Parents of the HS Class of 2009 (Part 1)

Parents of HS Class of 20xx
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<p>Thanks RM. I was really hoping you were getting up and around. </p>

<p>Moda…if you go to my FB pictures you can see the disposable vases at the backyard brunch we hosted. They are sitting on the round white tables. These disposable vases were a silver coated cardboardy type…like a box of wine type of material. At the reception the bouquets were placed in clear glass vases in front of the wedding party. The florist provided those.</p>

<p>edit: I just added a few more pics for you to get a better look</p>

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<p>Moda…the last photo is a pic of D1’s bouquet in a vase. If you look closely you can see it is wrapped with fabric from my wedding dress. Actually I cut the wrist/cuff from my sleeve and gave it to the florist. D1 cried when she saw it. ;)</p>

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<p>Sorry for the intrusion - and please keep up the wedding talk - I suspect it is in my near future.</p>

<p>I’ve started a thread in the Community & Forum Issues - College Confidential area to discuss the CC board changing the various thread names as well as the creation of this sub-forum. Please feel free join us there to discuss the changes in an appropriate place (which avoids violating the TOS.)</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/community-forum-issues/1505745-recent-changes-parent-forum.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/community-forum-issues/1505745-recent-changes-parent-forum.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>D2 keeps saying her wedding will not be anything like her sister’s but I still don’t know exactly what that means.</p>

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<p>That’s a wonderful idea!</p>

<p>Kmc, I’m still in awe of your ambition. And I so get the remark about being left handed. When I worked one summer in hospital kitchen, they wouldn’t let me near the meat slicer…but, given my extreme “left handedness”, it was nice that the ER was right there so they could stitch me up and send me back to work.</p>

<p>Younger D and I are going to visit my mother this weekend. I can feel the headache coming on.</p>

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<p>sabaray…have you left for graduation yet??? Hope you have a great time! Enjoy your time there!</p>

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<p>I’m right handed, so there goes that excuse… </p>

<p>Your H may mock you, kmc but I am always in awe of your energy. </p>

<p>RM glad to hear that your knee is getting better and wishing you a complete recovery soon.</p>

<p>My now full time status and title change was announced this week. lots of people have said something along the lines that they like that I am now there all day (as opposed to my theoretical leaving at 2:30). Either they hadn’t noticed that I was averaging almost full time hours anyway, or they are easily impressed. I’ll take the latter.</p>

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<p>I think my law firm is generally fair when it comes to compensation, but the employees who get totally screwed over are the salaried part time attorneys. Many end up working as much as some of the full time attorneys, but are paid as part time attorneys. </p>

<p>It’s probably almost universal that if an extremely responsible person has a part time salaried position, she will almost always work more hours than she’s paid to work.</p>

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<p>It’s actually nice to know exactly where to look for this thread!</p>

<p>I wanted to thank all of you for the mojo you have been sending my sons’ way.</p>

<p>S2 did, indeed, get his dream job! He’s very excited to be doing exactly what he wants to be doing. He should be getting his contract to sign on Monday.</p>

<p>S3 is still in need of mojo and fairy dust. He had the strangest thing happen on the job front this week.</p>

<p>Monday afternoon he received a phone call from a potential employer with a potentially perfect job–except that the job description sent to him after this initial conversation specifies a person with 3 years of experience.</p>

<p>He is not sure where they got his name–maybe from his LinkedIn, maybe from a job board that he belongs to?</p>

<p>On that initial phone call, they talked for about 15 minutes. Subsequent to the phone call, he emailed his resume–which shows him as a new college grad; and they emailed him the job description, which specifies 3 years experience.</p>

<p>A few hours later, the same person called him back, saying they would like to have a formal phone/skype interview with him. This took place yesterday, and they skyped for more than an hour.</p>

<p>He feels that the interview went well, and that he does have a lot of the experience they are looking for because of some of the heavy duty internships he has been lucky enough to have.</p>

<p>It’s with a very well known, major organization in his desired area of employment; he researched the people he would be working with and would love to have that opportunity.</p>

<p>What’s driving him–and me–crazy, is why they would have interviewed him for this position…</p>

