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<p>Due to an omission in the college catalog, I had to take Government in summer school after my junior year in college. My days were: work all day at Kmart, go to class from 7-10 pm, go out with boyfriend until who knows when, then repeat. It really helped to be 20 years old.</p>
<p>Reading these posts makes me appeciate our empty nest–everything is neat and clean. We don’t hear much from S2, but assume he is doing fine. I’m enjoying taking a little break from any kid based drama. </p>
<p>S1 did a surprise Skype with me this morning. I love the 14 hour time difference, so 8:30 am is 10:30 pm his time. That works pretty well for communication. He is working 12-hour days at the office and then putting in more hours in the hotel, so not going out at night at all but seems perfectly happy. He expects to go somewhere next week-end since there is a three day week-end there. He is running in the morning before work, but does feel restless being at a desk for so many hours every day. His boss mentioned that his next assignment (July) is likely to be in Mozambique. I had to look it up and apparently they speak Portuguese there, so that will give him a good place to practice his language skills.</p>
<p>TheAnalyist, did S2 always have that kind of work ethic, or did it come in the later years of college?</p>
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<p>Again, this applies to a couple of levels! Too funny.</p>
<p>I think I really have to try and remember what it’s like to be 20… and not so much that I just end up being ticked that I am not! Actually, I loved being 37 more than 20, and I will admit that I am not NOT looking forward to a year or so until I turn 50. Everyone keeps talking about how freeing 50 is. Personally, I am going for the fabulous at 50 birthday party theme. Might take some spa treatments and weekends, but it can happen.</p>
<p>Al and Tipper Gore: I don’t get it, unless and until, they name a third party to the picture.</p>
<p>S1 has what I would call a variable work ethic. I’m somewhat surprised he is so serious about his job now. Really didn’t see that coming. He put in a lot of hours in high school to make B’s before we finally got him treatment for his ADD and I think he learned his work ethic from that. His friends were all top 5% of the class and he was determined to do his best to keep up. By the time we got him treatment, he had decided B’s were acceptable and was able to get those after treatment with zero effort. But when he needed to step it up for something in college that was hard (in order to reach his B goal), he knew how to work hard when necessary. </p>
<p>I guess this is a situation where he has set the bar at level x and it happens to require a great deal of effort for him to meet that goal. As I have mentioned before, he is not really a technically inclined type of kid (great golfer, runner, soccer player, nice manners, etc.) and he is working with a bunch of PhD engineers. I can imagine he has some serious learning to do just to hold his own. They are giving him very substantive assignments, much more so than what I think U.S. firms expect of new grads, at least in my experience.</p>
<p>I can’t believe what my former empty nest is like. D asked me last night if H and I are always so crabby with each other. It kindof broke my heart to think, “No only when you and and S are around.” I had to tell her some variation otherwise the poor child would think we are pulling a Gore on them.
S started his internship. says he thinks he can cut their overhead in half by NOT MAKING 8 COPIES of everything that comes across his desk!
D has also gone the cragslist route; got call backs in 4 hours on a 4 jobs and has set up 2 interviews in NYC tomorrow. Of course, all I can think about is the craiglist killer but really can’t go there.</p>
<p>woody, the paperless office is the future…at least that’s what I keep telling my employer! Paper copies everywhere. </p>
<p>It’s amazing how family dynamics change when the empty nest is empty no more. H was annoyed with me with discussing D’s financial arrangements within earshot of S. We have to go to our backyard to have a private conversation. I’m sure the neighbors are really enjoying them!</p>
<p>Please forgive the following grade rant: Middle school athletics is very time consuming. It is one period a day, then they stay after school for an hour every day. Each student is required to compete in two sports. My D did three. Game day takes HOURS because each team member has to stay for the A, B and C team games; homework is then started at about 9 pm. My D has literally shed blood, sweat and tears during athletics. </p>
<p>And every semester, what is their final? Running the mile. Each student is graded on how fast he or she runs the mile…as you would suspect, the cross country folks get 100s. The pole vaulters and the heavier football players not so much. D can’t really handle much distance running because years of gymnastics and tumbling have taken their toll on her knees. So running the mile brings down her grade every time.</p>
<p>No use complaining because it’s just middle school, but isn’t the speed of running the mile a silly thing to grade on, when the students have all put in so much time and effort all year?</p>
<p>Edit: D2 figured out my computer question!!! Whew!</p>
<p>Missy –</p>
<p>In my high school, the key part of the gym grade (besides attendance) was whether you could beat the fifty-something year old coach running the XC course. Through the foothills. While watching out for rattlesnakes. (Which, being from the northeast, scared me to death.)</p>
<p>I was not a fan.</p>
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<p>Good lord! I guess it takes a certain kind of mind to be a gym teacher/coach!</p>
<p>That’s so different from S2’s experience in gym. He took PE through his senior year in high school. It was called Advanced PE and I used to joke it was his only AP course. The coach who taught that class exclusively gave A’s as far as I know and the only rule was to show up (and that might have been more of guideline than a rule). You didn’t even have to dress out because half the kids were injured from playing their sport at any given moment. If they weren’t injured, the coach was so worried that they might get injured in gym class he never wanted anybody ever doing anything too physical. They used to go bowling a lot. At back to school night, this guy just raved about every single kid, like they were all superstars in his book. Very positive fellow.</p>
<p>I find it dificult at my d’s school, they require kids do a sport but do not consider dance a sport and the mile thing isnt fair.
