Parents of the HS Class of 2009 (Part 1)

Parents of HS Class of 20xx
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Hilarious dreams. What is it that the Chinese say? “Same bed, different dreams?”

Vacations? Not the normal big family trip (like last year’s Croatia/Czech Republic). This year, the kids are not free at the same time and want different things. ShawD wants to spend part of the week at our house in the Laurentians and part of it at the nearby ashram where she went to summer camp and did her yoga teacher training. ShawSon suggested Peru, but we don’t actually have enough time for that trip. (I love Peru and was thinking about that for the 4+ of us). We’re thinking maybe he’ll meet us in Vancouver and we’ll stay there for a couple of days and then head into the mountains for hiking (though he is much fitter than we are) or just fly to San Francisco and meet him and drive 5 hours or so to Northern California for hiking. ShawWife and I are going hiking at Lake O’Hara in Jasper National Park in Canada.

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Leonard Cohen wrote a poem about that that I love:

Two went to sleep

almost every night

one dreamed of mud

one dreamed of Asia

visiting a zeppelin

visiting Nijinsky

Two went to sleep

one dreamed of ribs

one dreamed of senators

Two went to sleep

two travellers

The long marriage

in the dark

The sleep was old

the travellers were old

one dreamed of oranges

one dreamed of Carthage

Two friends asleep

years locked in travel

Good night my darling

as the dreams waved goodbye

one travelled lightly

one walked through water

visiting a chess game

visiting a booth

always returning

to wait out the day

One carried matches

one climbed a beehive

one sold an earphone

one shot a German

Two went to sleep

every sleep went together

wandering away

from an operating table

one dreamed of grass

one dreamed of spokes

one bargained nicely

one was a snowman

one counted medicine

one tasted pencils

one was a child

one was a traitor

visiting heavy industry

visiting the family

Two went to sleep

none could foretell

one went with baskets

one took a ledger

one night happy

one night in terror

Love could not bind them

Fear could not either

they went unconnected

they never knew where

always returning

to wait out the day

parting with kissing

parting with yawns

visiting Death till

they wore out their welcome

visiting Death till

the right disguise worked

Leonard Cohen ~ 1964

In other news, I’m looking forward to a semi-social but hopefully still relaxing holiday weekend.
Today mcson and gf are going for an overnight campout at the nearby lake, so its adult swim time :wink:

Tomorrow, another couple is coming over to float around, BBQ, and watch the inevitable fireworks the neighbors put on each year. Its a Pita when said neighbor is “practicing” but its nice to watch from the pool :wink: They have an adorable miniature golden who has, from early training at our house, become a champion dock diver. I’m allergic to dogs but because we’ll be out of doors, I will be able to get my doggie-love fix.

Sunday, 3 couples from mcson’s HS days are coming over for more BBQ shenanigans. They’re low maintenance and highly entertaining guests who just kinda roll with things so I’m never in hostess frenzy with them…which makes it uber nice for me.

Next Friday is another matter…have 40 business associates coming over for a pool party BBQ. That one will be a little more daunting :wink:

Happy Annversaries to all the long-timers here. Its kind funny that H and I are only celebrating out 10th “legal” year (out of 16).

I’d be on year 25 if I’d stayed with H#1, but I’d probably aso be doing hard time by now too :wink:

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I love that poem, kmc. Thanks for sharing.

Took a long walk with the dog this AM. Will be going to look at MOB dresses today.

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Happy shopping, FG!

Nice poem, kmc. I always enjoy reading your posts. I hope you enjoy your weekend. As I hope everyone does.

Today is a work holiday. I slept in until 9 am - took the dog out at 5 am but went back to sleep. H and I haven’t figured out what we’re doing yet. He’s doing a wedding tomorrow morning, and has the usual Sunday morning obligations, so we don’t want to be out late. Nephew (the one who lives with us) is performing with the Boston Pops, which will be live streamed, so not sure how we’re going to view him and view fireworks here. They’re on the east river and I don’t think we can view them from our roof.

