<p>“nothing broken but my heart”
Ah bears you literally brought tears to my eyes with that one
What a way to sum up the leaving and launching for all of us</p>
<p>I’m baacckkkk redeye and all
now that in comfort of familiar keyboard that don’t have wrong things on the wrong places, I can talk details.
since I been bit*ching everything about everyone, it is safe to stay quiet about where and who my kid is.
so I won’t name the names but he sure is at the other end of this big big country.
we are waiting at the airport exit for the shared move in day shuttle and no other parents (gasp) every kids had on same sort of clothes, attitude and some form of musical instrument each, one guy was already sizing up the size of his gun.
this means good and bad thing.
well, my part is DONE. now deal with it. (easier said than done…)</p>
<p>I have learned few things.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Those oblong giant black canvas duffel bag makes excellent personal sleeping pod.
It was cold in the terminal at night, I had nothing to put on over my T-shirt.
I have taken back borrowed duffel after emptied out of his bedding.
I looked at it, then thought, canvas, is a fabric Carhartt jacket is made of.
I stuck both arms/shoulders in the length of the opened zipper and draped over me and it worked.
once boarded inside of this overbooked full plane, I buckled in one end of the bag into seat belt (so the attendant won’t have to call me on) and enclosed my upper body; head and all in the other end of the bag (now like mini teepee) and it was cozy, warm, dark, quiet, perfect to steal few hours of good sleep.
It might only worked well because I scored window seats ahead of the time, so didn’t have to worry about leaning against strangers. plus I washed the bag inside out myself to know it is clean enuff.</p></li>
<li><p>fate of your checked baggage.
maybe not at every airport, but at LaG NY, I was watching from the inside of the landed plane this guy unloading with his headphone-sh thing on (to protect from loud noise or to communicate with henchmen, but more looked like he is dancing to the beat, from the way he worked)
there was longish delicate-sh object in fabric case which was loaded last at deporting airport (yes I was spying from the window)
whatever goes last would come out first, naturally.
the guy just throws onto the floor of the what do you call, cart with curtain/door and mercilessly piled suitcases on top of it.
he threw, banged, stashed them(and did little jig) shut the curtain half way then drove off with it.
welcome back to NY. </p></li>
<li><p>It was also surprising how little amount of bags were checked in for full plane.(hi fee, shorter trip for NYC trade shows and such) everyone got this rolley carry-on max bag, that had to be made sure to fit in “carry on cage” thing before boarding.
even thou bag manufactures are careful to make it fit in the cage, if you’d fill outer pocket with bulky items, it expands too deep and will be pulled aside and that bag had to be taken away to “carry on dungeon”
I only found out ^ about it because I had to bring his guitar ahead of time to be examined to be sure it will not get charged as “special item” $175 a piece. You can buy another seat for that much money, —like Yo-Yo-ma would have to do always, not that he’d need to worry about nor had to ever fly economy — because of the case’s dimension (W+H+D) is one and 3/8 inch too big from their limit.
I was told don’t worry, they’d treat it as carry on, just drop it off on the secret alcove door on the boarding bridge, someone would come and take it, put it on this secret hammock thing over the cargo (those poor bags I saw guys are thrown in and out-ing) and stay safe from banged around. when the trip is done, it would be picked up fast and come up to meet you at the getting off bridge’s secret alcove door.
only one drawback is it count as your main carry-on. but hey, it worked. phew.
do check with carrier about smallest details. never assume the worst ($175 plus banging) there is some loophole or secret we don’t know about.
then again, if you do this often enuff, you’d have figured out eh?
maybe too big-o-art portfolios travels the same way? I remember reading about it in here somewhere.</p></li>
<li><p>If you can wait, go to the bathroom farther down from the arriving gate. airport are filled with bathrooms and food places. do not waste waiting in the line if it’s more than three people. there would be next bathroom, water fountain, news stands, coffee people, sandwich people, wok-work, pisa pizza, etc.
