<p>Launch starts tomorrow! All our bags are packed, we’re ready to go… (ha ha won’t sing it). Our flight leaves in the am to Baltimore where we are bracing for Hurricane Irene storms this weekend.</p>
<p>Used the vacuum bags (winner of an idea!) Will pick up the bed risers there (won’t fit in the luggage). Had to coerce D to pack some of her prisma pencils and markers. She is afraid people will steal them. I told her that this is the time to use the good stuff because her art grades matter now. </p>
<p>Funny when I think back. When she was first diagnosed with ADHD, I said that one day, if she followed her heart, she would be able to study what she wanted and it would not feel like such a chore to sit through classes. It feels like that day has come. </p>
<p>Hoping that she will skype or at least charge her phone to talk. Kind of anxious and sad. Wish us luck.</p>
<p>Time to catch up. Love all these posts, Obama’s grey hair, loveblue’s advice not to cry (oh is that hard), I’m glad the space bags worked out, I actually am using them for my own trips now too, except that my suitcases are double heavy but then I just have one now.</p>
<p>Got sidetracked over on parent forum, it’s all Bears fault LOL, has left me afraid that my kid will even date or have a drink so I think I’d better stick with art so I don’t get too worried.</p>
<p>At any rate, I didn’t feel the quake but we’re pretty north and I was driving. Others here felt it but I find it unnerving that it was that strong further south. Having lived in some major quake areas during my life I know they can be awfully frightening. And now this dang hurricane. Good luck to everyone trying to settle in on the east coast with that going on. Am pretty far away from coastal areas but I noticed this am that we are in the colored end zone for damage, am wondering if I have time to cut down some of these gigantanormous trees my DH won’t let me touch. But they say our winds will only be 60mph.</p>
<p>Oh yeah and good job on getting that S to register, I have a brother who follows politics constantly and is actually very well educated about what is going on yet has never registered or voted. Drives me crazy, I wouldn’t even care if he voted differently than moi, just vote for crying out loud!</p>
<p>Good luck to all who are launching or re-sending.</p>
<p>We were in DC when the quake hit, in between trains during the launch. We were just about to leave the Holocaust Museum, coming down the stairs, when the stairs started to shake. I thought it was a piece of iron work maybe letting go. The staff got us all gathered away from under the atrium with the large glass panels, and out the door. No one had any idea what it was. Meanwhile, my D had bought 3 books at the American History museum earlier and had checked them along with her jacket in the coat check. No one was allowed back in the building and the museums were closed for the rest of the day. So we headed back to Union station where our train was supposed to leave at 4 pm, but was instead delayed 4 hours. D was upset over losing $80 worth of books. Not to worry, Famm has graciously volunteered to pick them up for me! </p>
<p>Famm - check your pm’s for my address. Thanks!</p>
<p>Famm is a champion, how nice.
I heard yesterday that NYU has pushed back their move-in to the beginning of next week and not this weekend. DH is supposed to go to NYC Monday, I think that may not be happening, we’ll see. Good luck to everyone in the path of this thing, we are too but it’s looking like the winds and rain will not be as severe as south of us.</p>
<p>My H was going to take baby swits back to NYC this weekend, but now will stall. I am glad because we are all safer under one roof, and I get to hang with him more. </p>
<p>We had a great summer. The trip to Israel was amazing. I saw many cousins that I hadnt seen in over 30 years. S made money doing odd jobs, and a jolly good pet portrait gig. I really enjoyed his company, and I am really sad to see him leave. </p>
<p>Bears, what is up with you? Do you have somewhere safe to be for the storm? Do you want to hop the megabus down here and hang with us? How launched are you? </p>
<p>Love, when is D headed back? Where is she? If she is in NYC tell her to get a megabus to DC if she wants.</p>
<p>Moved most of D2’s stuff to Baltimore today. The area around MICA was just hopping with activity and all sorts of moving in. How strange to move in the day before a hurricane hits! We’ll move her, her computer and one more chair as early as we can tomorrow morning and then we’ll all take shelter separately. I wish she could stay home with us but Sunday will be a nightmare and she has class Monday morning. </p>
<p>I hope the school has some facilities and provisions for those who lose power, even in apartments. Even though it’s urban, the power lines are not buried there. I also hope she’s not a total ditz about going out on Saturday night. I’ve warned her many times! </p>
<p>Meanwhile, I’ve been putting off cleaning the house until both D’s and all their stuff, was gone. In-laws are arriving next Friday and I have lots of vacuuming to do. We are SURE to lose power (electric company has already called warning of that - how kind of them) and I’m ready to start shrieking.</p>
<p>Bears: hope you can find a safe place or get to switters place!
