Parents of the HS Class of 2009 (Part 1)

Parents of HS Class of 20xx
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<p>The cover is beautiful, TM…I’m kinda sorry I got the kindle version as I’m on the old-school black and white. I look forward to having a little read time this weekend if this brutal 14-hr-a-day week ever ends!</p>

<p>Missy, I am incredibly jealous of your H…what I wouldn’t give to be in that position right now. I say this, but my own mother believes I’d up and die if I ever stopped working…She retired at 50. Over the last 20 odd years, she went back to school, got back to painting for a spell, but now with current boyfriend seems adrift likely because she’s discovered he’s a hoverer who constantly wants to be fed ;)</p>

<p>If I actually make it to retirement and do not have to subsist on cat food, the two things I think I’d enjoy most are writing and sculpting. I think I’d also enjoy mentoring, but not sure there are many mentees who’d want that treatment if I wasn’t paying them :wink: I used to also enjoy making films, playing guitar, and directing theater. But I really haven’t been doing those things I say I love lately, so the question is do i really love doing them, or were they formerly just channels for creative energy that I now spend elsewhere, and that in so doing, I do for profit :slight_smile: Would I actually making art for art’s sake? I may never know ;)</p>

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<p>Nice to hear from you, #TM and congrats on the book. As for your question, D is using her degree in english at her job in publishing. The job requires a lot of organizing skills which is perfect for here and she loves it. </p>

<p>dte - I admire you so much for going back to school - you will do great.</p>

<p>MP- have any/all of your kids left for school yet, did I miss something?</p>

<p>Digging my way out at work. Still a lot of issues with the computer changes, and have done pretty much nothing else in the last two weeks except work. S and I, along with his friend’s mom (who is my friend) went into the city for restaurant week on Wednesday. We ate at a place called Oyamel, which has wonderful mexican food and margaritas with like a foamy salt on top, different but good. H and I are going boating with some friends tomorrow and we are looking forward to that.</p>

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<p>^i am. Bonehead…that wasn’t the kindle version I ordered…it was the book itself that’s shipping :wink: so no reading it this weekend but the bonus is I get the lovely cover ;)</p>

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<p>DTE, I’d be nervous about starting school, too, but you have so much going for you, you’ll do great.</p>

<p>A couple of evenings ago I was at a baby shower and one of the women (in her 40s) was talking about her mother. She had 10 kids, all went to college. Once the woman I was talking to was in school (she was the youngest), her mom got her accounting degree and had a very successful career. When I remarked that I don’t think I could have gone back to school at that age, another woman said “my mom went back for her PhD when I was in college.” </p>

<p>The only “school” I am considering is sign language classes. I used to be fluent - but that was about 35 years ago. It would be way cool to get back into the deaf community. This is my secret fantasy:</p>

<p><a href=“At ACL, Austin Sign Language Interpreters Deliver Music to the Deaf | KUT Radio, Austin's NPR Station”>http://kut.org/post/acl-austin-sign-language-interpreters-deliver-music-deaf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Next week is the week we move two kids to two different colleges. We are moving younger D Tuesday-Thursday. The actual moving day is Wednesday, but it’s a 5+ hour drive. Deciding to come back Thursday instead of Wednesday made me feel much more relaxed about the move. Then I’ll come in to work on Friday and move Son up to school on Saturday. I’m sure we’ll be making another trip up on Sunday, but it’s only 45 minutes away. Please send nice chill karma down our way. </p>

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<p>Those buying the book, Thankyou! But don’t feel like you must. I sent the links so you could see the previews and read some of it without buying it. I get I think about 80 cents for each sale. Not like I want to promote sales, just wanting to make it available to as much of the world as possible. </p>

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<p>I read the samples available on Amazon and they are beautiful poems #TM! I want to get a copy and read at the lake surrounded by nature and where I can take my time absorbing them. I admire you so much for putting “pen to paper” and getting your voice out there to be heard. Such an accomplishment! </p>

<p>Heading to the lake as soon as I pack the dog and car. Have a good weekend everyone!</p>

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<p>DTE, are you doing the NP program?</p>

<p>On retiring, neither ShawWife nor I want to. We have some activities we like to do together but many apart. She loves kayaking and biking and I’m OK with both. I love hiking in the mountains, but have discovered that I have a rate autonomic nervous system disorder that can’t judge what I’m doing as I go up hills or stairs and makes my heart beat very quickly. Weird. Otherwise not a problem. But, it may rule out serious hiking. So, ShawWife will always make art and I’ll try to do what I do as long as I can.</p>

