<p>Well, I understand your position. Even though I grew up in NY, I didn’t care that the Jets blew it. Oh, and by the way, could you tell the folks in Pittsburgh to turn the temperature up a bit?? It’s a little cold for our boys :)</p>
<p>Me: BA at Reed, PhD at UWis (Madison). Have lived in CA, AZ, OR, MI, WI, FL, CT. Currently in MI.</p>
<p>Wife: BA, MA Wisconsin.</p>
<p>Son: BA UChicago '00, lives in Chicago.</p>
<p>Daughter: BFA RISD '03, lives in NYC.</p>
<p>Me: Went to suburban public high school that had a better reputation than it deserved, then, in rebellion against conventional education, went to experimental New College in Florida. Finally realizing that I’d disliked my HS not because it was conventional but because it was mediocre, I transferred to Yale as a junior. Loved Yale so much that I stayed on to get a PhD, but Yale really doesn’t (or didn’t) offer the same quality of experience to its grad students as to its undergrads. After I year I took an MA and ran. Have worked in publishing ever since.</p>
<p>H: Went to a better public HS than I did, and entered Yale as a freshman. We met in the dining hall about a week after I arrived, and have just had our 25th wedding anniversary. Meanwhile, after a hideous experience applying to med school in the most competitive year ever, H became a doctor and now teaches med students and residents.</p>
<p>D1: Went to a public HS very much like mine. Wasn’t too interested in Yale–didn’t want to be like her parents, didn’t think she liked New Haven–until she finally visited in the summer before senior year and fell in love with the residential college system. Applied EA and was deferred, which she took very hard; and then happily got in RD. Now a blissful freshman in her parents’ old residential college.</p>
<p>D2: HS freshman–a creative, outgoing right-brain kid in a left-brain family. Her college search will be quite different when the time comes.</p>
<p>Two cats: Buttercup and Westley (a/k/a Farmboy), after “The Princess Bride.”</p>
<p>Bought a $60 Humane Society puppy for younger S who swore he’d do ‘everything’. He gives the dog a cuddle most mornings. </p>
<p>Paid $3000 to move the $60 damned dog overseas. Most of the expense was for a special agent in LA. DD is only member of the family that can afford to have an agent in LA.</p>
<p>DD is cross between mountain pyranees and border collie. He’s on anti-anxiety meds because he charged out of the gate and across the street to take a couple of chunks out of the rival vet’s purebred dog.</p>
<p>He has a cat allergy that gives him coughing fits, fits which finish with a melodious gagging sound our neighbors can hear through their walls.</p>
<p>Needless to say, H and I will be left with S’s damned dog long after S has gone to college. </p>
<p>Best of all, if we take him back to the US, it will cost another $3000!</p>
<p>Cheers, I can relate. Wild Child took a check and bought darling Golden Retriever puppy without our permission. Added it to the household of 4 cats and nasty, old deaf and blind poodle which I inherited. Said Golden Retriever was too cute to turn away. Rapidly became huge. Became my best friend and the joy of my life. Sent Wild Child away. Kept dog. Dog weighs 120 pounds and is still puppyish (almost 2). It’s like having a 120 pound toddler in the house.</p>
<p>I love everyone’s stories and feel humbled.</p>
<p>Me: Grew up in E. LA projects, great teacher helped me get into Harvard. Then Yale Law. Have worked for same international law firm since in London, NY and LA. Cor[orate clients in variety of industries. Last 3 years on education-related pro bono case. On half time now after 3 years of 90 hour weeks. 4 kids: One at UCSD, one going to Columbia in fall, one happy in LA private school, 7th grade daughter who wants boarding prep so she can feel like she’s in college like sibs.</p>
<p>Fiance: Howard and Harvard Med. Hard working surgeon. Bringing 3 wonderful kids to our mix, oldest at UC Irvine, second accepted ED at Harvard and will attend, junior at LA public school.</p>
<p>2 Goldens, myriad birds, bunnies galore and lots of fish!</p>
<p>Cheers-
Had to laugh-- I first read “DD” as the typical “darling daughter” before I realized you were talking about the dog. So is DD for Darling dog or Damned dog, as that latter descriptor appears more frequently in your post :)</p>
<p>Wow, kirmum… that’s an inspiring story you’ve got!</p>
<p>Kirmum, do you have a D headed to Columbia? Am I confusing you with someone else? (which is likely because I confuse posters all the time)</p>
<p>EDIT: I just figured your post out. I missed the Columbia part in the first paragraph and only read the second, which I take are hubby’s kids. Got it!
