Announcing the CollegeConfidential Writing Awards for 2004-2005

lderochi · January 24, 2006, 9:05pm

You guys were much, much more insane back in the day. But what I want to know is how do I get my smilies to be animated??

PS And was Xiggi really so easygoing? [Howdy Xiggi]

soozievt · January 24, 2006, 9:06pm

Jmmom…oops, I missed the opening line about Blossom…it was indeed worth reposting! And I guess my mind is not going nuts because I really didn’t think YOU had a son about to graduate college! I know you have a son who is a freshman at Tulane via Bates and perhaps onto X College and your grandson at UNH.

In any case, thanks for posting Blossom’s words of wisdom (though you truly have many of your own!).
Susan

soozievt · January 24, 2006, 9:11pm

Iderochi…if I’m not mistaken, the old forums had better smiley options that we do not have now. :rolleyes:

lderochi · January 24, 2006, 9:14pm

No kidding. I like the one wearing shades and smoking (hopefully a cigarette).

andi · January 24, 2006, 9:17pm

Yow, that’s from three years ago! You guys must be old.

jym626 · January 24, 2006, 9:22pm

Well hey there andi!
I was truly just thinking about you and andison, and wondering how things were going. Soooo, we may be old, but the memory still works… sorta :)

And ditto on the wish that we had the fun, animated smilies on the “new” cc. Soozie-- can you put in a good word for us and let the powers that be know the little animated buggers are sorely missed ;)

soozievt · January 24, 2006, 9:54pm

Jym…I’ll mention your request to them. I am not sure if they have control over those options or if they just come with whichever “program” they have these forums on, but I’m gonna ask.

Here are the ones I know we have now but these don’t include some I recall from a while back before a change over occurred…and some of those were animated!

:cool:

:mad:

:o
:rolleyes:
:eek:

Soozie

jym626 · January 24, 2006, 10:26pm

Thanks sooze
BTW, if you d hasn’t had the chocolate mousse or a HUGE sandwich or an even more gargantuan ice cream sunday at Serindipity on E. 60th (I believe), tell her she MUST go the next time she is uptown. It’s been there since I was in college. It is a true institution.

andi · January 25, 2006, 3:54pm

ummm aside from emoticons…

Blossom has written some of the most thoughtful posts. I still remember the one she wrote after the S@$% hit the fan with andison’s apps. She made me realize what I had to do as a mom…it was inspiring advice.

So thanks for resurrecting this writing award thread jmmom…blossom is a most worthy recipient. Hands big gold trophy to blossom…

soozievt · January 25, 2006, 5:33pm

Jym…I asked about the old smilies…no can do :(. I tried
So, we gotta stick with the emotions we already have…so um, don’t go feeling anything that those smilies I copied above can’t display, ya hear??
:D

About Serendipity…I’ll mention it…I don’t think my D has discovered every corner of NYC yet…imagine that…he he…it’s only been five months! She was up on 57th two days ago to see her agent and also said her private voice teacher for school was in that area and had her first lesson up there as well but I think that is on the west side…like higher avenues and Broadway. She’s worked some jobs up on Park Avenue…is that east or west? I marvel how she is finding her way around the city to this and that, as she never walked to anything or used public transporation in all her years in Vermont…ya just can’t do either here. As far as ice cream goes, however, we are from Ben and Jerry’s country.

:cool:

jym626 · January 25, 2006, 7:09pm

soozie-
Serious bummer about the smilies Oh well…
I don’t mean to hijack the thread, but I’ll enclose the link to Serindipity’s. <a href=“http://www.serendipity3.com/[/url]”>http://www.serendipity3.com/</a> It is a fun place. has a funky little shop in the front of the store. Its in a brownstone, between 2nd and 3rd. Its near Bloomies. (Bloomingdales) which is, I believe, on E. 57th. Park Ave is East. Its essentially “4th Ave”, one block E of 5th Ave. (the dividing line between East and West. 1st, 2nd, Madison, Park are east, 6th (known as Ave of the Americas) Broadway, 7th, 8th etc are west.