Baltimore may got hit badly also, right?
greenwich: wish your D can be all right!
Actually I saw DC in the bad spot also,
switter and famm: wish you all be fine</p>
<p>Bright blue skies in DC and a real holiday atmosphere as we get ready for disaster #2 …I left work early and found a parking spot??? near the holocaust museum. Little redbug’s stuff is safe in the car ready for it’s odyssey to Minnesota. Three cheers for CC community! Like Switters says…if Baltimore or New York look tooo wet and wild, the suburbs of DC are here to offer sanctuary. Only a megabus ride away!</p>
<p>Artsmarts…good luck with the rainy weekend. They have cancelled the MLK monument dedication. William and Mary college had one day of classes and then evacuated for teh rest of the week. Parents are moaning about having the kids back again. </p>
<p>H and S are just now arriving in Pittsburgh. Total chaos this morning. I mean total…Literally, zero packing done until late last night and this morning. He decided he had not documented all of his work from last semester and the summer and had me rolling out plastic on the deck so he could spread out work, stand on a chair and take photos. Out came the most amazing pieces that I had not seen…I hope they go on his website. Frustrated that he waits 3 months to do this but pleased to see some really neat pieces from last semester. Suddenly, he starts going through draws looking for a graphing calculator because now he has a tough math class…does this make sense to do at this late hour? …we find one but the plus key and log do not work…and it looks suspiciously like it was stolen from school…certainly I never bought that calculator. Perhaps I can just quietly leave it on a desk at back to school night in my daughter’s math class…</p>
<p>S was in total panic but when he went to get the boxes from the attic …there they were, fully packed with clean towels, sheets, alarm clocks, winter clothes, etc …he had forgotten that he had grumbled in May that would not let him see ANYONE until stuff was placed clean in attic. All he had to do was throw clean t-shirts, underwear and socks in a small suitcase and gather his art stuff (that was the tough part). There was a bad moment when after a summer of shorts he tried on some jeans…yup, he grew another inch or so this summer or else was wearing high waters all last semester…we may need to go shopping during our visit.</p>
<p>I realized as I had a couple of moody moments yesterday that I was taking S’s move back to CMU much harder than expected. I really enjoyed our summer and have this hollow feeling that we won’t have another one like this. Anyway, I went out and packed a bag of ramen, cereals, cookies, vitamins and toothpaste…I felt much better. I think we will not go for parents weekend (end of october) but perhaps sometime end sept/ early october. Make sure that the steelers are not at home and plan a nice weekend to see him and perhaps visit some colleges with D (anyone ever heard of Washington and Jefferson college–90% acceptance into med school?). </p>
<p>So life goes on…everyone have a safe weekend and safe travels.</p>
<p>^^ that was very funny! We ended moving in the rest of D’s stuff during the day of the hurricane. Lots of rain, not too much wind, and luckily it wasn’t pouring too much while we were moving in her things. No loss of power either here or there, phew.</p>
<p>D told me that she heard MICA had over-enrolled for freshmen this year. They accepted about 700 and thought about 500 would enroll. 650 enrolled! The Commons are full of freshmen, and the Meyerhouse dorms (should be mixed) and there are even some in the Gateway (should be all upperclassmen). Even that wasn’t enough and the school had to rent space in a new, swanky apartment building nearby. </p>
<p>I’m glad her year wasn’t so crowded and I’m glad she won’t be applying NEXT year when they’re sure to be very conservative about how many applicants they accept!</p>
<p>As always I enjoyed famm’s posting! It is very vivid.
