<p>Momofboston - Pumpkin spice latte!!!</p>
<p>Shawbridge: I think that your D and my D2 have a lot in common. That sounds like a Halloween costume she would pick. I have no desire to see pictures either.</p>
<p>Kinder: You and your D are wonderful to take in all those kids.</p>
<p>MOB: I hope you get your power back soon. I spent a fortune on coffee when our internet was out for a week following hurricane Irene.</p>
<p>Flmathmom: Agree that communication with my son’s roommate would be a good thing. I do think he’d feel better if he spoke his mind and let the roommate know that he needs to make some cleaning effort. Even if he settled on, “let’s get the garbage in the can”, that would be a step in the right direction. S2 says that he doesn’t pick up the apples, etc. and put them in the garbage – though that would be easy for him to do – because he doesn’t want to be the “maid”. He just doesn’t want to be perceived as a bad guy, I think. And as for the lock issue, I think he could speak up and say that he’ll give him x number of days to find the key or get a replacement and then he plans to start locking the door when they’re not there. Easier for me to say than for him to do. Actually, the key is probably there – just buried under the debris. I saw his toothbrush on the floor – surely the key is there somewhere!</p>
<p>AK: Your daughter might make a good match for this guy! Glad your son enjoyed Toronto – did he see “she who must not be named”?</p>
<p>kinderny: I think the impromptu sleepover sounds like fun! Okay, minus the food issues.</p>
<p>Hi all! Well my fingers are just about thawed out enough from our adventures in the frozen hinterlands of New Haven to type! All in all we had a great weekend, two sunny days with a Nor’ Easter sandwiched in the middle! Quite the cornucopia of weather events, haha. So sorry to hear about the power outages some of you are still dealing with, although I am not surprised given the force of that storm. </p>
<p>S2 is doing really well, so glad to see the whites of his eyeballs and take that always important pulse-only-a-mom-can-take of how he’s really doing. We went to a great concert that his band put on but otherwise several other events that we’d planned on attending we just didn’t make. Residential college reception took place at 4:30 on Saturday and we just couldn’t bring ourselves to venture out in that sleeting, snowing, blowing mess. We came prepared for rain, but not the snow! We stayed at a nice boutique-type hotel right down the street from S2’s dorm, so he came and hung out with us in the lobby while we sipped hot cider in comfy chairs and stared out the big picture windows at the storm coming down around us. it actually gave us extra time to just visit with him and get caught up on his new life.</p>
<p>So here’s a funny story, while we’re sitting there in the lobby a certain very well known woman(from a famous political family, you all know her…) comes by and sits with a kid S2’s age in another part of the lobby. My eyes bug out of my head and I say to my son in my best excited-but-hushed voice: “that’s so-and-so!” and he looks at me an nonchalantly says “oh yeah, that’s her son so-and-so, he lives in the suite across from me”…this detail of dorm life he did not seem to think was important to fill me in on, haha!</p>
<p>When we were leaving S2 got pretty sad, he said up until this weekend he hadn’t been homesick, but after seeing us he suddenly just wanted to be home. They have a tough three weeks ahead, but Thanksgiving is just around the corner.</p>
<p>D sent pix of herself as Ke$ha. H was awake all night worrying about her.</p>
<p>Hi all - been a while - it sure has been a crazy week and a even crazier weekend.</p>
<p>S is fine - thanks to all those who asked. We did go down to Children’s last week, to my surprise, did get a confirmed diagnosis of JRA, but the form of JRA that he has is not supposed to be too bad. He’s responding well to the medication thus far - hopefully, it will continue and he won’t need to have the knee drained et al.</p>
<p>We only got a couple of inches of heavy snow this past weekend, but power has been out since sat night. Not expected to get power back till Tuesday or Wednesday. School’s canceled for today and is also out for tomorrow. Most of the town is without power - H said that the library, Dunkin Donuts all are closed! Lots and lots of trees down all around - we spent yesterday afternoon/evening at a cousin’s place and the drive to get down there was harrowing. The shortest way there was via back roads - and H took those - we got turned around twice due to fallen trees and encountered several hanging power lines! Finally got back to the highway and traveled the safe way!</p>
