<p>DTE, your car question reminds me - this past year we were in the situation where all our “antique” (but not in the valuable way!) vehicles either stopped working or were unsafe to drive. The newest was from 1999, so we didn’t want to spend thousands getting them repaired. We donated them to our local technical college. On Friday, one of our vehicles will be given to a new family. The program is called “Recycled Rides”. It needed a new transmission, among other repairs. Caught a glimpse of it on TV last month being fixed up.</p>
<p>I’m glad it could be recycled, although I was happy for the vehicles to be used in any way, such as in training for their auto repair students, or perhaps on an obstacle course for their students learning to drive huge trucks!</p>
<p>dte - I would be inclined to replace the car before it broke down. </p>
<p>shout outs to all getting special recognitions - woody’s D and NM’s D and I am sure I am forgetting a few. I mean to recognize everyone, but a lot is going on.</p>
<p>Special shout out to moda’s D1 on her graduation and upcoming wedding. </p>
<p>Sometimes it is helpful for me to think back on my own story. I am sure that my parents were not happy with me when I graduated. My grades were lousy as a direct result of a great college social life with way, way too much drinking. No plans. I had 2 jobs in 8 months then I managed to get an internship in something else (someone my folks knew offered to pull a few strings), but 5 years later I was changing careers completely. I had always (before college) been a “smart kid” with good grades, followed the rules, etc and then I became the poster child for wasted potential. I was 29 when I found what I wanted to be when I grew up.</p>
<p>Congrats to all parents of 13 grads! Your stories are all amazing.</p>
<p>D, who will not graduate for at least a year, is just now sitting for a very challenging final. I have asked loved ones to cross fingers and toes that she gets it done. Tough class in a tough year for her.</p>
<p>Good weather here! I hope you all get a little sunshine today.</p>
<p>sabaray, I love Colbert and am very jealous.</p>
<p>Moda, congrats to your S. I am following your wedding thread and think you have shown amazing patience with posters.</p>
<p>NM, I laughed at your Hs comment. </p>
<p>RM, I also want to be retired when I grow up. On the managers to millennials thread, a poster mentioned being asked to write an essay for HR about something you did well and enjoyed doing. Extra emphasis was put on the enjoyment aspect. With a standard like that, I would be unemployable if I answered honestly, but would have fun with it as a creative writing assignment. I dont like the idea of pre-employment personality testing. Every successful team I have worked with has a plethora of personalities, and each individual brings different strengths and weaknesses to their job, which is a good thing. I think it is a mistake for HR departments to try to eliminate this diversity with a preconceived notion of an ideal. Why wouldnt the result be clone-like Stepford wives for business?</p>
<p>Good vibes to your sons,boysx3! I’m looking forward to having my kids off the family payroll too-been paying tuition nonstop since 2005. We have one more college related expense to go and that’s it-S2’s college apartment lease goes through July so wil drop one last rent check in the mail for June and July when we get back from graduation.</p>
<p>sabaray, That’s great that you will have Colbert. Hope things improve soon for you with your relationship with your daughter. </p>
<p>Hope everyone enjoys their kid’s upcoming graduations!</p>
<p>Best of luck to Treetopleaf D and boysx3 interviewing. </p>
<p>ShawD had her first summer job interview and they liked her a lot, she thinks. It would be at the closest hospital to her apartment (less than 15 minutes walk, I think). She is getting ducklings delivered today – she realized she couldn’t really take care of a dog, did research and decided on ducklings. Doesn’t make sense to me, but she’s so happy. Then, she’s having sinus surgery tomorrow. Not serious, but surgery is always serious. So, we get the ducklings (and her) for a few days (a week?) while she recovers. We have a little pond in our yard, but she says they would be too little to swim in it.</p>
<p>Definitely not looking forward to D2’s Commencement speaker. It is the recently retired President of the University.</p>