greenwitch: 150 more, that is a lot more. They may have bigger class size also?</p>
<p>D is till home. Yesterday morning, she told me:“mom, this is my last Saturday of this summer” and I told her: “no you leave next Sunday …” Today after super, she said “next week is my last week home…” I did try to cheer her up, but I feel sad also.</p>
<p>really enjoy to have her around. We did had a fight last week. I find out our policy department offer “self-defense” class and I called in to find out more. The guy said the group lesson is in the end of Sep but he is happy to offer D a private one. I took that and when I told D about this. She said" you register a class for me? without telling me? I am not going." days after I asked her today and she still said “no”
maybe she is right. this 45 min class have no use. and I am too bossy.</p>
<p>A private self defense lesson–with a police officer? How old? Is he cute? If so, point out the positives… Think of the fun!..think of the stories to tell your roomates back in NY about her private lesson with a police officer… …her hands will be registered weapons! She can be superwoman and picasso at the same time? Still…my kids hate it when I do things without their input so it isn’t surprising she balked. </p>
<p>Mom4art…are you back? how did launch go with the weather and the overcrowding…fill us in!</p>
<p>I lived thru.
I will never post on parents turf ever again.
cage muzzle and hurricane. two dogs doing dog-sitting (french bull and chihuahua, black and white coordinated artsy-artsy) the owner’s plane won’t fly of course, stuck in my half packed tiny walk-up (opted out hi-rise option in case of power outage)
no phone(is away with my kid), no internet (Mac died), at one point WNYC AM died on me and I thought the end was near.
Do you know that if AM dies, try FM? their wave thing is different. phew.
So mayor was over-cautious from the last snow storm beat-up.
Subway stopped, people evacuated well ahead now seemed overkill.
It’s better safe than sorry. </p>
<p>At my tiny apartment, I am pretty much ditching everything. like, years of school works, doodles, nicknacks and it is heartbreaking.
I don’t have ANY material desire, really, on me, for my, by me.
WHY then did I save hand written or crudely typed essays, poems, science paper, math tests from grade school? doodles after doodles. nothing special, childish (yet there sure is budding distinguished style only the mother could see)
I put best ones in “til this box is full” box and put out the rest for recycling.
I feel like my kid is gone.
I mean he will soon, (be back for a week or so, then launcheee mid Sep.—that is, if he won’t take full-time roustabout job that offered.
He is still wondering if there is any value in higher education for what cost.
I am so ready to move on. (or not?)</p>
<p>Really, people with an attic and basement, or even ample closet space,what have you saved/ thrown away form your kid’s pre digital kid-kid days?</p>
<p>Oh bears, that is something I need to do also, go through those old boxes of every single little drawing and piece of writing, I even saved the pages from the handbooks. But I am with you, haven’t had the ability to go through much of it yet…it’s really hard.</p>
<p>We’re pretty flooded in places here, our little downtown got hit really hard in one section, some smaller towns nearby totally washed out. I don’t think it’s over the river is still rising and could go over the banks if the run off is heavy enough. I heard upstate NY got hit really hard also and they had a ton of flooding already this spring.</p>
<p>The good news is that it has drained out downtown here, the bad news is that it left a ton of mud and much of it in some little local shops. But no one died, and mud can be cleaned and buildings rebuilt, so far just sad to say one death in a nearby town.</p>
<p>Welcome back Bears…! What a time to be sent to siberia! We missed you. Let us know the details of the launch (final launch)…your post made me sad about the process of sorting through the stuff of childhood. </p>
<p>I am the queen of keepiness. I kept a giant box that I then organized into accordian folder for each child with each school year’s junk including stupid doodles and essays and finger paintings. How to cull all t his stuff?</p>
<p>I had to cut down on all the stuff so I ended up doing those smarmy scrapbooks, sortof. Lots of items and pictures but little commentary or explanation written in by me. The 12X12 scapbooks with removeable pages were my choice. I picked out the very best examples of art/english/math plus little awards but also mean letters from teachers about disorganization, etc. for son. What hilarity for detention letters because he doodled over his science notebook and…the teacher who said he preferred to “draw rather than learn.” I saved playbills and concert flyers, mothers day cards, report cards, some really funny emails from teachers (complementary and some not so much)…some folders are chock full of stuff…others much less so. Then I added some photos from class outings, birthday parties, soccer games. </p>