We’re leaving after church on Sunday to drive to Ohio for a memorial service on Monday. H’s step-grandfather, who is younger than my parents, passed away recently. He was quite a bit younger than H’s deceased grandmother. The story is she lied about her age (said she was younger than she was) and he lied about his age (said he was older than he was) so there was a big age gap. Most of H’s family will be there, so it will be a big reunion.

Last Sunday I had a blast when I marched with our church in the NYC pride parade. It was a long day, but very fun.

I need to figure out a health plan - been gaining weight at a very steady rate. Having issues with nerve pain in my legs, which severely limits my ability to move/exercise. I have been trying to seek medical treatment and have had some tests, but navigating new health insurance (which just changed July 1)/new doctors has made it very inefficient. Luckily the parade pace was very slow and my legs didn’t bother me too much. I used to be able to walk forever and hate being limited.

Missypie, are you watching the “old” Upstairs Downstairs or the new? It was the first Masterpiece Theatre I ever watched. I’ve been a devotee ever since. I just finished binge watching the entire season of Poldark, thanks to a post in the Parent Café about a site to view it on. Also enjoying The Crimson Fields.

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D and her friends were a little bummed that they were here in NoVA instead of NYC last weekend.

Found a dress! It was at Nordstrom so if I see something I like better I can return it. It was not the gold dress I saw on line last week. That’s the one where D said I would “look like a Kardashian, but in a good way”. LOL.

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That was fast on the dress, FG! Congrats!

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Happy Day-After-The-Fireworks to all. We drove up to BIL & SIL’s for a BBQ. Amazingly, our S was there! He had a 3 day weekend and was in the central Mass/Boston area visiting friends. He spent the whole afternoon with us, so I was one happy momma. (Haven’t seen him since New Years.) On Thursday he’ll be promoted to 1st Lieutenant – which, according to him, is pretty much automatic unless you screw up big time. It does comes with a pay raise, though, which is good. S is very low-key about things, and mentioned in passing that he’s solely responsible for a budget of $60 million. H just looked at him and asked, “How many other of your college peers have responsibilities like that?” Although nothing is set in stone, he seems to think he’ll be getting sent to South Korea in October.

Friday evening we went to a Pawtucket (RI) Red Sox game. This is a minor league team for the real Red Sox. Great fun for a fraction of the price of going to Fenway Park, even though they lost. After the game they did a GREAT fireworks display, complete with a musical soundtrack. Very impressive.

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Glad your S is doing well, CBB.

That is impressive!

Had a quiet 4th. After a busy Friday, I met a friend for lunch and got a few things done around the house, but that’s it.

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CBB, so nice that you got a kid-fix in at the BBQ! Glad to hear your son is doing well (whether he knows it or not :wink:

Fall girl, woohoo on the dress mojo.

CQ – NYC rooftop fireworks would have been a blast. I used to love going to the Freedom Festival back home. Nowadays, I can’t even drag mch downtown for the LDL public spectacle so I’m grateful I have neighbors who are fond of pro-level pyrotechnics :wink:

So, lotsa adventure for the fourth weekend in a semi-low-key way, so to speak, considering there was no adventuring out with the hoards.

Saturday, nice time with guests, though for reasons relating to an early morning race, they decided they wanted to come at 11 a.m., which was far earlier than originally planned. So then they had to leave earlier to get back to their aging golden retriever and just missed the firework. Had fun but somewhere in there McH hurt his arm wrestling with the hot tub cover, so he was in excruciating pain and also bailed on the fireworks.

So by the time the neighbors Disney-scale fireworks actually started, I was floating alone in the pool watching :wink: quite a show, even if solo.

Mcson and gf had gone camping for Friday night, but had planned to be back Saturday. My drama-meter was tingling a bit when there was no sign of them, but then around 2 a.m. I saw their light on. Which made it confusing in the a.m. when I noticed mcson’s car was not home.

