<p>I have been catching up on the posts – constant power cuts here and a visit from our grandchildren (my oldest stepdaughter is 27 and her babies are 2 and almost 1), who live in Cape Town, have kept me out of the loop!
It is wonderful to hear all the news and experience your laughs from this side of the world. Although our Christmas traditions are very British (ridiculous roasts in our hot summery December climate), I have spent a couple of Christmases in NY when my S was tiny. (S’s Dad is a Brit whom I met in London, we married and moved to NY, I lasted long enough to have my baby 10 months later, in London,- couldn’t get health ins in the US for the birth -, spent a year on Long Island before fleeing for home to my Mom, the sunshine, and a nanny, not necessarily in that order! Nothing wrong with exhubby more me with postnatal everything…) This year we are having a big Christmas out on a friends farm – will be about 60 of us, several families all ages, with our hosts menagerie of wild animals wandering around us…sables, giraffes, cheetahs! (even lions but they are in their massive enclosure). I try and do something creative for our Christmas tree every year, last year I spray painted a huge sisal (sort of a woody Christmas tree shaped African looking dried plant with pods) white, and used only purple red and gold ornaments and bows, with a gorgeous locally made ethnic angel on the top!
My other step daughter is coming from London with her latest bf and they will stay in our cottage. When we built that, about 8 years ago, the foundations were laid on top of an old swimming pool and obviously not sufficiently compacted – there is now a crack in the bathroom so big that when you sit on the loo you can see the sky at the top of the wall! Guess who hasn’t had kids home for a couple of years! So we will need to sort that out – maybe will try the hardware white grate idea and come up with a creative story about airflow!
My S is coming home on 21st December for almost 4 weeks! My heart is swelling already at the thought of laying my eyes on him and hugging him so hard – he’s not going anywhere until I have had my fill! In Zim most of our college age kids come home for Christmas and there is this huge influx of youth. They all love to see each other and socialize madly, drinking far too much. Luckily my S is not a big drinker. We are heading to Victoria Falls for New Year, it will be as hot as Hades, but the family all want to go white water rafting (not me!!)
S is absolutely loving college and doing really well – great grades, and he seems very very happy despite a bad bout of flu. I am still shell shocked at not being included in the choice of subjects and the debates over essays etc, and still quite perplexed at not knowing what he does with his days in any detail. He has chosen next semesters subjects and the first I knew of it was when he sent me his new schedule! It seems he is leaning towards minoring in computer science, with a fine arts major of some sort. He has loved the computer graphics – he was the only freshman in the class and came first in the mid terms. He is still dating the beautiful gf, and says everyone loves his accent, but cant believe he’s white and from Africa! He and I have worked out our comms quite well now, a bit of fb chat, the odd sms, two or three short emails a week. Phone calls only once a month or so though…he is really looking forward to coming home now – the lure of the sunshine, no responsibilities, off road motorbiking (his thang with his stepdad!), sleeping in, quiet house, sunbathing next to the pool, playing with the new brood of fox terrier pups …is proving very alluring! (And being with his Mom of course!) I did ask if his gf would like to fly home with him but he said no. maybe if its all still good this time next year then she might….
Have a wonderfully happy Thanksgiving y’all</p>
<p>ZMC–what wonderful and exciting pictures of your life you have put in my head. Lovely.</p>
<p>OK… how do we get the bus to pick up Zim?</p>
<p>We send our charter jet to pick up Zim.</p>
<p>Yes, Cardinal–and John Travolta will be the pilot.</p>
<p>Could you send George Clooney too? Just to play hic hac hoc with to pass the time as we head back to the bus? Please?</p>
<p>So when the bus picks up woody, I’ll be there, too – all in the name of efficiency! I’m in the Hartford area, but can just buzz down to wherever the stop is off I95 …</p>
<p>…don’t forget to swing by Michigan on the bus part of the trip. Not a great wine territory but a few standout microbreweries. Have you every had a Founder’s “Dirty B*stard”? ; )
Please also make sure the CyberBus is here in about 5 minutes, because I’m afraid I am teetering on the brink of entering the realm of Guerilla-slum-landlord-style wallpapering in the evil upper bathroom – the one place for which I have not figured out a way to integrate a “grate” to cover gaping plaster cracks. (Textured wallpaper, then paint, I’m afraid. I will do just about anything to avoid drywall – dust allergies).