<p>it’s almost cruel to get his hopes up even though he is being realistic as to his real chances of landing this position.</p>

<p>But the one thing they are seeking, apparently, is something I have never heard of a young college grad having–they wanted to know his experience negotiating contracts with vendors.</p>

<p>He is fairly sure that this lack in his experience will eliminate him from ultimate consideration for this job, but he enjoyed the interview nonetheless.</p>

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<p>Congrats to your S2. boysx3! I’ll keep sending the good job vibes for your S3.</p>

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<p>Thanks so much! RM, I am sending you good vibes for a good recovery.</p>

<p>I love reading about the weddings. All boys here–I didn’t get to do much for S1 when he got married, and I don’t know what the situation will be for the other two.</p>

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<p>You never know what an employer is willing to invest in an otherwise stellar candidate… so don’t lose hope.</p>

<p>Talked to S today and he is very stressed. Mostly I think it’s about all the upcoming transition and saying goodbye to his “home” and not knowing what he is doing for the next stage. I think he comes off as very confident and capable, but inside he likes order in his thoughts and his whereabouts. And when my sister asked him about lunch on Monday after graduation he said to me that he will definitely do that but also needs time to say goodbye to his friends and professors… his definitely sounded a little chocked up… and of course hearing it in his voice had tears running down my face too. And oh, he was nonplussed about the reception for his major and our missing it. </p>

<p>NMN - thanks for the pics… I actually stopped to show the floral designers today. And I think I found them online - called blumeboxes. Do a little google and take a peek if those seem right to you. I will order a few.</p>

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<p>And hey NMN - if you really enjoyed wedding planning and found yourself to be very organized, you should consider taking it on as a career of sorts. You seem incredibly patient and very level headed, as well as an excellent mediator to see both sides and find compromise. I think these are all truly valuable commodities in this market. I like D’s planner, but I find her to be young and really, seem to not “hear” either side of any discussion to find a point of agreement from where to start. It’s not as if D and I have different visions, but sometimes D tends to be a moving target and I need to stick with an overall feeling vs details that might end up looking all over the map. And I just have to say… Your D’s wedding is so incredibly cohesive in the details. Truly loved the visuals and sorry to put it out here where others will find themselves jealous. Maybe a pinterest page under screen name? </p>

<p>My older sister went to a plantation resort in Virginia and was married in this gorgeous bridal suite that they had transformed for the occasion. It was just the two of them and unfortunately became so personal that there is not one picture taken, something she now deeply regrets. Interestingly, H’s best friend from HS and college got married at the same resort about 10 years ago now and it was about 40 people. Guys played golf, girls went shopping and laid by the pool and gabbed. There was a lovely bridal lunch the day before. It was one of the most relaxed and easy weddings I have ever been to.</p>

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<p>Moda…they do look like the Blumeboxes! The florist delivered the wedding flowers in them and then said to keep them in the boxes to refresh them while taking pics. Can your florist provide them for you?</p>

<p>Thanks for the kind words! I do like to organize parties. Tonight I spent hours cutting out a banner for a baby shower and then assembling 25 tiny favor boxes and adding 25 tiny blue elephants to each! D1 is hosting the shower for her SIL and asked if I could make these for her. Time consuming but satisfying and very cute!</p>

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<p>Hey Moda, I had exactly one of those “relaxed, easy” resort weddings with McH and my guests said the same thing…which only goes to show you that appearances can deceive because there was all the same planning shenanigans and high emotions and snafus leading up to it that one encounters planning a regular wedding :slight_smile: that’s the magic of the day!</p>

<p>Re: ModaS…mcson and I talked about that and he said he’s so glad he’s staying in AA this year with gf til she graduates despite the hassle it makes for in terms of job search because it made it easier not to completely freak out at graduation, even though he was still completely freaked out at graduation ;)</p>

<p>NM, I too think you could commoditize you party planning skills. Perhaps you could be the 13 thread official wedding planner :)</p>

<p>And Fallgirl, I’m glad that you are now getting paid for your extended presence!</p>