<p>sabaray…definitely know the feeling about what I sometimes feel is unfilled promise. I have to bite my tongue many times as I try to understand D2’s introverted personality. As I have said these past few years, thank heavens for TA’s insight! She makes me look outside of myself to try and see how a very intelligent but quiet young woman will succeed. She is indeed a good analyst! :)</p>
<p>Good luck and good vibes sent to boysx3 sons.</p>
<p>I also agree Moda should be admired for her patience and well written responses.</p>
<p>Crazy morning already. I have been to two granite yards already to try and match bathroom and kitchen tile to the granite already picked out. I am second guessing my kitchen granite choice as I found out my second choice would give me a $1000 credit! Who am I kidding…definitely going to compromise and make the switch. H will love it.</p>
<p>The commencement speaker is Senator Jim Webb which I think will be very interesting. My clothes just arrived for the weekend and thank goodness they fit! I was ordering based on size charts since I truly had no idea what size I was. That alone is a huge relief!</p>
<p>Colbert and Webb. Should be fun. ShawSon’s school has no speaker save the President and a student selected by the senior class. Makes the ceremony mercifully short (as does having a very small senior class).</p>
<p>I don’t even remember the names of the speakers at either my undergraduate or graduate school graduations. Do you remember yours?</p>
<p>Thank you, Shaw, for causing me to spend so much time trying to remember the name of my undergrad speaker. LOL. It was Donald McHenry - he was an alum and had just been appointed US Ambassador to the UN. Snore. </p>
<p>I don’t recall if there was a speaker at all for law school graduation. I remember a short speech by the prof who had been voted Teacher of the Year - he was quite drink (in the early afternoon.) I also remember a classmate from Hawaii had the most fabulous fresh lei. The best part of graduation was that there was a line of folks playing herald trumpets on the roof of the law library. So cool! They stopped that tradition a couple of years after I graduated…I assume their insurance company made them stop.</p>
<p>So much I should be commenting on but I have little time. I’m not surprised at the good results and honors our old class of 09 kids are receiving!</p>
<p>sabaray, You are very lucky to have Colbert and Webb. We were pretty disappointed when S1 graduated in 09’. He had a Virginia Judge (Harvey Wilkinson lll). Other classes had people like Katie Couric.
Same with S2 this year, Disappointed that the commencement speaker will be the school President. Last year they had Michelle Obama and a few years ago had Hoda Kotb! We just have no luck with this,I guess.</p>
<p>At D’s school, the president gives the commencement address at graduation. The guest speaker gives an address the day before at class day. The guest speaker this year is Corey Booker - Newark mayor, Rhodes scholar, and general all-around hero. I have no idea regarding his oratory skills - should be fun though!</p>
<p>Woody, I think we’re winning the speaker sweepstakes so far. Not that it’s a contest or anything. I think Corey Booker will be great.</p>
<p>A family member got her grad degree recently and the speaker was the President. Extremely tight security, as you can imagine; the grads lined up in the early a.m. and it wasn’t over until close to 4. Long, long day. So perhaps it is better to have a less prominent speaker.</p>
<p>sevmom, I agree - slightly disappointed although Steger did a great job at the 2007 graduation (along with General Abizaid) at what was a very tough graduation. I kept waiting and waiting for the announcement and it took forever. I can’t remember who spoke at my college graduation and it was so long ago I can’t even find it with “the Google”!!</p>
<p>Tiredofsnow, I do think Steger will do a fine job. I guess he has not yet given the official commencent address even though he has been President since 2000 and it is apparently customary for the President to give the address at least once during their tenure. In 2007 he gave “special remarks” and as you said,the General gave the commencement address. Just was hoping for someone besides (or at least in addition to) the President. But I’ll get over it and I’m sure it WAS more hectic last year when Michelle Obama spoke because of security issues. Hope you have a great time at graduation!</p>
<p>Oh my God, it’s nice to be on this thread. There is a mean girl on Moda’s other thread.</p>
<p>You know what, way back in 2008 we were already commenting about the kindness of people on this thread. I the words were that it was a “warm” place to be.</p>
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