Although I am my own worst enemy, a Deux Ex Machina – even if it’s only a cyber machina, would be nice : )</p>
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ah, a woman after my own heart! if george is on the bus or plane or whatever, I may not get off, even to see missypie’s famed trees!</p>
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not only have we had one, DH wears their t-shirt . it’s perfect for him ;)</p>
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<p>Are these on the 2-disc set? (I really should have gotten this - missed it in the theatre.)</p>
<p>I’m on a three day business trip … and my daughter just got home from college today, and has posted on her Facebook page how good it is to be HOME. Wah! I don’t want to be here …</p>
<p>^Oh, that is no fun to be away. But when you get home it will be great great great. </p>
<p>Swing the cyber bus by Maine…will throw in some lobsters. And throwin me also if George C is on the bus…</p>
<p>Eggmom, that is priceless! I am certain that is very similar to how I will learn of #theoryson’s “relationship” with a girl, if I would even learn of it at all.</p>
<p>I envy all of you who will be enjoying the company of your freshman this coming week. Can’t wait until Christmas time and S’s return for more than a few days.</p>
<p>Like Zim
S too has chosen his next semester classes but despite my questions has not found the time to tell me what he chose. Nor has he faxed the papers needed to his health insurance provider. Sigh</p>
<p>D arrived home last night. Lots of stories of school. She seems very happy. She’s basically been home all day today so we’ve been able to catch up. I’m busy in the kitchen but she has sent some time with me. Trying to prepare for turkey day.</p>
<p>S’s plane doesn’t land until almost 10pm and given that he’ll have been traveling since 5pm, I can already image the cranky mood. Some of his friends, like here, are home already so there will be a big push to get out to see them. I was told the other day however that the big hang out night will probably fall on Saturday and so I should be happy that he doesn’t have an early flight out of here. On the other hand, he wont even land until late which won’t get him BACK to school until closer to midnight!! I just hope the bus thing they have set up will work. What happens if his flight is late? Will he be stranded at the airport until morning or will I be sucked into paying for some kind of limo? Best not to even think about it, but shouldn’t I have SOME contingency plans?</p>
<p>Modadunn–“What happens if his flight is late?” etc…having dealt with this from 3,000 mile–the plane landed in a city 2 hours away from her arranged transportation at 10pm in a snow storm–yes, a back up plan is a good good thing to have. Have the taxi/limo #'s and find out how it works and how much $$. IF he has to spend the night in the airport be sure he has $ and food as nothing will be open. We had to decide between D spending the night in a sketchy airport or driving with an unknown taxi driver in the snow in the middle of the night. In the end she found 2 other students from her school (neither having any idea what to do and parents were far away worried sick) and they shared a taxi at $60 each (2004). Getting her luggage from the airport she was suppose to fly into was quite tricky. No phone goes directly into the airport (unbelievable). I ended up calling security and he took pity on me and walked up to the counter and there was her luggage. Both the airline and the other airport told me they would show up in the airport where she actually landed. I new better they would end up in her original destination city and they did.</p>
<p>Modadunn, around Thanksgiving, it is typically a good bet that a flight late in the day will be delayed. You can actually look the stats up in general at [url=<a href=“http://www.flightstats.com%5DTrack”>http://www.flightstats.com]Track</a> Flight Status, Airport Delays and other Flight and Airport Information<a href=“plus%20it%20will%20give%20you%20information%20on%20the%20flight”>/url</a>. Definitely good to have a Plan B if the arrangements have any complexity.</p>