<p>Just got back from Prague last night. We had a fabulous dinner to celebrate our 30th anniversary at a place called Pot Au Feu that was spectacular. Here was the regular menu, though there were specials. Lots of truffles. <a href=“http://www.potaufeu.cz/index.php/en/menu-gastronomy”>http://www.potaufeu.cz/index.php/en/menu-gastronomy&lt;/a&gt;. Czech chef cooking French food and French waiter. </p>

<p>Great time with the kids. They really are so nice with each other. Plus they are hilarious. They are eager to take other trips with us. I will definitely go back to Croatia. Dubrovnik was fabulous.</p>

<p>@#theorymom, to your question: </p>

<p>

</p>

<p>ShawD has largely found her niche. She really likes helping folks and likes the science and thinking of being a nurse/nurse practitioner. She’s working at a hospital at a lower level and is, I think, a little bored with that. She’s doing really well in school – GPA above 3.9 – and is trying to graduate summa because she knows how impressed we were with ShawSon doing that. But, I’m not sure for being a nurse practitioner, your GPA matters, especially since she is already admitted to the NP program. She shadowed an ER doc at DTE’s hospital whotold me she has a lot of medical knowledge and is ready to move to the next step, which sort of happens this fall and definitely in the winter. She’s trying to figure out how/whether to specialize, but I’d say she’s well on her way.</p>

<p>ShawSon is on his way to graduate school this fall. He’s an ambitious, driven kid. His only job was with a software company he co-founded and ran, He loved it at the beginning but reached a point at which he felt like he didn’t know enough to take the company in the direction it seemed to have to head and was able to bring in the father of one of the founders to serve as active chairman/de facto CEO. While he loved aspects of it and says he wants to do big data startups (after getting an MS in Data Science and an MBA from a prestigious West Coast school), I don’t know if he has yet found his niche. We’ll see. Given his math background, he might have gone into finance but didn’t see the meaning in it and likes the startup world. He’s also keeping in the back of his mind that he might decide to become a business school professor. The one thing in his case is that he will do whatever he can to make sure he succeeds at whatever he is doing – which means playing to his strengths and around his dyslexia.</p>

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<p>™ - I sent you aPM for the link and I think it went through this time? Not sure. But am now wondering how I might get it autographed as well!! :)</p>

<p>Sunny day today! Yea! not a boat day, but enough to get me busy. Really unseasonably cold as well. I wore every bit of cashmere in one week that I packed. Usually never touch the stuff until late september! But a friend of mine has a big last 70’s Chris Craft cruiser he’s redone. We took it down to a little spot at the other end of the lake last night (all bundled up but still a pretty day for late fall) and danced to a band on the docks. It was really a lot of fun and totally what I needed… to just dance! I had forgotten how fun dancing was. My H doesn’t do so unless at a wedding, but fortunately you were odd man out if you didn’t tear it up last night. I so love my friends here. </p>

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<p>Moda, that sounds like a blast! We had a cruiser when I was a kid and I loved it. McH is not a boat guy so I’ve never had any luck talking him into boat ownership, even a cruiser, though what I’d really like is a sail boat :wink: For several years, a friend of mine who is a troublemaker used to ask him where our boat was every time she came for a visit :wink: Some of my pals sail, and one in particular is genius at sail boat restoration. So v ad several opportunities to “test the waters” and mch will not take the bait :)</p>

<p>DTE, I’ve no doubt you will be a terrific student. Or of my fav pals went back to school at 50 to get her undergrad degree to prove to her LD son if she could do it, he could do it :wink: She had a blast!</p>

<p>TM, I too am looking forward to your poetry. We’ll just have to be sure to share it with a million other peeps if you’re only netting 80 cents per book! I realize (as a childhood poet myself) that one does not readily associate poetry with money, but that just tells me our societal priorities are askew ;)</p>

<p>Arabrab, in my world “agile” development sometime means “fragile” development :)</p>

<p>Missy, I am sending you the moving mojo. It’s so exciting…try to enjoy it!</p>

<p>Shaw, the reason you and shawwife don’t really want to retire is that I suspect you love what you do. Lately, I’ve been trying to really only take projects for companies run by people I really like. As a result, I generally have been enjoying my work considerably more. I just need to staff up and start passing the reins a bit more, because for me, there are other things I’d like to do and when you’re small like we are, the work seems to consume everything.</p>

<p>If mcson were staying, I would seriously consider downshifting my involvement in a few years. He’s only been with us full-time for 7 crazy weeks now, (crazy because our lead developer is on leave) but wow, has he been knocking it out of the park on the work. I continue to marvel at his capability for elegant solutions. He is an unusual breed of artsy and techie and I just need to clone him :wink: The bonus is that he handles himself well with clients, so he likely really could replace me one day.</p>