As it turned out, mcson had lost his keys on the beach.
Now you may recall that last year he lost his keys down a sewer grate.
So yes, he’d now lost his very last set of keys, since it hadn’t occurred to him to duplicate the one remaining key :wink:

They had quite the adventure breaking into his jeep to retrieve their dead cell phones. An interested neighbor in the resort town they were at came to watch the production and promised to keep an eye on the jeep for them since they figured they’d have to go to the dealership for a new key during the week and then retrieve it later. Another friend came and picked them up, somewhat worse for wear, blisters, etc. from miles of key-searching.

Sunday they’d convinced another friend to take them all the way back to the lake in a last ditch effort to find the keys in daylight. Someone had turned them in a the lost and found kiosk, so the crew returned to the party at our house in a victorious mood :wink:

Sunday party was terrifically fun, but when I’d panned it, I’d been thinking folks would have Monday off instead of Friday. So I’m a little bleary this am, but have no injuries or blisters so compared to the rest of this lot I survived the 4th unscathed :wink:

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CBB - good for your son!

kmc, lots of drama and action over your weekend!

Ours was low key. Lots of pool time. Instead of fireworks, we watched more of the old Upstairs Downstairs, which is kind of a fitting way to mark our independence. Because of flooding, all of the parks and campgrounds around our town’s lake are closed for the season. They still had the fireworks, but the only official viewing spot was in a mall parking lot, so we passed on that.

We were watching a movie during the first half of the big USA - Japan soccer game. I had timed it all so that the movie would be done in time for me to watch the second half of the game. Having watched so many scoreless soccer games, I thought that would be sufficient. Imagine my surprise when I checked Twitter. Funny, but the first tweet I read about our women’s dominance in the first few minutes was from VP Biden. LOL…what’s where I get my sports news.

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CBBB, wonderful that you were able to see your son. ShawD is talking now the the Air Force as the Navy hasn’t hired fNPs in two years. If she gets serious, do you think your son would be willing to talk with her?

kmc, your stories are hilarious. And, what is with getting Friday and not Monday off?

Soccer game was a pleasure to watch.

ShawWife and I were in Ontario for the weekend with her S and BIL. They have a beautiful cottage (everyone up there seems to) and their average weekend is non-stop project (Fix this, cut down baby trees that would eventually ruin the view, plant kale, build raised beds, cut trail, … . When we come, we are the project. He is a sensational chef. He’s meticulous and creative and the meals are his project. We went hiking on the Bruce Trail, which is nearby. They built a sauna by their little pond and swam (water is Canadian temperature). They aren’t flexible so it only works if you come on their schedule, but it was spectacularly relaxing.

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shaw – yes, I’m quite sure S will speak with her. One of his very good friends from his ROTC class at WPI is an AF nurse and is currently in Afghanistan. (She went through the nursing program at Worcester State Univ., but was in the ROTC program at WPI.) S said he Skypes with her quite frequently, so that would be another resource for your D.

FINALLY just finished weeding all the planting beds here at the beach. The problem is I could probably start at the beginning and do it all again. (Not doing that, though – at least not yet.)

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Sounds like everyone had a good 4th!

CBB it was nice to hear your S is doing well and you got to see him.

I envy you who either have a lake or a pool. There are not many of either in Oregon. Our normal weather does not warrent a pool and our few lakes are public property. We did have a cabin for 10 years on a wonderful usable river and do miss that. Enough with the complaining! I do think H and I had a bit of cabin fever as it is too hot to hike or canoe unless super early. We have done both but it makes for a long day back in the AC. So many do not have AC here and are pretty miserable. My brother said that the Vegas area is so hot they cannot go out at all–114 or so.

We went downtown on the 4th and had drinks and then saw Jurassic–not too bad. Then had dinner and walked to the waterfront and had a surprise. While some folks had blankets and there were many at the Blues Festival with low chairs the large majority of many thousands were standing to watch the fireworks. The people spanned a bridges and both sides of the river as far as the eye could see. We had never ventured down before as we had both easier to navagate firework places and even a few years ago could see 5-6 different displays from our deck. Now the trees have grown too tall for viewing.