anybody’s kids go to Wash u there is a funny Utube Librarians do Ga GA I think its cute.
I am just happy to post never mind spelling and punctuation. I am serious, do people really mind?</p>
<p>Spelling and punctuation? I’m lucky if I can get out a coherent idea half the time…</p>
<p>Ahemm…I’m not exactly the one to criticize spelling after my typo this morning…</p>
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agree completely. sometimes I’d be better off just saying “^^ what s/he said…”</p>
<p>missypie, I cannot tell you how many times my fingers have typed that combination of letters in the wrong order. There are certain words I always check before hitting send, esp. since my regular email doesn’t save my %%$# by substituting offending letter strings with *****! ;)</p>
<p>Missy… that sounds excessively punitive for a gym class. But like you point out, it’s Middle School. Thing is… your daughter has the advantage to know she is athletically talented in other sports. What about the kid who isn’t on cheer or dance or… ? Whose to say he wouldn’t be a great discus thrower, but you’ve soured him on Athletics by 8th grade?</p>
<p>Our school rubric is a little more balanced giving more weight to participation and attitude. Everyone can bring something to the mix. However, once they got done with a unit - like golf or football or even “cooperative games” they would actually have tests on the rules of play. Leave it to our school to make even gym something you need to study for!</p>
<p>Oooh, don’t get me started on PE (I grew up calling it “gym,” but nobody calls it that here).</p>
<p>Our schools had BIG co-ed PE classes all through high school; the schools were also big on team sports. So, this meant that PE often entailed standing around watching other people play…</p>
<p>Then the kids would get tested on things like throwing a football at a target. My older D is small, with tiny hands; she can’t even HOLD a football, let alone throw it.</p>
<p>They also were always subjected to the President’s physical fitness tests – which is fine, but they spent little if any time prepping for the kinds of things they’d have to do. My younger daughter, who is an accomplished dancer, would always get an “F” for pull ups because she couldn’t do the requisite 3 or 5 or whatever. </p>
<p>Then, the local papers would write up – every spring – how out of shape our kids were! All because they couldn’t do pull ups … or run a 7 minute mile … or whatever…</p>
<p>I was so glad when PE was over for them. We found better/other ways to keep us all active and healthy.</p>
<p>My D 2 has been looking forward to taking Anatomy and Physiology next year, now they wont let her take it because they are afraid she will be too stressed. She is type A and was very stressed her first year but has come a long way maturity wise. I thought she would be crying after her chem final today because she was worried about it. all she said was “it was hard” and on to the next thing. They did not even consult with us about this. I think if she won 6 awards at the awards night including best in 4 subjects after this year that attests to her ability to cope. I was very happy for my girls , because my biggest fear was my illness would affect my kids and they both did very well. and continue to do so. It is so frustrating to me, that if a person shows any stress than they are considered weak, where her friend who she has to calm down, does not show it to the “authorities” and they just dont know how stressed she is. I have emailed her advisor for furthur explanation. We knew her junior year would be rigorous, but we are willing to let her try knowing she could drop if she needed to. this has hurt her as she feels they dont have faith in her. Honestly she has never exhibited signs of breaking down and does not appear any more stressed than the average hardworking CC kid. In fact she doesnt take as hard classes as many on the 2012 thread. I am puzzled. ok my RANT is over.</p>