^all these people have to commute to work. and get paid. all these people have families, kids, parents, friends and enemies. ticketing people, cleaning people, TSA, information desk people, get flu shot here people, massage your neck people…
every city every port everyday… 24/7/365 (well almost, some are closed of course 2,3 in the morning)
It makes me dizzy. as much so as seeing farmland and great rivers, lakes so google satellite views from the sky. why do I worry about something small, like my kid’s future? we are a tiny speckles in the big scheme of things.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>nobody home to stop me from mumbling on?</p>
<p>–then again, it happens when you are least expected.
on the way home on the subway, the boy 3,4 sh in the stroller got on. on his lap is the pull the string and talk Woody doll.
now, if you had girl or something against Disney, it is nothing.
but the kid I took care of had the same doll long time ago and my son(the sidekick)'s love was Buz and Mr. Potato head. they’d play every day forever together. making up all sound effects and actions like Andy taught them how to do it.
“there’s a snake in my boot!”
the boy pulls string and his Woody still says the same thing, albeit gone thru how many generations and re-orders by now.
One thing bad (and great) about this toy is that, Woody’s plastic cowboy hat comes off from his plastic head. the search and find mission the end of everyday was us moms/caregivers shared ordeal in those days. (or so I thought)
I asked the guy who was the behind of the stroller
"what happened to his hat? " with somewhat accusing tone, which is ignored by the dad who might be a foreigner (you can tell by the stance, design of the shirt, et cetera) and/or one of those people who don’t talk to weird immigrant in the big city, but caught by the boy who proudly shown the sole of Woody’s plastic cowboy boot.
there is the boy’s name proudly written with black marker, just like the movie.
“somebody’s poisoned waterhole!”
“hee haaw”
then my eyes get wet-y misty.
Maybe not about launching, in particular.
just that time, gone and won’t come back. things forgotten until reminded.
things doesn’t change while you do change slowly without ever noticing. and randomness of it all.</p>
<p>I am gonna pack up, clean up, fill screw holes and paint spackling paste dots to match (hey, I didn’t go to artschool for nothin’) do farewell last give away fest, even.
then move on.</p>
<p>another subway found
<a href=“Autistic and Seeking a Place in an Adult World - The New York Times”>Autistic and Seeking a Place in an Adult World - The New York Times;
do you get the paper, Gmom?
what do you think?</p>
<p>Great stories, bears. I can picture you in your black duffle-pod, actually buckled into your airplane seat. Anything to help get some sleep… And if it’s not too cold in those planes and airports, it’s too hot and stuffy. Maybe then you can fold the duffle into some kind of fan.</p>
<p>Bears…so sad about the launch but glad that you used the experience to give me the BEST idea for the plane. I am allergic to light…I mean I cannot sleep with any light so I put on two of the eyepads or whatever they are and still rarely sleep on a plane…the pod!! kids will die of embarrassment but it may be just what I need. I could just do the hood thing but then I would look like a terrorist or ready for hangman noose. The full pod is eccentric but clearly someone encased in a pod can’t start doing dangerous things on a plane! </p>
<p>I have D up on the step to the launchpad like G-mom’s daughter and she is starting to think about colleges but is torn between applying to big name schools like expected at our type-A-full-of-overachieving-students HS and being rejected. So I asked if she had seen the email from the college advising group about Dartmouth…yes…would like to go today downtown to see the rep/presentation? Yes? wow…OK. It was taking place at the American Indian Museum which I had never seen (there is a good reason…) so I thought we go early wander and then go to talk…leave early to make soccer game back in virginia. We rode up with a smiling man in a tie, looked like he worked there, looked like indigenous ecuadorean but long black hair in pony tail not in braid so that was confusing and he did not seem to understand spanish…Turns out to be the Dart rep arriving early to set up. </p>
