<p>**19 days (or less) to Thanksgiving break **</p>
<p>We are now into the teens! Smiling freshmen faces at home for the holiday is getting nearer and nearer each day!</p>
<p>(Based on kids touching down at home on the Wednesday before TG. Some kids may get the full week and will land at home sooner.)</p>
<p>Kinderny- Sounds like a great book group. My only experience with Occupy was in New Haven and it just looked cold and wet with people huddled in tents! Of course this was in the midst of the Noreaster with huge wet pieces of slush plopping down on our heads with 30 mph gusts of wind! Gotta give them credit for staying out there in that mess.</p>
<p>When D went to NYC with her friends that were going to Occupy Wall Street (she was going shopping just hitching a ride) Her friends were very disappointed and only ended up staying an hour or so before they bailed. </p>
<p>More painting today! I always start projects then get really sick of them quickly, this house is starting to overwhelm me! TGIF (husband can help tomorrow!)</p>
<p>grumble…grumble…blankety blank power blankety bureaucrats…grumble…day 7.</p>
<p>OH AK…I am so sorry for your situation.</p>
<p>You are maintaining a sense of humor though! :D</p>
<p>16 days til kiddo walks through the door…til then there is the next round of mid term exams, papers, etc. Kiddo thinks about it in 5-7 day blocks as far as weekly planning so 16 days seems “long”.</p>
<p>Am starting my lists for both holidays–as I am still recooperating and not driving etc. Most I get done right now is to make a pot of tea and some toast…</p>
<p>I am thinking about doing a photo card for the holidays. For the last 5 years I have thought about it and then not gotten it done.
What places are quickest/economical? Drug stores, Big Box stores or online?
If we do a casual family pic over the holiday thats decent I might actually send greeting cards again this year… </p>
<p>HH too funny about that gin! Quite the educated palate, huh? 
We were surprised to hear about the funds for social events (the liquor treating being an upper classmen event) Did you know that the kids who end up in that social coordinator room actually go through an interview/selection process. I think they are like “cruise directors” for each res college.</p>
<p>On new roles in community–
for a season we were living in community in a former soviet nation with a mercy ministry team. Families, singles, retired couples all together. We had food shortages. Cold (frigid water), no heat, spartan conditions in late winter/early spring. (central furnace/water heater for our “neighborhood” was broken) My kids were 3 and 5 at the time.
The way a group works, grows, transforms etc is interesting. The leaders that rise up, the care givers, meal organizers etc. It is a very powerful and growing time for individuals because it stretches everyone beyond their comfort zone. professional roles and roles from home are lost and in the community family new things emerge. Some have a hard time when they are not being in charge after being self sufficient in their former lives. Some who were selfish and used to only thinking of themselves were challenged to reach out and serve their teammates/community. Everyone comes back transformed.</p>
<p>EAO, I (well DH did the painting, I picked the color) painted my living room a few years ago and wasn’t happy with it - it wasn’t awful - just wasn’t right - and after about a year I found I couldn’t live with it so DH had to paint it again. If I were you I’d stop now and go find a color you really like. JMO. </p>
<p>DH took the day off to rake and mow the lawn so we aren’t stuck doing yardwork all weekend and can do something fun, instead. </p>
<p>Amanda, at least you have power instead of being the one who has to bunk in someone else house.</p>
<p>S2 is attending a “screw” party tonight, HH, EAO, fogfog, or others, can you shed a light on this party genre for me? He apparently has gone to at least one other this fall but tends to not give me much information about them- my inquisitiveness annoys him :rolleyes:</p>
<p>Yalemom: my understanding of a screw is that it’s a dance where your date is chosen for you by one of your suite mates. Half the fun, presumably, is finding that person on the way to the dance. You don’t get introduced, you get hints/scavenger hunts/clues that help you find each other, often risqu</p>
<p>YaleMom
Have heard that each res college hosts a screw…more attended by underclassmen than Srs…said to be a alot of fun…as long as it is taken lightly and not as a cheap hook-up.</p>
<p>As HH said, “finding” your date is part of the fun. The dates are picked by the roommates. Hopefully the roommates do a decent job. There are likely pre-parties to this event. Important to not take yourself too seriously.