soozievt · January 25, 2006, 9:06pm

OK, I got it…I’m figuring out NYC over the past several years. My D was on 57th the other day but around Broadway, so that was West. However, she does live on 3rd! And she has done jobs I think on the upper East Side. I think I’ve got it now. All that matters is if SHE gets it. I once asked her how she is finding all these places she has to go to by herself in the city and she said she has figured it out. However, over vacation, I heard her telling others how one day she was on the subway after doing a job and after a while, she realized the subway had gone above ground and she knew that couldn’t be right and she saw a sign for Queens, uh huh. So, she had to get back on going the other way. She lives down in the village. I try not to think too too much about her on her own in the city. Last night, I got my typical chance at a call as she was walking to rehearsal at 11:15 PM, yes, that was when she had to START. If I think about her walking home after midnight, it freaks me out. Not her, of course. And it is true there are a lot of folks out at all hours in NYC, unlike here. What I can’t figure out is her total comfort level in NYC but when she is home, she is afraid to walk from her parked car to our front door in the dark (it’s in the country and isolated)! Funny thing is, she just called as she is walking alone to a rehearsal…I’m the scared one about THAT. I’ve been in the country too long I guess. It is normal for city folk.

Anyway, back to writing awards…cause this one ain’t it!

jonri · January 25, 2006, 10:58pm

Bloomingdale’s takes up the block from 59th and 60th Street between
Lex(ington) and Third Avenue. Serendipity3 is on 60th Street between Second and Third. Dylan’s Candy place is on 60th as well, right next to California Pizza Kitchen.

Fifth Avenue is the dividing line betwen the East and West Side. #s on numbered streets run from zero at Fifth. So, as the numbers go up, you are walking away from Fifth. The higher the number on West 34th Street, the further West you are. The higher the number on East 34th Street, the further East you are. If a # on a numbered street is between 0 and 99, you know it is within one block of Fifth Avenue. 100 to 199, you are two blocks away from Fifth Avenue. Got that?

There’s also a code for each avenue. You drop the last digit, half the address #, and then add a number, which varies for each Avenue. Example: Third Avenue is 10. The address of Bloomingdale’s is 1000 Third Avenue. Half 100, get 50, add 10. Bloomie’s is about 60th Street on Third Avenue. 750 Third Avenue will be between 47th and 48th. Sometimes the #s are a little off, but not by much.

If you are walking on an Avenue, you can stop and look at any # and figure out the code. For example, the MetLife Building is 200 Park Avenue. It is “behind” Grand Central with the entrance on 45th Street. I take 200, drop the zero, divide in half, get 10 and subtract it from 45. I now know that the code for Park Avenue is +35.

Remember that Broadway is NOT a straight avenue; it runs on a diagonal, so it is between Seventh and Eighth Aves in the theatre district, but intersects with Fifth about 23rd Street. The code for Broadway, minus 30, only works north of that intersection.

I have NO sense of direction and I find New York–within the numbered street section—the easiest city in the world to find your way around. When I get down to Wall Street, I get totally confused.

If you are visiting and want directions, try hopstop.com. Great site.

soozievt · January 25, 2006, 11:17pm

And then there is finding my house…the road turns to dirt, drive up hill, turn at the horses and drive across the meadow…dodge the deer…watch the ruts…you’re here! No math needed. :D

jym626 · January 26, 2006, 6:54am

jonri-

No they don’t… they just think they do . That’s why I moved away many, many yrs ago. I still miss ordering dried flower arrangements at Takashimaya’s on 5th and running up and down the halls at my grandmothers apt on the upper west side…
Soozie-
Last time I tried to get into Serindipity there was a 4 hr wait. We hung out in Dylan’s candy store for a while, got too hungry, and ended up eating in the restaurant upstairs in Bloomies. Tell you daughter to make reservations unless she has a lot of time to kill.

sybbie719 · January 26, 2006, 8:56am

Hey Soozie,

let daughter know that resturant week is going on this week and next week.