<p>Anyway…confusing museum–beautiful building with a jumble of stuff in great need of a curator. I had heard the reviews and after years in my teens/adulthood becoming quite the expert on all things native american I didn’t want to be disappointed. I was, very. So we were pretty done with museum before the Dart chat. </p>
<p>Dartmouth rep was not a dartmouth grad but local to virginia but native american (did not say tribe)–which explains why we thought he was Ecuadorean. Very pleasant and enthusiastic without being hyper or snobby. Sold my D on the value of a liberal arts college education as opposed to a large research university (I may make a donation to the college just for this!!). It was a very small group of students (20-25 and parents)…a few super preppies (I think rep makes special trips to visit the prep schools) but out of that group 4 from our HS including two seniors from the hockey team (D says they are geniuses…I said anyone who plays that silly game has to have some stupidity in their brain…not funny she says). </p>
<p>So that was relatively painless and she didn’t get her nose out of joint when I said that she is very unlikely to get into Dart but if smallish LAC is not poison to her there are a thousand good substitutes that don’t have forest and moose around them. I can’t believe we went painlessly from Duke/UVA/Stanford/Berkeley being at the top of her list to Dart pushing them aside as well as accepting that there are lots of cheaper and lest prestigious schools that could fit the bill… I think we will go to our college fair in October (lots of brochures) and then avoid colleges until spring or summer of junior year. The seed has been sown and I am going to let it germinate…</p>
<p>mom4art - yes, they become different people… D sent a thank you note to famm without me reminding (read nagging) her! She will continually surprise you.</p>
<p>bears - I heard a similar guitar story involving a very famous rock band (can’t remember the name tho), the band members watched them throwing their guitars on the pile with suitcases all over. Some heads rolled on that one. We put the art portfolio in the overhead, hers just fit. Are you going to move?? And if yes, where, closer to S?</p>
<p>oh no
I am just, cough cough, downsizing to save rent money.
reason I had my own place was for my kid to have some life with normalcy, now he is gone, no reason to keep it.
thou I did spent few hours in nearby school metropolis (sorry, call me whatever, I ain’ gonna live nowhere w/no noodles full access libraries and art museums) and found few very intriguing trait.
I now know I did not know ANYTHING about college age kids’ life in wider US of A general.
that of sorority rush (is not diaper rash) hunting and fishing club, Eagle scout, girl cadet boot camp, etc etc
when I got pay off tuition and still any leftover, maybe I am going to visit ya’ll one by one in your home turf.
surprise me, will you?</p>
<p>bears: visit me first!
So many nice story from all of you.
I got a two pages letter from D last Friday. I read many times and feel she is just near me talking to me. With email, text, phone, we started to write letters! I send her one last Monday.
Asked: Is it boring to read?
answer: “NO”!
Asked: Did you find many grammar problem or spelling wrong?
Answer: Not that much, you are fine.</p>
<p>I did wrote another one to mail today. I feel we are silly :–)</p>
<p>I think sorority rush just may be a rash. Cured by pearls and simpering chatter.</p>
<p>to loves
no, you are NOT!
I do that all the time. not handwrite much but drawings and stuff, postcards.
If I were to type then print out, it loses point of sending letter to me. It looks cold and official, (and still in bad grammar)
I can’t read so well others’ handwriting either.
Do you two?</p>
<p>like, I brought stamps and my address book (does anyone remember what that is? it’s a little notebook made out of pages of paper with blank areas for people’s mailing address and maybe land phone line numbers to fill in)
I bought bunch of school postcards from the bookstore and sent from the mailbox in the library building to his elementary, middle, HS1, HS2’s staff we are still in contact to thank and let them know that he is officially started college after all.
I know he should be doing that himself (like mom4D, redbugD but fat chance)
and it might be stupid from US standard, even from the receiving ends, maybe betetr I am the one to be laughed at.
teaching, is a sacred job when and where I was a kid.
and some teachers, GCs, coaches, lunch helpers, you name it - here, too, still do that.</p>
<p>I actually sent one postcard to my kid last week with dorm address.