Kiddo’s is this weekend I think—maybe next weekend…idk. </p>
<p>Which res college is having it tonight? </p>
<p>My BFF from hs was matched with her husband at an “screw your roommate” aka SYR at Notre Dame 20+ years ago. I think that was her soph or jr yr, so you just don’t know who you will meet.</p>
<p>At Boulder that had a very different meaning. ;)</p>
<p>Boychild is off to Boston this weekend for a sailing regatta at MIT. At least it’s warm and sunny for the last meet of the season. :)</p>
<p>Happy hour is tonight at 5. I’m making bloody mary’s if anyone cares to join me.</p>
<p>Apparently it’s not tonight, it’s tomorrow night- more subterfuge by S2 to throw me off the trail, haha (or actually I think I just heard incorrectly from him last time we talked) :). Thanks for the background you two, I will have to tease out my information very carefully to really figure out what happened. I love a good scavenger hunt story as much as the next person though, so hopefully he’ll throw me a crumb or two of information after the weekend’s over. Or maybe I’ll have to ply him with promises all his favorite foods at Thanksgiving. Fogfog, maybe our boys are going to the same one? This one is Trumbull’s. He also went to another one and his suite mate accidentally (don’t quite know how this happens) got set up with two girls and they were NOT amused!</p>
<p>AK - can’t believe it is taking power company soooo long. Sending you warm hugs.</p>
<p>Screw party??? Hmmmm</p>
<p>IMO Picking a paint color is one of the most difficult jobs in decorating. To help, I bought several large poster boards and painted each one a different color using samples or pints from paint store. Moved the boards around the room to see how the color looked in different light at different times of the day. Lived with choices for a while. Used sample boards to pick fabric and furniture too. When it came time to paint, we dumped all the samples in the primer. Waste not, want not.</p>
<p>@AK: sorry to hear you guys are STILL without power. I wonder what the heck is taking them so long?
@ShawDad: maybe the girls can switch informally, with a written document acknowledging any damage to the new room will revert to the original occupant?
@emilybee: bloody mary’s sound great. see you then.</p>
<p>@ all the Yalies: the screw parties sound like a lot of fun…hopefully, innocent fun…</p>
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<p>that was the advice a friend/artist gave me…when I was choosing a red…in fact I took the large painted poster board- painted in my fav shade–cut it in 4 and hung one on each wall of the dining room. Asked DH and the kids which they liked best…hahaha</p>
<p>Everyone was surprised at how different the color looked from wall to wall, north light etc</p>
<p>AK…So sorry about the power…I would be more than grumbling at this point.</p>
<p>Not much to say today, really just marking my place…lol…Friday Night Lights tonight…very important game for our HS. Should be a bruiser…they are expecting the stadium (away game) to be at capacity (10,500) so we will go early.</p>
<p>Tomorrow it is off to UT early in the morning for an 11 am football game against instate rival Texas Tech! So much football…so little shopping. ;)</p>
<p>oops. I meant to say that any damage to the new room will be the responsibility of the new occupant.
I am having serious brain fog…think I need a bloody mary…</p>
<p>I stand corrected again, apparently there’s one tonight AND one tomorrow night…a whole lot of Screw party activities on tap for the weekend apparently. It’s a bit of a vulgar term, my eyebrows have yet returned to their normal height on my face!</p>
<p>fogfog, I love the online merchandiser Tiny Prints for holiday photo cards. They use nice heavy card stock and the photo quality is very good. They also offer a rush option for those of us who wait until the last minute :)</p>
<p><a href=“Why Science Majors Change Their Minds (It’s Just So Darn Hard) - The New York Times”>Why Science Majors Change Their Minds (It’s Just So Darn Hard) - The New York Times; Interesting article from today’s NYTimes. For those of you with kids studying science/engineering. This is why my d is studying liberal arts ! ha ha!! Good luck!</p>
<p>“The president and industry groups have called on colleges to graduate 10,000 more engineers a year and 100,000 new teachers with majors in STEM — science, technology, engineering and math.”</p>
<p>Now why is the world would anyone, in this day and age, spend $200K to get a degree in any field, especially in STEM subjects, to go into teaching, when teachers are being maligned and used as whipping boys for all that is wrong with out educational system, and with school districts cutting teachers, their pay and benefits.</p>
<p>Hollie: scary but true-sounding article. My D says she knows she is not working to her potential because she is so uninspired by her incredibly demanding math and physics classes. If she dreads her time in the lab, why would she want to major in something that will keep her in a lab for her whole career? She will probably wind up as a social scientist instead.</p>
<p>My D seems to be adjusting very well to college life. Despite the more than foot of snow, they didn’t lose power, so classes continued as usual. A few othe schools in the area were closed for the better part of the week.</p>
<p>She is doing sorority recruitment, which totally surprises me, since she never expressed an interest before. She said that she is going to see how it goes, and may not join until next year. </p>
<p>I am making a trip to see her on Sunday so that I can bring her winter boots, hat, and gloves before the next storm, and she can send home her fall sports equipment.</p>
<p>She attends WPI, which is mentioned in the NYT article. They do an amazing job of keeping the kids on track. Since it is a tech school, the majority of kids who attend really want to be there.</p>