<p>^^um, yeah, what she said</p>
<p>;- )</p>
<p>I love that word: dotteriness and like the theory. I do tell people that I have to prioritize mentally. I’m a bit reluctant to admit this, but I cannot tell people my office fax number without looking it up. I’ve had this number for 6.5 years. It’s definitely a mental block of some type.</p>
<p>Right now I have butterflies in my stomach. DD just called DH and asked if one of us could pick her up for the afternoon. (yes, it’s possible) DH assures me everything is fine, and she just wants to pick up some warmer clothing. At the same time I’m almost in tears at the thought of seeing her and having her home for a few hours.</p>
<p>Aw, rrah–enjoy your time!</p>
<p>I’m so excited son will be coming home Oct 8 for long weekend. Know how you feel! </p>
<p>When he comes…get to hear the 'I want to change my major" details!</p>
<p>ShawbridgeSon came last night and we’ll drive him back tonight. He’s doing an art assignment in his mother’s studio right now. Looks and sounds terrific. It still is surprising how big he is (6’4" plus 2 to 3 inches of curls on top and proportional shoulders). It is funny to see his mother hug him as she’s almost a foot shorter (not including the curls). He’s absolutely enthused by his new Debate Team just like he was with Moot Court in high school. As usual, he wants my help in working out an argument he is trying to make [good thing I’m good at this].</p>
<p>We’ve switched away from red meat after he left but ShawbridgeMom is defrosting steaks for dinner. [Well, we’re having salmon but he’s getting steak].</p>
<p>D just called to tell us she’s at a baseball game, We are a big baseball family and just wanted to say hi. Lots of love expressed here for our kids. such great parents and lucky kids even if they dont always get it.</p>
<p>AW Shawbridge. It is a throat-lump producing experience, isn’t it, to see your boy so grown up and happy?</p>
<p>So who all is going for parents weekend? Ours is this next weekend which seems soon in that we only dropped him off a month ago. At the same time i feel like it’s kind of timely. I hope to get an opportunity to meet a few of his friends and maybe their parents. I made reservations for Saturday night dinner, but nothing for Friday yet. I am just hoping for decent weather because at this point the 10 day forecast says pretty good chance of rain. 
I think we might need some Plan B’s for things to do beyond walking around campus. Maybe take S to get his hair cut!</p>
<p>downtoearth–yes lots of love</p>
<p>Shawbridge–how sweet that your s can visit and tap support of all kinds</p>
<p>modadunn–I have my d’s parents weekend next weekend, (picked up a hoola hoop yesterday of all things as this is something they have fun with at outdoor parties) my 13 yr old s is also psyched to visit his big sis. my s1’s parents weekend is Halloween weekend, looking forward to a true autumn in the Shenandoah valley…</p>
<p>I definitely notice I am adapting to the new normal, of only one kid at home…a friend gave us a small bistro table to use in my family room, much nicer than feeling like there are “empty chairs” at the dining room table. oh and yes, the all important ritual of watching Family Guy together. my youngest has a wicked sense of humor, can be lot of fun to watch his imitations, even if one of his best is of his history teacher…</p>
<p>enjoy the visits all…</p>
<p>Just returned from Parents’ Weekend at WPI. Ran into fireflyscout in the Bookstore, but missed the loosely planned meet-up w/ other CCers. S had a list of places he needed us to take him since he doesn’t have car. We were also doing errands for a couple of his new buddies. We saw him Friday afternoon for an on-campus reception and then took him to visit his grandparents – H’s whole family lives in the next town to his school. The bonus there was he got to see the dog, since the grandparents were dogsitting for us. Then to dinner. Yesterday we did the above mentioned errands and then dinner and an on-campus production of “South Pacific.” S had told us up front that he needed all of today to do ROTC stuff and homework. Amazingly, there are only 3 weeks left in this term, followed by 10 days off, as #TM mentioned. He seems to be doing well; doesn’t much care for his Calc professor, but, as H told him, with these short terms, he (S) won’t have to put up with that prof for much longer!</p>
<p>Next weekend for us too. The best moment recently was when we were Skyping, reminded her we’d be there, and her face lit up …</p>
<p>Great to hear the home visit/college visit stories! CBBBlinker neat that you & fireflyscout met up! </p>