<p>Who knows how all that will go. Right now, its just nice to be in a symbiotically beneficial work situation. And at least I know if anything happens to mch and I, he will be fully trained to look after our clients, whether to continue, dissolve, or sell our book as the case may be, he will have the insight to make the right moves.</p>

<p>One of my clients has a company with about 100 employees that’s been in his family for three generations. His son went west for several years, but eventually returned, joined the company, and today is transitioning to run it. That made certain folks nervous there, but I can see what he’s bringing, and have been spending a lot of time helping him figure the ropes in certain areas. Transitions are tricky ;)</p>

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<p>Happy weekend to all. I just skimmed through the posts from the past several days, but don’t have time now to respond. We’re headed up to my hometown for a multi-family gathering, staying overnight and returning tomorrow. Will check in then.</p>

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<p>kmc, you are right. We both love what we do. I’m in DC this weekend working on a project to take little steps to reduce polarization in Congress. A foundation with lots of $$ is funding it as a pilot but hopes to put lots of $$ behind it if it works, which it will in its own little way. </p>

<p>But, there is work that is lucrative that I no longer want to do. So, I have been adding staff over the last three years, but that is challenging too. Lots of people management issues with neurotic people. It sounds like mcson would be great for your business. ShawSon has expressed interest in working in ours, but I told him he needed to get independent expertise that would cause clients to call. He’s now on his own path.</p>

<p>@Modadunn‌, glad to hear that things are looking up.</p>

<p>@missypie‌, my mom finished her PhD when she had three little kids (3, 5, and 7, I believe). Must have been a real challenge – to finish my thesis, I locked myself in a room for a month to finish what could have been 1 month or 1 year of work.</p>

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<p>Shaw, you must be a magician to reduce polarization in congress…in the public interest we the people should commandeer you to work exclusively on such wizardry ;)</p>

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<p>Sounds like a good weekend for everyone. </p>

<p>Good luck on the move-ins, MP. </p>

<p>It is interesting to contemplate empty nest for MP’s H. Amongst my friends who were SAHM’s, about a third seem to have gone back into some kind of paid work, though usually much different that whatever they did pre-kids. Others seem to have segued into early retirement. </p>

<p>But I have noticed that even with the early retirees, if you don’t find something you’re passionate about and do it, you quickly seem to get absorbed in physical ailments and not much else. </p>

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<p>kmc, we are doing our little bit to help. There are big structural problems that have to do with the partisan way that we do districting. We can’t fix those. But, in areas where folks in congress perceive the need to get stuff done (e.g., national security or tax reform rather than abortion or health care), we may be able to help them be more effective.</p>

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<p>Maybe it is different if you have your own company. I would assume that people who do love their job. Me – not so much. I’m just not that into what I do. It’s a job which helps me live the life I want but it’s not my life. I have so many other things that I want to spend my time doing other than this. I guess my boss probably is also part of that as well. I know that I’m really looking forward to retirement and hope that we do it while I can still move around enough to enjoy it. ;)</p>

<p>D closed on her house on Friday and promptly went out and purchased a washer and dryer. She can’t move in for a few weeks as she is now a landlord and renting it back to the people she purchased it from as they haven’t closed yet on their new house. Kind of a let down since she can’t move in but she can see it coming.</p>

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<p>Congrats to RM D on her house!</p>

<p>Shaw, if you can help Congess at all, we would be eternally grateful.</p>

<p>Exhausted from helping younger (ADD) D pack. Son is so much more ADD that he got nothing done at all. Both need someone to sit in the room with them and suggest the next task.</p>

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<p>Missypie - I used to make lists and print them out. Much better for self-esteem than my standing over them. Plus, being ADD myself, I wanted them to learn early that lists are our best friends!</p>

<p>D2 hitchhiked to a place where she then jumped out of a plane to go skydiving. Interestingly, she kept in touch with her dad but neither told me until after the fact - mostly - which I have to admit was probably better for my mental health.</p>

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<p>The hitchhiking would worry me more than the skydiving!</p>

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<p>Laundry done. About 80 percent packed. Not a single tidy room in the house. I want to pull the covers over my head. Younger D is out with friends so I have no motivation to keep packing. </p>

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<p>Moda - sent you the links. I guess you would have to ship it to me to get it signed. Maybe not worth it since it costs about $4 each way. DId I tell you guys this? (Sorry if I did) I have been asked to do a reading with the Poet Laureate of our state. This is an honor for me.</p>

<p>SO good to catch up with what some of your class of 2009ers are doing. Missy is PieSon going back to school?
Shaw when Shawson is situated in his next start-up let me know. One of our better friends is a venture capitalist for tech startups.</p>