<a href=“http://www.nycvisit.com/RestaurantWeekSearch/index.cfm?pagePkey=1627&CFID=8730965&CFTOKEN=87471611[/url]”>http://www.nycvisit.com/RestaurantWeekSearch/index.cfm?pagePkey=1627&CFID=8730965&CFTOKEN=87471611</a>

soozievt · January 26, 2006, 10:37am

Jym, one thing I know, is that my D doesn’t have any spare hours to kill, lol. Sybbie, I can mention the restaurant thing, thanks, but she doesn’t have a lot of time to even eat out and while those prices that you give the link to might be considered a bargain by NY standards, that’s still hefty for a college kid’s budget!

jmmom · January 29, 2006, 1:18pm

And, oh, how well they sum up why cc means so much to so many.

binx:

I wondered what happened to the thread. I even did a search on my own name, because I had written my own good wishes there. I even checked to see if they merged it with another thread. Nope. I hope Andi saw my good wishes, because I don’t remember what I said. I’m sure I was eloquent. If not, I know I was sincere. Maybe Andi herself asked for the thread to be removed? I’m sure it’s not a decision that anybody made lightly, and I don’t mean to second guess. Or maybe I do. 

It is a tough line, I guess, to decide which individuals get their own threads? Only the ones needing help? I’ve even written those! And maybe the ones advertising their school play, or their published writing. We “know” these folks, and care. And those threads offering advice, of course. We all value them! I understand that it might seem a little biased to celebrate one student’s success individually, while lumping together other equally laudable ones. I hope that celebrating one person’s success never takes away anything from someone who feels they weren’t treated equally. But what is “equal?” Answer that, and maybe it will help define “What is fair?” 

All that being said … 

Andison’s situation wasn’t “equal.” I know what is unfair: Andison, succeeding tremendously throughout high school, being a viable candidate at many top schools, working, waiting eagerly and anxiously, and getting rejected by all of them. That’s unfair.

When we seek help on these boards, we write about individual situations. Otherwise, what’s the point? We’ve got plenty of books and magazines for generic guides. When we share our situations, we share ourselves. Sometimes, other people care. I have written here asking for advice about my own children. Sometimes, my situation is too specific to garner much response. Or people don’t know me well enough. Or maybe don’t like me enough. Andi’s situation was none of the above.

Andison represented all of our worst fears. That we would be excellent parents… that our students would be hardworking… industrious… active… involved… successful. – And still not be “good enough.” We lived vicariously through his rejections. Waitlists. Hope. Hope dashed. Plan B. Plan C. Yes, it was Andison. But it was also us. The thread, therefore, was not just celebrating Andison – but there is plenty of that, make no mistake! The thread was celebrating wrongs righted. Hope fulfilled. Persistence paid off. So that maybe it could happen to us, too.

I’m sorry it wasn’t appropriate.

sybbie:

The one thing that keeps me comming back to CC and the parents forum is the sense of community that has been developed and the sories that connect us in this particular forum. 

Many of you I do look at as extended family and I have learned so much from you. Those of us who have been posting or lurking for any period of time may even find ourselves sharing the stories of our CC friends with others, not so much from a ohhh, point finger perspective as much as thanking those who have been so gracious to share their stories that provide us with so many life lessons and teachable moments. These are kids that I will probably never meet live in this life time but I hold them in my heart like my own.

I know since I have been posting/ lurking, my heart did go out to the kids that were part of the Yale EA massacre of december 03. During a time when it seemed that april would never come, I was grateful for Thedad counting down the days to acceptance letters to the tune of the 12 days of christmas.

I remember Evilrobot being accepted to Yale and passing it up for a full ride at Vandy and how he came back and gave us feedback on the wonderful first year he had. Lesson, there is life if you cannot attend your “dream school” you just make new dreams and it all works out fine.