<p>The filter of hindsight definitely had a play in what I selected for the scrapbook…clearly more emphasis on Art relics for my son with the hope that I will look like a really smart mom to support his early efforts so selflessly… Anyway, I was a little embarrased by the scrapbooks…not really my style to do something so organized/utesy…but both kids really liked it and it has made it easier to get rid of a lot of the other stuff. I still have a few things in each accordian folder because I couldn’t bear to throw out all of the stuff, particularly bigger reports, etc. Nevertheless, it is therapeutic to do the selection and get rid of the majority of the stuff.</p>
<p>Eventually, I will give the books to the kids (when they seem like they have settled down and won’t lose them). S has his through high school but I am 4 years behind on D…on my to do list.</p>
<p>Tigger bouncing in to shout 'HallOOO" and bounce out again</p>
<p>The hurricane was a big non-event for us on our little hilltop over the Hudson River. Lots of rain, but no worries since we’re on top of a hill. No real wind (even though we were in the center of the tracking cone) until well after the rain stopped – and even then we only had one small sapling come down. We never lost power. I finally got around to letting the water drain out of the bath tubs and I have to get the camping gear put away. We bought a generator on Wednesday – never took it out of the box, might as well return it. The freezer in the garage seems to be a casulty… not sure why.</p>
<p>The storm did provide us with incentive to call in some tree services for estimates for cutting down some dead trees and cutting back some branches… very expensive proposition, sigh, which is why we haven’t done it so far. Our neighbor has a very dead 80 foot elm tree that threatens half our house with destruction, but she is on a fixed income and can’t afford to take it out. So it’s been standing there. I really thought it would come down in this storm… we even slept out in the living room in case it did.</p>
<p>Started my new old job – working from home is cool but the kids are not back in school so they tend to bug me about things. My trek desk is here, the treadmill arrives on Wednesday. Hopefully that will help with some of the pesky aches and pains I get from sitting at a desk too long.</p>
<p>Aspie girl and manga girl are getting ready to go back to school. Manga girl’s manga class tonight got switched up with something else and she somehow ended up doing charcoal drawings with a live model for her manga class. She said that the model was studying to become an art therapist, which is something manga girl has expressed an interest in – though she doesn’t want to go to art school and she doesn’t want to ‘do art she doesn’t want to do’ because she thinks it will take time away from her precious manga. </p>
<p>D1 spends most of her day doing jigsaw puzzles and sudoku. She reads strange books. She reads stuff on the internet. She isn’t doing any social computing stuff anymore, doesn’t text or call anyone (and no one calls her). She seemed to have a good time with her cousins on vacation in NH and participated in all the activities – horse back riding and atv riding and swimming and hiking etc. She hasn’t completed the work for her incomplete from her summer class. She was supposed to be figuring out what classes she will take at the community college for the Fall semester and clarify her status with MICA… but she hasn’t called them at all. I have a hunch that the new antidepressant isn’t strong enough - -so I will talk with her psychiatrist next week – both D1 and Aspie girl are supposed to see him for med checks. I try really hard not to worry about her too much. But it’s hard.</p>
<p>I am terrible about saving everything. I just recently got rid of several file drawers full of work the girls did when we were homeschooling. I tend to keep art and writing that they did. D1 was notorious for doodling in her math notebook. She actually got into a lot of trouble for that with her middle school math teacher.</p>
<p>Bears, your post made me feel sad. I hope you’re doing well.</p>
<p>Gmom lives!!
I am OK just doing Eeyore thing as Eeyore does.
actually, I just did one snarky comment on the parent turf (whaat?) and the active lively thread stop-dead for two hours, which made me tad nervous (caged again or what?) then someone agreed (agreed!!!) so it made me felt better.
See, I do make effort to conform. everyone have to, to live together on the same planet.
Or
imbalance would come back and haunt us as earthquakes or hurricanes.
It is so Dragonball Z.
Balance, is the key.
I don’t know ^what I am talking about. I am dog brained… Chihuahua was a rescued one and yapyap all her might every time doorbell rang or someone drops something heavy.
To think how much of a brain in the tiny head and looking thru veins on paper thin ears that could be notched by notcher with one snap (it is a pattern making tool like the ticket thing train conductor does)
no- I would never do something like that, it was a line from some old Japanese novel, supposedly, say, Japan’s Oscar Wilde-sh?
Weird teen readings would stay with you and make you weirder but keep you occupied thru adult life.
Only trouble is that other normal folks would not understand how cool and special you are. heheheh.
So
I am Okay, cool as a cucumber salad with rice vinegar and sesame oil.
Will report how it goes.</p>