He will get it tomorrow. But the way things are going, honeymoon is over and done.</p>
<p>It is lovely your D is so encouraging to parents trying to learn. I posted about language skill in other thread here just now. I am puzzled and sort of given up.
Plateau-ed what I could absorb and utilize. hard to teach old bears a new trick…</p>
<p>wow I am posted so many many today. sorry folks. should catch up sleep for tomorrow.</p>
<p>American Tune Lyrics
Artist(Band):Paul Simon</p>
<p>Many’s, the time I’v been mistaken
And many times confused
Yes, and often felt forsaken
And certainly misused
But I’m all right, I’m all right
I’m just weary to my bones
Still, you don’t expect to be
Bright and born vivant
So far away from home, so far away from home</p>
<p>And I don’t know a soul who’s not been battered
I don’t have a friend who feels at ease
I don’t know a dream that’s not been shattered
or driven to its knees
But it’s all right, it’s all right
We’ve lived so well so long
Still, when I think of the road
we’re traveling on
I wonder what went wrong
I can’t help it, I wonder what went wrong</p>
<p>And I dreamed I was dying
And I dreamed that my soul rose unexpectedly
And looking back down at me
Smiled reassunngly
And I dreamed I was flying
And high up above my eyes could clearly see
The Statue of Liberty
Sailing away to sea
And I dreamed I was flying</p>
<p>We come on the ship they call the Mayflower
We come on the ship that sailed the moon
We come in the age’s most uncertain hour
and sing an American tune
But it’s all right, it’s all right
You can’t be forever blessed
Still, tomorrow’s going to be another working day
And I’m trying to get some rest
That’s all I’m trying to get some rest</p>
<p>G you beat me!
no, I leaned it is nowadays bleached blonde and lost 10 lbs where you were told and pinched by your sisters.</p>
<p>Bears…so sad about the launch but glad that you used the experience to give me the BEST idea for the plane. I am allergic to light…I mean I cannot sleep with any light so I put on two of the eyepads or whatever they are and still rarely sleep on a plane…the pod!! kids will die of embarrassment but it may be just what I need. I could just do the hood thing but then I would look like a terrorist or ready for hangman noose. The full pod is eccentric but clearly someone encased in a pod can’t start doing dangerous things on a plane! </p>
<p>I have D up on the step to the launchpad like G-mom’s daughter and she is starting to think about colleges but is torn between applying to big name schools like expected at our type-A-full-of-overachieving-students HS and being rejected. So I asked if she had seen the email from the college advising group about Dartmouth…yes…would like to go today downtown to see the rep/presentation? Yes? wow…OK. It was taking place at the American Indian Museum which I had never seen (there is a good reason…) so I thought we go early wander and then go to talk…leave early to make soccer game back in virginia. We rode up with a smiling man in a tie, looked like he worked there, looked like indigenous ecuadorean but long black hair in pony tail not in braid so that was confusing and he did not seem to understand spanish…Turns out to be the Dart rep arriving early to set up. </p>
<p>Anyway…confusing museum–beautiful building with a jumble of stuff in great need of a curator. I had heard the reviews and after years in my teens/adulthood becoming quite the expert on all things native american I didn’t want to be disappointed. I was, very. So we were pretty done with museum before the Dart chat. </p>
<p>Dartmouth rep was not a dartmouth grad but local to virginia but native american (did not say tribe)–which explains why we thought he was Ecuadorean. Very pleasant and enthusiastic without being hyper or snobby. Sold my D on the value of a liberal arts college education as opposed to a large research university (I may make a donation to the college just for this!!). It was a very small group of students (20-25 and parents)…a few super preppies (I think rep makes special trips to visit the prep schools) but out of that group 4 from our HS including two seniors from the hockey team (D says they are geniuses…I said anyone who plays that silly game has to have some stupidity in their brain…not funny she says). </p>
<p>So that was relatively painless and she didn’t get her nose out of joint when I said that she is very unlikely to get into Dart but if smallish LAC is not poison to her there are a thousand good substitutes that don’t have forest and moose around them. I can’t believe we went painlessly from Duke/UVA/Stanford/Berkeley being at the top of her list to Dart pushing them aside as well as accepting that there are lots of cheaper and lest prestigious schools that could fit the bill… I think we will go to our college fair in October (lots of brochures) and then avoid colleges until spring or summer of junior year. The seed has been sown and I am going to let it germinate…</p>
<p>heyyy fammom
am I having double vision? or did you pasted it again by mistake?