<p>D is doing well - was a tad bit homesick last weekend after her fall break trip with friends. But she has since bounced back. She decided she was going to find something for the summer - she spent one morning trying to find internships or volunteer opportunities near boston. She did get one acceptance as a volunteer - she’s very thrilled with that! Now, hoping to find something else to supplement the hours she will spending at that lab.</p>
<p>No Halloween here - trick or treating tonight has been canceled 
I have to make sure I return the big bag of candy to Costco - having it around at home is too dangerous!</p>
<p>Sorry to hear about the JRA, arisamp, although it may be that this diagnosis is better than others considered.</p>
<p>We thought all was fine – though this morning we noticed a huge branch (20-30 feet) missing from one of our 100+ old oak trees and saw it about 20 feet over in our neighbor’s yard. It had just missed their house.</p>
<p>arisamp: Sorry to hear about the JRA diagnosis. I hope your S continues to respond positively to the medication. </p>
<p>By the way, did you say that you were going to return Halloween candy – oh, you are just too good! I would probably view the cancellation of trick or treating as a sign that I should eat the candy!</p>
<p>Shawbridge: Glad your neighbor’s house escaped damage from your big tree branch!</p>
<p>Yalemom, can we guess? </p>
<p>I’m going with Caroline Kennedy.</p>
<p>Yalemom: Caroline Kennedy is my guess, too!</p>
<p>Oh, Yalemom! If I had only known you were there, we could have met. H and I were sitting in the bar, also riding out the storm. To think that I missed the famous person And you!</p>
<p>Yalemom 2015, sorry to hear that your son got a bit homesick but its comforting for me to know that it is normal and Highhead it was good to hear that the girls in your D’s suite all missed their families and found it hard! So I am not reveling in anyone’s homesickness just helps to put it all in perspective.</p>
<p>Arisamp, It must be a relief to finally have answers, glad your son is responding well to the treatment and that its not as serious as it could have been! Such willpower returning the Halloween candy.</p>
<p>Ohiomom, I think your guess is right. My D told me a story about same kid who wrote a story about the kids across the hall from him, was that your son who was being written about Yalemom? Didn’t see the article and don’t know what it was about.
Other famous kid would be Jody Picoult’s son that I know of but she is not a politician!</p>
<p>FogFog, did get to give your son a hug, he looked very happy and healthy, thanks for the call to day and the words of wisdom!
Kinder you are too kind, I love housing kids and although I agree with Fog Fog I would probably try to accomodate them like you did because I would want my kids to keep bringing friends home. (But Vegans are really hard to accomodate!)</p>
<p>EAO. No problem. Good to hear your voice. Sometimes it is easier to verbally process all that our kids say/do…
Sounds like you have a great handle on this and how it will play out. Wish I had answers for you–You have more expereince in this than I do.
One thing I come back to is that the freshamn are now the little fish–put another way, they are the bottom of the food chain/pecking order. So they are all now more independent, trying to figure out who they are, what they enjoy, etc…and are blazing their own trail…There are alot of growing pains with that.</p>
<p>Much love and hugs!</p>
<p>YaleMom–can you give us clues/an answer or do ya have to PM that?</p>
<p>Shawbridge - move complicated - health, finances, job issues. Mostly we lucked out by selling our house in NE much more quickly than anticipated. No intention of foisting all these transitions on DS at once, but that’s the way it worked. </p>
<p>Sorry for all of you caught up in the bad weather for the weekend. Who could have imagined? </p>
<p>I remember as a freshman that the comings and goings from home were hardest - was fine either at home or at school but had difficulty transitioning. I think for some kids it’s just easier/better to stay at school for a relatively extended time before coming home. Or maybe that is my justification since DS cannot come until winter break and we don’t see him until we go there at T-giving. Progress though - he did say last night that “might be ok” to stay w/ us in hotel during T-giving :)</p>
<p>Ohiomom, I keep telling myself that so long as a minimum level of hygiene has been achieved, I will grit my teeth and say nothing when we visit son for Parents Weekend this coming Saturday. Thank you for providing a role model of restraint! </p>
<p>Snow Bronxville was hit hard. I know this because Ive set up alerts with the local paper. S did tell me though that his dorm was the only one with power, heat and hot water. He was having lots of friends come over to shower and sleep that night. His dorm was hardest hit during the move-in Hurricane, losing internet for about a week, so it was nice that this time they escaped lightly. And hed gone out the day before to buy a winter coat great timing.</p>
