around Citi bank’s building you could see.
for out-town folks, there are old factory buildings and train tracks, some hip art-y place up and coming PS1, Sculpture center, etc. Cooper had studios for kids there while new one being built, maybe still does.
thou bit pushing to attract moneyed family to go take after school class.
and its website is…weird. -ahem be nice be nice
you don’t wanna show your(founder/artists?) smiling photos in tacky living room with greetings or
say Parsons with “'s” call Cooper " Cooper Union University" if you want to be taken seriously as strong art school portfolio prep school.
I am gonna go spy anyway, it is very intriguing, this Russian method, no?</p>
<p>Glad the trip to Baltimore went without a hitch. I have piles downstairs and S needs to pack because we drive to BWI tomorrow morning for his $50 flight to Pittsburgh. Usually he catches a free bus to school but with snow on the ground and he has two bags and a crutch he will need to take a taxi to school which will cost at least as much as the airplane.</p>
<p>S and D and photo-ing his final project…strange cactus thing with adorable baby legs…when he put a balloon into it to inflate the cactus and then blew into balloon with baby legs around his head…he thought it was funny…I thought it was gross…my husband just looks terrified (what does this mean? why is S doing this? how to explain to the family?) … luckily, S also got on amazon to buy serious calculus and python programming books for next semester…this relaxed H a little. </p>
<p>Movie recommendation…Absolutely, absolutely loved “the king’s speech”…go see it! I swear I was agonizing through the last scene…it was as exciting as a chase scene in a Bond movie…“would he make it?” Poor H didn’t understand until this morning that the little girl was the present queen. Weirdly it is like some Harry Potter reunion because so many of the actors were in at least one Harry Potter…also I Claudius…etc. </p>
<p>Got to go make S pack and …thank you notes! ayyyy ! forgot to remind him about those…do in the car on the way to the airport…</p>
<p>@ Gmom, when you said “I thought about not posting anymore”, I thought Nooo, you can’t leave. So I am happy that you have decided to stay. </p>
<p>@greenwitch and msmayor: Thanks for the reminder about the storage. I had planned on that, and then with everything else going on it slipped my mind. Who would have thought they’d be out of space in March! Also thanks for the size recommendation. I am spatially challenged and had no idea how much space she needs.</p>
<p>D flew back home Friday, sad to leave the BF behind, but happy to be doing art again. House is pretty well back to normal, and the guest bath is clean again, now that the skull-soaking projects are over with. I still have a rotting deer carcass in my back yard tho.</p>
<p>glad GMom will keep posting on the forum. Such a happy family we have become…so S left yesterday and I was surprised how sad it made me. I drove him to Baltimore and he was given a disabled sticker on his boarding pass so he should have boarded first and picked a good spot for his leg. Met another student who had a ride back to school so he had help with suitcase and a free ride to CMU! YES! I texted son to remind him to check in when he was back but not to tell H that he needed the reminder. Like a good son he spoke to H who was impressed that he remembered to call (LOL). H said that when he called it was very loud --some students in Ss room were arguing about some math proof and it sounded more like an argument over a bad call in soccer than a conversation about math. Lot’s of bad words mixed with terminology like derivative, convergence, sets… I felt envy.</p>
<p>I was cleaning up Ds room and picked up a letter that started "Dear XXX and was clearly my S’s handwriting…I only glanced at the first sentence to see that he had written her a goodbye note because she fell asleep his last night before they could finish watching a movie together…dying to read it…trying very very hard to respect privacy of siblings…dying to read it…</p>
<p>I am home today, working on refi and tax documents…HOW irritating is it that I start the application for a mortgage refi…I tell the loan officer to deal with ME send emails to ME and cc H because H is out of town or “out to lunch”. To date, loan officer has only spoken to me and received emails from me although all documents are signed by both H and me. </p>
<p>So loan officer sends important doc requests ONLY to H almost two weeks ago…closing is next week…H never opened the emails since he had no idea who this guy was. H calls me in panic about how to fill out the documents, H asks questions like “Do we have a deed?” “Do we have title insurance and what is it anyway?” “What is a platt?” …this is why I am doing the refi work. Do you think the loan officer is just stupid or sexist? H thinks it is nothing but if the dork had emailed me or at least ccd me I could have done all the documentation filling out/signing/scanning and email this weekend instead of in a big rush this morning.</p>
<p>FAM- this story reminds me of when we were first married and we had this miracle chevy cavalier (bought it for 2K, put 500 into over its 7 year life time, sold it for 500)that would occasionally need a little work. There was this really cheap and honest mechanic in town, the only problem with the guy is he would not speak to me. I remember one phone call where we had to make a decision to go ahead with some work. He kept hemming and hawing with me on the phone, finally asked me nicely if he could speak with my H. I blew my top and said that he was welcome to speak to my H, but H is a librarian, and I am an engineer who is making all the automotive decisions, so it was his call but my advice was to just speak to me.</p>
<p>Reminds me of when I was a service advisor in a small Maine auto dealership. One of the regular customers (who never talked to me even after I had been there several years) came in while the service manager (a man) was on vacation. He asked to speak to “Fred”. Told him Fred was on vacation, and could I help him. He said no, he’d call later. When he called, Fred still wasn’t back. Then at the end of the week he stopped in again, no Fred, still wouldn’t talk to me. On Monday he came in and asked to talk to Fred. I go get Fred, Fred comes out and finds he needs an appointment for an oil change, and Fred tells him to talk to me, that I would set that up for him. So he waited a whole week because he thought a man could make an appointment better than a female. He was actually the only customer we had who refused to talk to me.</p>
<p>I’m also a new poster here and bears & dogs suggested I stop by. I am the mom of 2 art boys, although each seems on his own off-beat journey. My oldest S1 is a junior (USC Film School-Interactive Media major–but just today is flying to Florence for a semester abroad studying art) and S2 is a HS senior applying all over. S2 applying to art-architecture-theatre design-and film programs at various universities, so all over the creative place. S1 is a game designer, but S2 would love to design destination resorts, film sets, Disneyland. S2’s college applications are all submitted and we’re now in waiting mode. Do you mind if I stop by here in your very creative space while I wait (looking at watch, looking at clock) to hear if my S1 ever landed in Florence and if, oh please, he remembers to let his mom know he’s arrived in one piece?</p>
S2’s college applications are all submitted and we’re now in waiting mode. Do you mind if I stop by here in your very creative space while I wait (looking at watch, looking at clock) to hear if my S1 ever landed in Florence and if, oh please, he remembers to let his mom know he’s arrived in one piece?</p>