<p>I love Skype! So true about seeing their expressions. Bet that was fun, Zetesis!</p>
<p>Our parents weekend isn’t for a few more weeks, and I am not sure who is looking forward to it more: D1, H and me, or D2. D2 really misses her sister, although they are in regular touch via Skype and Facebook. I suspect that, much as it will pain me to let D1 out of my sight when we are there, the two girls will want a little time together sans parents.</p>
<p>Zetesis - PM me if you want/need restaurant recommendations :)</p>
<h1>TM - we said a passing “hi” to your son as he was leaving his dorm and we were entering - can’t say much other than he was polite and seemed healthy.</h1>
<p>I enjoyed seeing CBBBlinker and DragonLady again! But especially seeing my son. While he wouldn’t discuss Calculus, he is apparently doing well in his other classes and he showed us the game his group is designing, which looks pretty fun. His focus has been pretty narrow on just his classes, so we showed him around Worcester and the area near campus- broadening the horizons a bit. I’m kind of hoping he’ll consider a fraternity so he can become a bit more social. We’ll see.</p>
<p>It was a fun visit, but I wish it had been scheduled two weeks from now so we could have seen autumn color. Ah, but the oysters were magnificent!</p>
<p>Enjoy the parent weekends. We will not be able to attend because of the distance I’d love to go but it jsut won’t work out. </p>
<p>We’ll see her for the first time at Thanksgiving.</p>
<p>I did go through her room today and cleaned. Didn’t throw anything away just picked up and put things away and get rid of some of the dust. </p>
<p>Enjoy the weekends everyone.</p>
<p>FFScout
Thanks for the scout report!
You have a great memory for faces, given you only saw my S for a few minutes at breakfast a month ago. Too bad your son and mine are not on the same floor. Sounds like S’s floor is pretty friendly and social. Since that is the only real socializing my kid does, I guess I should be thankful he is on that floor for his first term. He really lucked out in the roommate department too- AND he says he is NOT the messiest one. A surprise for even him!</p>
<p>Beyond the first few exchanges, S has not really mentioned his roommate. No indication how messy any of them are or not, as the case may be. Not sure if that’s a good thing or not. I do wonder if any of them will come up with the idea to clean things up for when parents arrive.</p>
<p>I had to send him “the text” today… are you alive? I guess it doesn’t matter much how good the technology is, I still want to know he made it through the weekend. (Yes, he’s a good kid, but I am very aware that he was no straight arrow before he left for college and I would bet money he’s even less so now.) After three hours lapse, he texted back. yes</p>
<p>Our Family Weekend is in the middle of October. We’ll be taking the 8 hour drive out for a 3-night stay. I’m absolutely sure we don’t need to be there 3 nights to fully take advantage of the college’s Family Weekend (it runs Friday, Saturday and Sunday.) It just feels more “worth it” to have the stay be a little longer. And we’re more than happy to get to see our son for a little extra time!!</p>
<p>Funny, when we dropped him off at the end of August, I thought mid-October seemed sort of quick to have a Family Weekend. Now, a full month later, I can’t believe I have to wait another (almost) 3 weeks.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Well, our S didn’t bother, that’s for sure! S told me up front I probably wouldn’t want to come up to see his room, so H helped him carry up the stuff we brought. The report from H was that the room looked about the same as when he saw S 4 days after drop-off – in other words, a mess. Honestly, I would have been shocked if S had actually cleaned. OTOH, D definitely cleans when we come for Parents’ Weekend.</p>
<p>I shudder to think of that triple my S is in. It was cramped and a mess even after we P’s had helped get them all organized. I took pictures and joked that it was for posterity as it would never look as tidy again.</p>
<p>The last couple of times I iChatted (sp?) with D, I noticed in the background that the bed was made. I couldn’t hold my tongue any longer and had to ask her if she made it up just for our chats. (I know, I’m awful.)
She said she couldn’t stand the mess otherwise. Why had this never occurred to her at home??!!??
She has a single so it is even more perplexing…
PS - Parents’ Weekend is HALLOWEEN! We’re going but I think we’ll have an early dinner and let her enjoy the night.</p>