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<p>NM–Please keep planning for the next few years as we get some of these kids married off! My D will want the “simple” looking wedding that as km mentions is not always so simple behind the scenes.
boyx3 sending good vibes!
Hey your kids could just get married and have a kid and THEN graduate so they wouldn’t feel so badly!. That is tongue in cheek :). Actually, so far S seems to be doing better than ever. Now they are planning the church wedding (I do believe this is for her very church going dad) for next Sept. No idea what is expected of us. Suspect it will be casual but again with the behind the scene not so casual.
What this forum will need to turn into is a “how to talk to the new in-law”. It is an art form.
MP–I worked part time for 10 years and, yes!, worked much harder than my coworkers. There was a bit of research floating around about this back then supporting this. It always struck me as odd that part time is not valued more. I never took lunch or breaks, etc. I look back and feel exhausted just thinking about it!</p>

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<p>Received a text yesterday from D: “I’m done!!!”</p>

<p>Also picked up S from airport. In a bit of deja vu, when we pulled into our complex, we saw lots of cars and balloons. There was a high school graduation party in progress in our clubhouse. And exactly a year earlier, we were hosting S’s high school graduation party and it was our balloons and guests.</p>

<p>Need to start planning our trip out to D’s graduation. H and I have different ideas about our trip out and back. Will be interesting to see how it works out! </p>

<p>All this wedding talk - I am attending a wedding this afternoon. Groom in his 70s, bride in her late 60s. I don’t see that they are registered anywhere - what kind of gift is appropriate in this situation? Don’t know them real well, groom is a retired clergy colleague of H. Suggestions appreciated!</p>

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<p>^i am betting that at this stage in life, a small contribution to the retirement fund might well be preferred to household items ;)</p>

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<p>c-q, I recently went to the wedding of a friend in his 60s and to the 60th birthday party of a close friend. In both cases, when I asked, they said give a gift to one of their preferred charities. In the first case, they’ve been living together for several years and merged two households when they got together. Your friends might well be giving stuff to Goodwill as they merge households. </p>

<p>In the second case, the guy has a lovely home (worth maybe $5 MM?) and gadgets and needs nothing. In his case, I gave $1K to the charity for Boston Marathon survivors in his honor and he told my wife he was very touched.</p>

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<p>Brag alert here. ShawSon drove home yesterday to pick up his passport so he could take a few friends up to our cottage in Canada. He turned in his last exam (a take-home) a few of days before. He’d worked harder on it than he expected – he hadn’t attended the classes and was surprised at how hard some of the questions were. Well, it turns out that the professor put on the exam some very hard questions he didn’t expect people to get. Not knowing what actually was covered in class, ShawSon figured maybe he had missed things in studying and worked very hard and … solved all of the problems (proofs of theorems). So, no sleep and then he basically slept for 48 hours. </p>

<p>When he was diagnosed with dyslexia in 2nd grade, I told him that he was very smart but that the dyslexia (and other related LDs) would mean that he would have to work harder than everyone else for the rest of his life. He has actually taken that to heart. He told me that after he got the comments on his thesis, he had maybe 4 hours sleep in two days and he needed to hand in a finished copy by 5 PM to his advisor. He edited and made the changes, fixed fonts, printed it out in the special format and got to his advisors’s office at 4:45. The advisor was either with someone or not back yet. ShawSon sat down on the floor outside his office and fell asleep, thesis in hand, until the advisor got him. He said that he can marshall his effort and has never let anything stand in the way of a goal he has set. He is often exhausted when he finishes, but is proud that he always drives to the end before collapsing. </p>

<p>While he was here, he came in and said that he just wanted to thank me for all I had done for him in helping him be successful in college and all that I had done for him generally. I told him that I was proud of how well he had been able to translate his talent into success (and that, when he was younger, this required a lot of help from me but that now he was able to do it without me) and that I was also proud that he knew that success wasn’t just IQ and that he knew how to put the hard work in. </p>

<p>He also went to ShawWife’s studio and thanked her for all she had done. She said, “Well, I couldn’t give you with anything academic.” He said, “You did all of the things behind the scenes so I could focus on what I needed to do and I know it and really appreciate it.” </p>

<p>Well, if he doesn’t succeed as an entrepreneur, maybe he can become a diplomat.</p>