I’d better sleep now.</p>
<p>PS
D is a GREAT choice. have you read “Overachievers” yet? hide it but read it!!</p>
<p>B and D, congratulations on the launch. It will be hard to be away from your ds, but you have done a fine job for him. I don’t know where little b and d is, but if he is near San Francisco, I have family there and if he needs anything, I can contact them. Good luck on your move!</p>
<p>that was weird about the double posting…last night posted and then when turning off computer I must have done an enter keystroke with it still there…not sure. Anyway, no double vision. HA! about the sorority rash. Rash for life if they pledge. Will send S another letter/card today. I figure if I do enough of them he will eventually answer. Why is it the girls are so much more thoughtful in this way? Yep. REdbug D sent lovely thank you and so did French girl who stayed with us for a week in the summer and, gasp! one of my D’s friends who I picked up from FH camp and took to the beach for a weekend…her mother almost dropped in a faint when I told her. When S returned to cmu last year I sent him with addressed and stamped envelopes for grandparents/uncles/aunts to send xmas thank yous…they told me that he must of discovered them when he was cleaning up to leave as they received them in May. I am not sure about the adage “better late than never”…</p>
<p>“as they received them in May”
That is so funny, let’s give him the benefit of the doubt
and believe that he sent them in May because he knew they
wouldn’t get lost in the rash of other Christmas thank yous.
You can sure bet they won’t forget he sent the cards for quite awhile!</p>
<p>good morning all
sunny, warm, traffic, skimpy-half naked running and gym going people, roach-coach donuts guy, dogs, dogs, dogs
another working day at NY how reassuring is that</p>
<p>smarty what happened to your rambling and/or multi-posting habit?
you can’t be on iphone, I hope?</p>
<p>phillymom!
have you see me edamame dance?
but now the trouble is “wasabi arugula” $2.49.
it is in pre-washed bagged greens section and got pink details on the top.
I discovered it but kept it quiet yet…
GONE, sold out while other bunch of arugula bags are there aton.
you just can’t keep messing up with my regimen. oh the suspense = is it GONE is it GONE?
please.
ohhh SF. looove the city. hate the price. lucky you got place to stay. count me in!</p>
<p>bears:
I will be in SF from 10/16 to 10/28. I have two weeks training there. if you can fly over you can stay in my hotel room with me.<br>
I have class in daytime but you can tour the city alone and tell me what you see in the evening.</p>
<p>love
means you going to them silicon valley?
what training? what what???
it is VERY nice of you. I don’t wanna be of any burden and should not indulge myself just yet before I am sure he’d stick with the schooling.
tempting… too bad your D can’t come.
nice museums. nice Chinatown that local people live and eat in it, not for tourists. sweet buns spring rolls dumplings noodles noodles noodles…
I mean tourism is a great thing. last time we were there, did cable car bit and sea lion watch at fishermans warf. ate clam chowder in the sourdough bread “bowl”
[Clam</a> chowder in a sourdough bread bowl | Flickr - Photo Sharing!](<a href=“http://www.■■■■■■■■■■/photos/volk/2250673038/]Clam”>Clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl | From Boudin's. An e… | Flickr)
the best thing is that, they’d give you the dry top (cut out portion)of the bread bowl, that you can keep it for later munchee.</p>
<p>these are things I’d never have done if it wasn’t for college visit trips. life is great.
oh
maybe Drae can go? she deserves vacation.
somehow you can convince she is your SIL, or something?</p>