<p>Re returning at Christmas to a new home. Funnily enough we were just talking about this at dinner. Hs family moved across town during his first semester freshman year. My parents moved to a new country (Kenya) and we moved to a new house right after D started uni so she came back at Christmas to a place shed never seen. And now were moving from Surrey into the heart of London so S will come back at Christmas to an entirely different location. Ive sent him links to the house luckily theres a lot on the internet on this particular property, and Ive emailed lots of descriptions but he hasnt really responded. I know it wont seem real to him until he walks through the door.</p>
<p>We got socked this weekend with 8 - 9" of snow. We haven’t had power since about noon on Saturday. I was overjoyed when my co-worker called and said that the library where I work had power. I raced over. It’s warm! There is light and wifi! Running water! I am hanging out here, at the library. It’s quite depressing to be without all of those necessities. Lots and lots of tree damage. Lehigh University and DeSales University closed and I heard that DeSales sent the kids home. It made me wonder what the policy is at my son’s college. What would he do if he didn’t have someone like Kinderny to take him in? What do OOS students do in power outages?</p>
<p>^^Such a pain to be out of power for so long, I’m so sorry for all you guys! Last week we lost power for a couple of hours and that was awful…We’re so dependent on electricity; I found myself going to the microwave to heat up a cup of tea, totally knowing we had no power, but still flabbergasted when the ‘on’ button wouldn’t light up!</p>
<p>Regarding mystery lady, emilyBe and ohiomom get to split the prize money :D</p>
<p>EAO: Don’t know about the article, S2 was annoyed at my slack-jawed celebrity gawking, so the topic of conversation moved quickly on. I hope you didn’t wear your nice new Coach boots in that mess- I am still drying out my boots that I thought were waterproof, but actually apparently were not :eek:. </p>
<p>Highhead, sounds like were like ships that passed in the full daylight! We should establish some kind of signal for CC parents (like wearing a red carnation 
) to identify ourselves on these campus visits.</p>
<p>Fogfog, I’m glad you were able to check in with kiddo through EAO, it’s always nice to have a first hand account of how things are going. And Thanksgiving is just around the corner!</p>
<p>We have a warm dry evening here and that means swarms of trick or treaters will soon be descending- yikes!</p>
<p>“Regarding mystery lady, emilyBe and ohiomom get to split the prize money”</p>
<p>If only it was this easy to win the lottery. ;)</p>
<p>Ohiomom – it must have been so difficult to stay silent. I know it’s very difficult to let your S handle the situation; my older DD had a very similar situation when she was a freshman. I tried to convince her to talk to the roommate but she just didn’t want to make waves. Learning to deal with these issues on their own is a real learning experience, that’s for sure!</p>
<p>AvonDad – can I hope that you will start the end-of-semester countdown once Thanksgiving is past? DD2 won’t be coming home until mid-December so I’m happy for all of you who will see your kids in a few weeks but Christmas break is the one that I am focused on.</p>
<p>EAO – sorry to hear that your DD is so homesick. Hopefully, a trip to your new home will help her get her bearings back. And Siemom – I know it must be hard but it does sound like your DS is handling your move in his own way. I hope that your trip to see him at Thanksgiving will help you all.</p>
<p>Kinderny – you have my utmost admiration for your ability to deal with this totally unexpected and somewhat complicated situation. I’m sure those kids are happy to be out of the dorm being taken care of by a caring mom.</p>
<p>Shawbridge – I really hope that your DD’s rooming situation can be solved, either formally or informally. I just do not understand why some girls insist on making other girls’ life miserable but it sounds like ShawD is working through the situation on her own – I’m sure you ache for her but must also be very proud.</p>
<p>Arisamp – sorry about the JRA diagnosis; I will keep your S in my prayers, hoping that he will continue to respond well to the medication.</p>
<p>On the subject of homesickness, I know of so many kids that are dealing with it right now…. and either being home or having family/friends visit campus seems to often bring those feelings to the forefront. Just another part of the transition that they all have to deal with in their own ways but it is HARD for the parents, is it not?</p>
<p>emilybee: Maybe we should play the lottery today…feeling lucky!</p>