They all sound wonderful.</p>
<p>Planning a wedding mixed with college admissions? Can you spell STRESS?</p>
<p>Stress? You bet. All the sightings of the new Mrs. Trump in her size 0 wedding dress have not helped. Mine will be a wedding mumu if I don’t start losing weight soon. I’ve chosne a small wedding in Hawaii so I can pretend the mumu was part of the plan should I need to.</p>
<p>LOL…that’s smart. Though, you could always hold the nuptuals in French Poly where heavier women are considered more attractive than any size 0. Think Gauguin ;)</p>
<p>I find the Berber wedding customs most appealing…once a year the unmarried ladies and men gather for the wedding festival in the Atlan Mountains. Tents are arranged and men dress in their finest costumes in effort to attract a wife. The men have to sit in their tents and wait for women to come by to check them out. The women walk from tent to tent, seeking someone appealing to them. If they find him apealing and marriage worthy, they take his hand and the marriage takes place. If not, the women continue to move from tent to tent. Also, the women may divorce and repeat the process as often as they like…without issue. </p>
<p>How do ya like that? Who would have thought that Moroccan women held such power? Adventure travel operators offer guided trips to the festival…which is quite a trek, as I understand it. It’s on my short list. </p>
<p>Best Wishes.</p>
<p>I’m not really a parent, but what the heck I post here often enough</p>
<p>I go to an avg. ohio public school. My older sister goes to a public state university in Ohio, as did both my parents. I am a urm (black) and a junior presently. I have 2 younger siblings, in the 9th and 7th grades. I live with my mother, and my younger siblings. I have one dog, and a recently departed hamster.</p>
<p>Kirmum, which private high school does one of your children attend in Los Angeles? I am a senior at Oakwood and will also be attending Columbia in the fall. Congrats on a wonderful story!</p>
<p>I’m 48, live in rural Vermont and have for 23 1/2 years. I was raised near Philadelphia. I have been married 27 1/2 years. I went to Tufts, where I met my hubby and then to Harvard Graduate School of Education. I have been a teacher, have taught college, have been an educational consultant to schools, and now work part time in another branch of the education field. My husband went to a four year graduate school and is a particular kind of doctor in a specific health field. </p>
<p>We have two daughters who attended our rural public high school. The oldest is 18, and is a freshman at Brown. The youngest is 16 and normally is a junior but is graduating high school a year early, this June and is currently an applicant to BFA programs in musical theater and we are in the midst of traveling this winter to 8 college auditions.</p>
<p>kirmum, that is one inspiring bio.
Soozievt, what’s happening with your youngest? Where has she auditioned so far?</p>
<p>celebrian25, I am so sorry about your hamster - I had one once that used to sit in my pajamas pocket. And remember, there’s nothing ever really average about anyone’s school!</p>
<p>momsdream, I am very intrigued by the Berber nuptialation rites and wondering if it’s too late to turn back the hands of time? ;-)</p>
<p>Het Soozievt nice to meet a fellow Tufts alumnus. I graduated 77 .</p>
<p>Some amazing stories here! OK, since some other new-ish people responded, I’ll give it a go.</p>
<p>Me - Grew up in NJ suburbs of NY, large public HS, BA Johns Hopkins '76, computer usability research and training, lived my first 43 years between DC and Westchester Co., NY, at which time I was dragged to CA kicking and screaming in '97; I was such an idiot to resist. 
Love cooking, weight training, writing, and the outdoors. Most proud of having ridden my bicycle across the USA in '76. My late dog sang at Carnegie Hall.</p>
<p>H - Grew up in rural TX, Catholic schools, undergrad/grad degrees from Rice (EE), MA Columbia (Math), researcher in wireless technologies. Notable for his height (6’9"; I am 5’4"), plays classical guitar.</p>
<p>S1 - HS senior, private school, EA at MIT, waiting to decide in Apr. Interests: everything. No joke. Mathematics, philosophy, programming, photography, electronica/techno, history, digital video creation for storytelling, politics, literature…</p>
<p>S2 - HS soph, private school, divergent thinker. Expert at worrying mother with lacadaisical attitude towards academics. Interests: jazz and swing dancing, drumming, drawing, anime, ceramics, video games, comedy, eating.</p>
<p>Pet rats Betty, Eleanor, and Bronwen, and a lone 6-yr-old plecostomus.</p>
<p>BLUMINI thank you for the kind sentiments</p>
<p>Mootmom, your dog sang at Carnegie Hall??</p>