<p>ShawbridgeSon got a ride home with a friend. It is great to have him home, though HS junior daughter is panicking about all of the work and asking for lots of parental help with a huge list of things due before Thanksgiving and this has sent him visiting other folks. He’s worn out – needs to sleep about 20 hours a day. Given his learning disabilities, all of the writing and reading fatigue him. This used to happen in HS. [It also happened to his uncle who apparently came home and slept for 2-3 days straight on the living room couch without even making it up to his room. He’s now a professor of biology at a good school and does the same thing after finishing grant applications]. But, he’s found good ECs and is doing very well. He’s the same sweet guy who is very driven when it comes to goals. Our only fear is that he just runs out of steam – let’s hope his energy returns over the week.</p>
<p>I missed the bus (and the bus analogy) but hope you all have a great Thanksgiving.</p>
<p>I couldnt really figure out that link as it pertains to the future, Shawbridge, but I appreciate it for the day of travel. As it is, I checked the airline on which he is flying back and see where there are some options for him to fly stand by. I will get some numbers together for the “just in case” scenario, but he has gone across the world and has managed to figure things out. Usually, however, this has been in more metropolitan areas. He sent me an email and told me he was bringing nothing home with him so at least we don’t have to worry about luggage as he’ll probably only bring his backpack. I did warn him that he took nearly 24 pairs of boxers to school and so while he may have some clothes, he surely doesn’t have underwear here.</p>
<p>All my neighbors were outside today doing their Christmas lights. So not motivated to go there.</p>
<p>Don’t worry, Modadunn, about not doing the outside lights. Missypie is decorating for all of us, right? (Though I can hear the boys saying “Who the heck is ‘Missypie?’”</p>
<p>I think I’ve just read about 30 pages or so of posts. Whew…did you ever forget to call a friend and then keep putting it off until it was just pitiful and embarassing? Kind of how I’ve been on this thread lately. I’ll read and not have time to post and then it’s too late. </p>
<p>So–DTE–I hope the second round of chemo is easier for you. Stay strong.</p>
<p>Two funniest phone calls/texts: The broccoli call, and the “I was on ESPN” call.
Funniest growing up moment: Eggmom meeting the GF.<br>
Cardinal Fang, NMinnMom and PRJ–your posts make me feel so grateful my children are healthy and relatively happy. </p>
<p>An update about our D. Like all CC 2013ers, her grades seem to be fine with a few fine pluses. She registered for all of her classes. With one exception, again, she is signed up for courses she wanted at reasonable times. My early riser has become a night owl and tried to get classes that started after 10:00. She’s also planning her living situation for next year. She and roommate get along very well, but will not be living together next year. (personally I think each will regret it, but it’s a good thing to try new situations) D is hoping to live in an on-campus apartment with 3 other friends. The most exciting news was a few weeks ago. DD and roommates birthdays are about a week apart. The wanted to have a little gathering for friends, but they did not want to invite the entire floor for $$$ reasons. D called and asked if a group of them could come out to the house for the evening. I was THRILLED!!! About 20 of them showed up and hung out in the basement for about 5 or 6 hours playing video games, singing Karoke, etc. Our house is about 1/2 hour from campus in a fairly rural area. Some funny comments: “I forgot there were stars,” “If feels so weird to be in a real house,” “DD, you live in the middle of nowhere!” Did I say I was thrilled to meet some of her friends? Truly I feel blessed that college is going so well for her. In less than a month her first semester will be over. WOW! </p>
<p>BTW–If that bus wants to swing down to Indiana after Michigan and before Ohio, I maybe inclined to hop on it. We do have two very good microbreweries and two wineries in town. (Yes, I know wine grown and produced in IN???) I would be willing to bring a large thermos full of the locally roasted coffee. My family jokingly swears there must be cocaine in it, as I crave it and dream of it and am quite addicted to it. It’ll be good for the bus ride. </p>
<p>I hope all of your children are protected by that magic shield that insures planes arrive on time and car rides are safe. Rochestermom’s day with her D sounds blissful. I hope each of you enjoy at least one day like that over the next week. If I don’t make it back before, Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. I"m off to see if I happen to have any of that special coffee left :)</p>