<p>missypie, congrats to your D on her accounting test. </p>
<p>Oregon101, how is your mother doing?</p>
<p>S2 thought his interview today went well. He should hear something within the next two weeks.</p>
<p>missypie, Congratulations to your daughter!</p>
<p>TA, Hope your son gets good news soon!</p>
<p>sevmom, one of S2’s references just called to let him know they had called him. That was really quick, but a promising sign. I assume they wouldn’t go to reference checks if he didn’t “pass” the interview. Both of his references are from his internship last summer, both offered to be a reference for him without being asked, and S is confident they will give him a very strong reference.</p>
<p>AWESOME, TA!! Fingers crossed here!!</p>
<p>TA, That does sound like a great sign! I’ll keep my fingers crossed too!</p>
<p>Congrats on the good news, TA and missypie.</p>
<p>Fingers are crossed for analyst S2, congrats to Missy D, and Happy Birthday wishes to NM D! Sorry about the tarmac time arabrab, but sounds like you had fun. Sevmom it sounds like you had a nice visit with your S. </p>
<p>Lots of good things going on here!</p>
<p>Why I love Southwest. </p>
<p>I previously wrote about my plane meandering around La Guardia for four hours Friday morning as the storm was starting. This afternoon I got an email from Southwest’s “Proactive Customer Service” department, apologizing for the extended time on the ground and letting me know that a travel voucher was being sent to me for the inconvenience. I hadn’t even considered this as Southwest’s fault – it was freezing rain during the start of a blizzard that caused the problem – and I certainly hadn’t written, called or otherwise communicated any complaint. I was simply glad we were finally able to take off.</p>
<p>Given the general (lack of) customer service today, that really stands out as some fast, positive public relations. The voucher arrived via email about an hour later. I can hardly imagine United or American managing nearly so well.</p>
<p>I have to agree with you Arabrab - that’s pretty unusual customer service in this day and age.</p>
<p>NMN - your weekend sounds really fun. Was your D surprised by her kidnapping? Glad to hear the food was good. While I know our seniors had a really fun night for their grad party, it’s not the same as actually having dinner there. </p>
<p>EXCELLENT news TA. I will cross my fingers but it sounds very promising. While you never know how a company makes their short list, I know my H never calls a referral unless he’s pretty sure he wants to hire the guy and he rarely ever gets calls himself for other people unless the same is true. I don’t think people like to waste people’s time by fishing for the most part.</p>
<p>100% in accounting… that’s excellent. It’s the only class I truly failed in college. Then again, my professor was a complete leach and when I went for office hours he made the entire experience beyond uncomfortable. While I don’t think I can actually go so far as to blame the guy for my hatred of reconciling my bank statement or expenses over the course of the year, I surely don’t like accounting. :)</p>
<p>TA–thanks for asking about my Mom–called her tonight but she is too busy to talk to me as on the other line. Her voice sounded stong and just fine. I also know that she will complain loudly when she finds time to talk with me. But I guess all is going very well overall! We shall see if she gets kicked out and no one in the family, gandkids included, would be that surprised.
Pretty ticked at H right now—our S never ever ever checks his voice or e mail. Which is what H leaves over and over.
I called DIL tonight and had a lovely talk and then with S too. I always include H when I talk to them. H got upset because I handed him some notes to ask questions ( I forgot and he also wants to know–some about taxes). Hmmmm. i am thinking maybe he just needs to make his own call. Oh–he would not be comfortable calling DIL–so maybe his problem?
grrr. just a rant here.</p>
<p>Congrats on the accounting test to MissyD, and fingers crossed here as well for TA’s son. </p>
<p>On not checking voice mail: turns out one of D2’s grad schools called her with admission and left it on her voice mail – which she rarely checks. She found the message a week or so after they called and she had given up on them. Lesson learned?</p>
<p>Z–uh, never
Congrats to her!</p>
<p>WOOT tos Missy D! TA, sounds promising! Z, a great result but there is something about this generation and listening to voicemail that I’m not sure we can train out of them. I blame text ;)</p>
<p>Arabrab, that’s delightful about Southwest. Years ago when I travelled a lot, they all used to do things like that…and I know this because I used to get consistently trapped and stranded places, particularly in winter. This was the late 80s era. Then the whole notion seemed to evaporate. So I will check out southwest the next time I’m going somewhere they’re an option!</p>
<p>Oregon, I don’t want to get your hopes up, but you may find now that your mom has the kind of permanent audience that is a care facility, she may actually behave. I think it’s one thing to be rotten to in home care givers where there’s no one to see and no company to vent to, but its quite another in a semi-public forum where there’s some social impetus in terms of a community.</p>
<p>My dearly beloved great aunt was full of mischief and really ticked about going into a home. Within a month she was the queen of the party and had two suitors, one of whome became her “boyfriend.” It was the best thing that could have happened to her at the time! At home, she was always frustrated and lonely.</p>
<p>My mom and I made a pact that we’d each go gracefully to the home when the time came when we saw the difference 
I’ve filed this information away for future use!</p>
<p>Thanks for all the congrats on D’s test grade. I know that A’s are very common among all of the bright college students represented here. I was just so proud because she recognized that her only hope was to study a whole darned lot, and she did it, and it paid off. I’m not saying it out loud, but of course it’s in contrast to still grounded younger D who tends to give up.</p>
<p>TA, checking the references so quickly certainly does sound promising.</p>
<p>I thought I had a stroke of brilliance on my sister’s (lack of) housing situation. I suddenly remembered that I have a Facebook friend from HS whose posts are always about finding good homes for shelter dogs. I always ignored her posts in the past. I messaged her and she said she would be delighted to find a foster home for my sister’s dog. But my sister’s reaction is that we are asking her to give up her life partner and she would rather be homeless.</p>