Many of us went through the admissions process with Candi, who was taking care of her family and dealing with her own illness and her acceptance to Yale and a host of other great schools. No one would have ever though that the deposit to hold a space would become a big deciding factor in choosing a school.

How many of us gasped when we heard that Soozie’s D and Orangeblossom’s S were in car accidents? How many of us were so happy to hear that Soozie’s D a year later is dancing and hasn’t missed a step and were grateful for the new but totaled car that kept OB’s son safe?

We remember how dishearnening it was when Berurah’s son’s college acceptance but the money did not come with it. We all rejoiced together when the admissions with the money came rolling in and for one shining moment no matter what colleges we attended we were all blue devils fan because her son was living his dream with aid that made it possible.

I remember rushing home and diring up by computer while taking off my coat to find out what happened with Roby’s, Bandit’s, Simba’s, Marite’s , Kat’s, dig’s, Momsdream’s and other’s kids during the admission process. 

I remember how sad Alu when she shared one of her D’s rejection and how sad she was sitting in her office because she knew she would have to put up a brave front for her daughter. We all at cyber icecream with her. A few days later drank cyber champagne with her celebrated big when the Stanford and Princeton acceptances came and she wrote about seeing her D’s red hair waving across the campus. When she sent her first born off to school and wrote about how much she missed her, many of us knew how she felt.

When Katrina hit the golf coast schools, we wanted to know what happened with every one’s kid who got displaced and when we did not hear from Cangel for a few days we were worried. My heart goes out to Jmmom who has been a stauch supporter of Tulane and said that they were sticking it out only to find out that her son’s program has been discontinued and now they must start the search again.

I watered up 2 days ago reading minnesotamom’s posting about her and her son.

So almost a year later we remember waiting for days on end and getting excited when we saw andi’s name posted only feel her disappointment when she said nothing yet and the waitlist schools did not come through. So yes this has been a long night in the life of andi and andison and we are all waiting (some like me almost impatiently) for the joy that comes in the morning. Who would have though that a single letter could touch so many lives? 

The stories that I have read her on CC are the stories that resonnate in our hearts and are etched in our memories. They are also the stories that we want to hear how they play out because they are the stories that we remember, and we share with others. They are the stories that we tell others when they think that things are hopeless to remind them that there is hope and at the end of the day you are where you need to be.

They are the ties that bind us as parents, as students and as a community here on CC. I don’t count it robbery when one is singled out because I know that we’ve still got enough love, happiness, compassion and empathy to go around to everyone who so graciously tells their story here and Sinners alley is never out of free drinks.

sybbie719 · April 9, 2006, 11:51am

Mezzomom nominating this post by Originaloog

*** how much is 200K ***

lucky, the Dale and Krueger study has confirmed that where you will be attending will likely have little impact on your post-grad success in life. I commend you for considering the implications this decision will have on your family and I commend them for sacrificing so much for your education.

My own experience is only anecdotal as will be any other story, however here goes. I attended Ohio State where I had a wonderful time and received a wonderful education. I then went directly to Cornell for graduate school in engineering and have been in academe for many years. Years later I have a closer bond to OSU than I do for Cornell. My family did not have the financial means to afford a private college and we were not as saavy to realize that there may have been need based aid offered by many of these colleges. So I attended a university they could reasonably afford, took out college loans totalling about $1200/yr(this was in the mid-late 60’s) and was enormously greatful to be attending a university which offered me so many new opportunities.

I am convinced that my happiness was positively impacted by OSU and that my successes would not have been any greater if I had attended a more selective college or university. I now recognize that happiness, academic success and achievement does not depend on the college itself but one’s attitude.

I cannot tell you what choice to make. However I can assure you that if you go off to college with optimism, high personal expectations and an attitude of gratitude for the opportunities you will encounter there, you will almost certainly have a wonderful experience.

Announcing the CollegeConfidential Writing Awards for 2004-2005

Related topics

CONNECT WITH US