Is this the thing now? People standing for the fireworks?

D spent the long weekend with her BF and his relatives on the Jersery Shore. I am eager to find out how things went. I think this is the longest they have spent together at one time and with relatives to boot. I get very good vibs about this relationship and will meet him in late August.

Need to walk the dog–too hot already but off we go.

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c_q – D watched the tail end of the Gay Pride parade during her ramble through the Village and thought it was even wilder than she’d expected, but so much happiness after the Supreme Court decision.

Oregon – D watched the fireworks from Manhattan in a very large crowd of standing people, complete with many officers (National Guard?) with rifles at the ready. That kind of creeped me out when I heard it, but I guess they had warnings of a possible incident.

We had a quiet 4th with some heavy drizzle until right up to fireworks time. My computer has been in the shop for five days due to the holiday weekend, and CC is not fun to use on a mobile device, so I quit trying.

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I no doubt had one of the world’s most ineffectual mother’s. But one of the things that did happen were the fireworks.
We would go with another family and be on blankets for hours (playing also on the playground) until the fireworks started.
Mind you, my family had 1 vaction on a lake in a rental cottage my entire childhood.
Saw an ocean when I was 19.
But! fireworks, with a blanket–well, that did happen .
So this standing up has been going on for how long???

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I think I am the only person here who did not watch the fireworks or the world cup. H is still out of town and I used the weekend to chill as this is quarter end at work and today and I will be putting in very long days starting today.

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FG - nope I’m with you. No fireworks for us. H had to get up early the next day (3:30AM) for a race out of town and I won’t go alone. Did not watch the world cup either…

H was around but I didn’t see much of him on the weekend with his busy schedule. :slight_smile:

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I did watch the World Cup. We went to our pool for the 4th of July (they had a good band and a volleyball tournament that H participated in). I heard the fireworks later that night and could see some above the trees way off in the distance but that probably doesn’t count!

S2 went with some buddies from college to the beach for the weekend. S1 went to Maine for the long weekend for a reunion with his GF’s side of the family. They have been together now for about 4 1/2 years so we will see!

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In the grand pet saga, ShawD’s new roommate (her BFF from HS) adopted a dog. ShawD now realizes that she is no position to adopt because she has no idea where she will be next year. Boston? The Air Force? California?

I arrived in London last night. There is a tube strike starting this afternoon, so my first meeting asked to do it by phone. I’m off to a fancy Indian lunch with a former client (MD Finance of one company, CEO of next, now board member of big British companies) but I can walk to that. Then several more phone calls and then I have to figure out how to get to dinner. Tomorrow will be tougher.

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Good Morning! You all have been incredibly busy! I was at the lake all last week and had no internet coverage for my laptop and I am not very good reading and responding on my Iphone.

Our 4th of July celebration was very nice but had some scary moments. D1’s BF is diabetic and had some issues on Saturday. H and I are early risers and were surprised when we discovered him wandering around the house somewhat disoriented. He didn’t respond to us and we had to wake up D1 to help figure out what was going on. It ended up he was starting to go into shock. We were eventually able to get him stabilized. He doesn’t remember anything about the incident and was very embarrassed. He has an insulin pump so doesn’t understand what happened.

On Sunday we had another scare on the lake. H and I had to tow the BF’s broken down jet ski to the landing. It was very windy and the lake was choppy so the jet ski was almost tipping. We were close to the landing when H realized it was going to break loose so he jumped in the water (without a life jacket!!!) to stabilize it while I drove our pontoon because our boat was getting blown in to shallow waters and close to docks. Unfortunately the conditions worsened and he was pushed away from the landing and he was struggling to make it to shore. Fortunately D1 arrived at the landing and realized something was wrong as H was calling for help and ran in to the water and swam out to help him get closer to shore where he could stand. So scary! H told me he was worried he wasn’t going to make it. So thankful all is well now!