<p>I am sad that I’ll be missing my college reunion this year. I had really hoped to go and in fact, attendance was the inspiration for my diet and wellness kick this year. I have lost touch with so many of my classmates and had really hoped to reconnect with many but the ones I most wanted to see weren’t the ones going. And I ended up with a sour feeling about the whole thing based on some comments made to me that I think were well intentioned but just am not sure. College just didn’t end on a positive note for me so probably best I won’t be revisiting it. One can always hope for some closure and a positive experience to wipe out the bad feelings.</p>
<p>eggmom, D could have used eggson’s help with physics. Maybe eggson will be one that can both learn physics and teach it. Your home renovation projects sound much like mine- I dread the days H takes off when I’m not at home to supervise.</p>
<p>About reunions, sabaray, I sympathize with your mixed feelings about going back. My closest friends don’t go back for reunion, and well my best friend from those years passed away some years ago. My parents, however, graduated from colleges that host upbeat, festive, and seemingly more inclusive reunions. My sister and I took our invalid mother to her reunion last weekend - the first time she had been in several decades, and the experience was uplifting for all (including the interlopers, my sister and me). My father loved going back to his reunions even though he wasn’t the big man on campus type.</p>
<p>I’m trying to adopt a different attitude about reunions - that they can be an opportunity to get to know new people (or get to know casual acquaintances better), and to try to find the good in the experience, even if it doesn’t involve reconnecting with old friends.</p>
<p>peonies, dont let the math thing discourage your daughter. Nursing is an art. Through my recent experience, I find health care has changed, and also with some of the younger people I work with. There is a general lack of looking at things froim the patients’ point of view, instead of your own. Of considering the patient as an individual and not a formula. I find brilliantly smart nurses but some cannot connect, it is all about them. not their patients or coworkers. The same with doctors. Sometimes I just want to teach a class or write a book, before things continue this way. We need people like your daughter. The most math I do is algebra. My radiation techs have to alot of physics. It all depends on the job you persue.</p>
<p>Thank you, downtoearth. I’m encouraging my daughter to keep an open mind about the future, and not get overly discouraged by her challenges in math. It’s important that our kids learn to be realistic about their strengths and weaknesses, but not good if they end up selling themselves short.</p>
<p>Does anyone have big plans for the long weekend? This morning H asked if we should have people over. Mind you, my house looks only marginally better than when we first brought Son home from school. The things that H and Son have “put away” are not put away at all - they aren’t put away if I can still see them! Anyway, I said NO to the entertaining-that would have made my weekend 100% work.</p>
<p>missypie, I wish there was a way to entertain while keeping everyone outside or on the porch. But that would mean renting a porta-potty, and the gardens would still need to look well-tended.</p>
<p>The nature of H’s work means he will be ensuring everyone else’s entertaining/weddings/parties and the like run smoothly this weekend. I plan to clean and garden. Now if I could just get son to go camping or something I could have the house entirely to myself. That would be an awesome weekend.</p>
<p>peonies - Thanks, you just reminded me I need to order a port-a-potty for our big party on July 3rd!!! Now if I could only remember who we used last year…</p>
<p>S1 finally touched based from the land down under. Everything is awesome, although there are still issues pending with the Brazilian work visa. His boss has several possible “solutions” one of which may be enrolling in the MBA program at the university in Rio while he gets the one-year of professional work experience needed for the Brazilian work visa. His company is currently treating him as a trainee with full benefits for payment purposes, and he could just continue on that status for a year. However, a lot of the employees at this firm have graduate degrees, albeit in engineering not business, but they appear to be supportive of that route as well. Apparently, the UFRJ MBA program is tuition-free, is ranked as a top 100 MBA program in the world, and is the only ranked program in Latin America. I don’t know if S1 can get in, but his GMAT score that he just took appears to be high enough so I guess it can’t hurt to try. (I just had an instinct that GMAT would come in handy.) The MBA program seems more flexible than U.S. programs on the requirement for prior work experience if you are sponsored by an employer. Although it is a full-time program, they allow students to maintain “links” with their employer. A lot of stuff in Portuguese I couldn’t follow but since his boss suggested it as an option, it sounds like something to think about. It would keep S1 living in Rio for the next two years rather than traveling so much, which would be a plus in his book. However, he would be going to school full time and working part-time as well, so pretty brutal schedule. Anyway, he loves the work he is doing so far, which is translating technical manuals from Portuguese into English.</p>
<p>analyst my friends D is finishing a gap year in Australia and just loved it. fantastic place to be. what an amazing job. I would love my kids to see the world, then settle near me withthe grandchildren or at least live somewhere interesting to visit.
NM my D1 could give your D some lessons. she is in Jury duty and another juror was condescending, she let him have it and he apologized later. she works really well with people but stands her ground. although, for your daughter to do all she did she just goes about it differently. Is your daughter hesitant about a sport at her new school because of her past experience? or just not interested?</p>
<p>dte…D2 just wants to focus on academics. Didn’t like missing classes, having to contact profs to say she would be gone and finding someone to get notes from. She can be a little obsessive about her grades; that’s why we liked her playing a sport… to round her out a little more and try to ease the anxiety she feels.</p>
<p>Your D2 sounds so much like I was as a student - except that I was utterly unathletic. I hated missing class and hated having to use someone else’s notes. (Didn’t trust them - knew my own would be superior, LOL!)</p>
<p>Weekend (and longer) plans – moving to our beach house in RI for the summer. As long as H has internet and a phone, he can work anywhere, so … D found a job at a summer camp in said beach house town, and S will be with us until mid-June until he leaves for his summer job in NH. My specific plans for this weekend are to clean the entire beach house, deal with the planting beds, etc. Hm-m-m, not unlike what I just finished doing here in CT.</p>
<p>Okay. So your job will be to be cheery and perky all summer. As the summer wears on and my husband and kids are home making a mess and not cooking and at each other’s throats and I’m working all day and it’s 105 degrees outside, your job will be to post happy thoughts.</p>
<p>Okay, here’s a great example of being the mom who does everything/too much. Son starts summer school at the local CC on Tuesday. I said that he and H needed to drive there today, so Son can figure out the best route, where to park, where his class is, etc. They tried to call me while they were there but I was at lunch. When I called them back they were on their way home. They had called to ask me, “Do we need to go to some office to get a student ID?” “Do we need to do anything else, or does he just show up to class?” etc.</p>
<p>THEY WERE PHYSICALLY AT THE SCHOOL, CALLING ME ON THE PHONE TO ASK THOSE QUESTIONS. They couldn’t just pop into an administration office and ask those questions? They couldn’t get ME so they left with their questions unanswered.</p>
<p>That’s like when the two of them were on a college road trip and they took a wrong turn and couldn’t find their hotel. They called me. I’m in my car in Dallas and I’m supposed to figure out where they are in San Antonio and how to get to their hotel!!! Of course I said CALL THE HOTEL!!!</p>
<p>Well, missypie, if it makes you feel any better I emailed my H this morning with instructions on things he needed to take care of. Some of the items I emailed him about were tasks and communications I usually take care of but am just sick and tired of doing so. I’m just tired of it. </p>
<p>I have limited personal days at my job. H has weeks and weeks but of course he thinks he’s indispensable at work. I spend quite a bit of time in the car already but of course he thought I should be the one to take D to an audition, adding hours to my already plentiful time in the car. I realized today that I did not even know, other than the city, where the audition was to take place. So I told him–YOU email her. You ask her for the information. Because I am just tired of asking for information and being treated like a burden. I feel like telling her to take the dang bus. That’s what I did when I was in college and had to travel any distance that wasn’t home.</p>