<p>Missy - And I would probably say, that is indeed a choice.</p>
<p>Oregon - I have to agree with kmc. It’s one thing to be not so nice to someone in your home where your behavior is not on display, but completely different with a rotating staff and everyone (including your new neighbors) within earshot. I too think there is a real loneliness in getting older and fear in the unknown. Im crossing my fingers. OF course, this doesn’t mean she won’t complain, but maybe she won’t do it so loudly? We’ll hope.</p>
<p>Yeah! They finally updated roster. Of course now D thinks her pic is weird, which admittedly it isn’t the best. But I can’t imagine any of the girls think these are facebook worthy profile pics!</p>
<p>It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted but I’m feeling a bit nostalgic this morning. Older daughter called last night to complain that there are no classes left for her final term at school. The one class she was hoping to take is only offered during her acting class and the acting class is the only required class so she’s struggling to not be part time. I have no problem with her being part time for the last term but she says she wants to check out what she can’t do if she’s part time (vs full time). She certainly has a lot of extra curriculars so it’s not like she’ll be wasting her time or be bored but it would be nice if she could find one more class. She realizes she took more than required for her first 3 years plus came in with loads of APs. She had enough credits to graduate a whole year early but not with her major so she’s still there but now wishes she hadn’t hurried to take all the classes she was interested in. I could have told her that but what do I know?</p>
<p>It’s funny, I’m impatient for her to graduate. Now that it’s so close I’d just like her to be done and get on with her life. I guess some of that is because I loved my 20s when I was out of college and living on my own, doing whatever I wanted to do, meeting new people, discovering myself, etc. If I could go back in time, that would be the time I’d go back to. Guess I think I’m going to be living vicariously through her.</p>
<p>Another funny thing is that my husband keeps talking as if she’ll be available for family vacations or weekends or whenever he’d like to see her once she graduates. I keep telling him that we have no idea what her schedule will be. She’s an actor and who knows whether she’ll be in a live performance (much less accessibility to nights and weekends) or on film/tape (much more accessibility to nights and weekends) or how long she’ll be auditioning vs working, etc. etc. etc. She has an agent so that’s a plus but who knows what the future holds? I don’t think he’s ready for her to say “no” to his family activities. Good thing we still have another daughter who’s currently a freshman in college.</p>
<p>Now I’m babbling so I’ll stop. Maybe this has already been discussed (no way I’m going through 2000 pages!). Anyone else having weird feelings with graduation coming up quickly?</p>
<p>No graduation in May for the child of this parents’ thread, she will be returning to school to student teach in late August. No hotel room to worry about, like with our two older college grads. No graduation ceremony to attend either. I guess we can accept that. Number 4 child is a day trip, so no hotel to worry about for his graduation ceremony, when the time arrives. I think about them moving far away. We have one who ended up on the West Coast and see her twice a year.</p>
<p>H made it home from his retreat and said the rustic resort was lovely and the staff wonderful. He was sad to miss D1’s birthday celebration so is making plans for us to go visit her in a few weeks.</p>
<p>Talked with D2 about graduation plans and she really does not want a party. She said going out to dinner with immediate family would be fine but she doesn’t want anything else. She also doesn’t want to invite anyone to the ceremony besides H, D1 and her H, me and her BF. I want her to invite H’s parents but she doesn’t want to. She really is uncomfortable being the center of attention. </p>
<p>Congrats to missypie D1 on the test and TA S2’s interview. Still sending job mojo for him!</p>
<p>amtc – I have to remember that D will not necessarily be available after graduation. Hard thought.</p>
<p>On the voice mail front: If you have AT&T (and maybe others, but I have AT&T) they have an option for about $5 a month that translates your voice mail messages automatically into either an email, a text message (usually spanning 3 text messages given the length limits) or both. While a few words come through garbled, generally the messages are very readable, and come with the phone number they came from. I love the ability to read them, sort them, and file them as needed. I probably need to listen to only one out of every thirty or so messages, though I do have to go into voice mail periodically to delete messages so I don’t exceed the limit. (This system does not require a smart phone. It is handled by AT&T centrally; it is not an app.) Given the frustrating way many callers rattle off phone numbers on voice mail, or the sometimes meandering messages, or poor cell connection on my part, this system is a huge improvement.</p>
<p>I also have my voicemail converted to email and never listen to messages anymore. It’s free with the comcast landline service.</p>
<p>Somehow we never expected to have the kids live close after graduation so the big change was when they left for college. Neither has been home for more than a few weeks since. S1 has been home only once since he graduated in May 2010 with no trips home planned anytime soon, but I feel like we keep in touch well. </p>
<p>If S2’s current job application works out, he will be on the gulf coast in Louisiana so not driving distance. His second reference was contacted and told S2 he thinks he will get an offer, but who knows. S2 was told to expect the process to take a couple of weeks so I’m going to try to not think about it for a while. If he does get an offer he will then need to pass a background test and physical. I know he has to be able to fall out of a helicopter into the ocean (and not drown) among other skills, but not sure if that is part of the physical or later training. He probably should start working out to get in better shape. While his brother takes after H in terms of exercise, S2 takes after me, meaning he has mastered the art of couch potato since his high school football and basketball glory days.</p>