<p>Son calls me at the office ten minutes before his first class of the day.</p>
<p>Asks me what room his class is in. I go into the course system and give him the building and room number. He had the room number wrong - the class was in the next room. At least he didn’t sleep through the class. First two weeks are hard as he adapts to a new schedule - he’s definitely not a morning person.</p>
<p>He has an iPod Touch so he could have looked it up himself though I don’t know if he had it on him at the time.</p>
<p>Hey, I kind of like the sound of “butler” rather than “remote administrative assistant”. Spent part of yesterday booking her travel, ordering a couple of text books (I get free shipping) etc. Maid no, but butler…yeah, I like it.</p>
<p>There was an internet service started up in the 90s called AskJeeves.com and their logo is a picture of a butler. I think that you could ask online questions. It looks like just another search engine today.</p>
<p>I recall another service where you called them up and they would look things up on the internet, book restaurants or shows or a limo, etc. I think that you paid a monthly fee for the service. I haven’t heard about them in a while so I assume that they went out of business.</p>
<p>I should probably hang around my office before the start of the next class in case he calls again. These two classes are non-major classes. In his major classes he knows the other kids that would be taking them and they’re all in the same building on the same floor so he’d just have to be in the general vicinity.</p>
<p>His earliest classes are at 10:00 AM so oversleeping shouldn’t be a problem.</p>
<p>Well, I got a call from my HUSBAND who teaches a university class this semester last week - asking the same thing!!! “Hey, I’m on my way to class and I just realized I have no idea what building/room I’m in this semester - can you look it up???” Geez…! :)</p>
<p>It’s nice to see I’m not alone. S2 had me looking at the class schedule on-line to see what course he could take when he had to drop one. And asks me to check his email for important messages when he doesn’t have time to go back to his room and log on.</p>
<p>In the old days, I think that some colleges posted all the courses and their associated classroom numbers near the entrance of the buildings. If you had the right building, you could find your classroom number.</p>
<p>My kids are crazy about this service called chacha. You text message them, ask any Q under the sun and get a response within a few minutes. They and their friends have had great fun using it during situations like yours, when they have access to a phone but no internet. D used it recently to find a good late night eating place and got back a detailed answer complete with address, directions, reviews and phone number!</p>
<p>There was a site called mylackey.com that died a few years ago. You could hire people to wait in line for you at the DMV, run your errands, etc. A friend of mine thought about trying to hire someone to do his mandatory volunteer hours at their kid’s school but his wife put a stop to it…</p>
<p>For Chirstmas and birthday (both occur in the same week) this year we got our freshman S a Blackberry (not touchscreen) with internet access for a year…other than that he got socks and candy,lol. </p>
<p>So far it has been a great investment. All email (which he never used to check) now goes directly to his phone (which he has with him at all times). I’ve gotten more email replies in the last two weeks than the whole first sem.<br>
Plus he has access to all his univ. stuff online and Google maps in case he gets lost,lol. </p>
<p>Oh yeah, he did lose his debit card last week (left it in the machine so it got eaten). He called to get a replacement and had it sent home instead of his dorm mailbox…reason???
He didn’t know the zip code for his college address so just told them to send it here…ugh!</p>
<p>My daughter has a blackberry yet she still called me on her trip back to school to see if I could tell her where the closest Starbucks was. In her defense, she was driving on the highway, but her passenger also has a blackberry. It turns out it took me a good while on the Starbucks site as their mapping was horrible, so maybe it was better that I was doing it on a computer not a phone.</p>
<p>Then I have my 25 year old telling me he wants driving mocs and could I find him some. As usually I did, but not until we IMed back and forth for and hour looking at different styles online. Then I needed to find the cheapest pair with the best coupon. I ended up finding a pair at Banana Republic that was originally $98, on sale for $62 and then another 20% off; unfortunately, my free shipping coupon didn’t work as I didn’t order enough. If I had left it up to him, he might have paid full price for the same shoe.</p>
<p>The kids like using me as I will spend time looking for the best deal; maybe too much time! As I don’t have a paying job, at least I know I am good for something!</p>
<p>I found my calling this past summer while booking flights for my son to attend a couple of summer programs. My son told me, Mom, you need to become a travel agent.</p>
<p>I find this no different than the husband that can not find the ketchup in the refrigerator or the shirt in the closet. Just the other day my husband said he had not seen his favorite basketball shorts, might I have them in the laundry? He then said he had not seen them in over a month; laundry had been done numerous times since then. I walk to his closet door, and before even entering the closet I see the short on the shelf where they always are. When I had him come upstairs to look, he tells me they were in the wrong place; the “right” place was the stack of shorts to the left, an inch away!! How did they get in the “wrong” place; he most likely moved them to get to a pair of shorts underneath, or put them in that stack after wearing them around the house. As usual, only mom can find things!!</p>