@albert69, my heart stopped this morning because today’s paper reported the deaths of two Colgate students in a small plane crash, and the plane was piloted by a freshman girl. Took me a couple of seconds to remember that you’re in Kansas! Fly safe.
@LadyArwyn - find out how things can be hung if you can. Turns out D’d dorm allowed push pins (walls are drywall, not concrete block) and thus, command strips were not needed.
At another parent’s suggestion, I packed a large ziplock bag with rice should she get her phone wet…it’s the kind of thing that would be hard to track down in a dining hall and speed is key.
I now wish I’d bought dorm insurance because what she did do was drop her phone and shatter the screen. She’s getting it fixed locally but it’s costing 2x what the insurance would have.
She needed more hangers.
Also I think my kid would like a vacuum but hasn’t asked for one (mindful of expense & bringing it home)
@mdcmom Gosh, I’m so sorry about those students. It’s so sad when that happens. Have you heard the cause of the crash? Thanks for thinking of me as soon as you heard plane crash … I’ll be careful. I’m not flying yet, though.
Albert there is speculation there was a problem with the plane. She radioed for help. NTSB investigating. Heartbreaking story.
Yeah, it will probably take several months at least before full report comes out. It is so sad. I know firsthand the fear when something goes wrong while flying… and mine was minor mistake comparatively. It’s a risk you take anytime you fly.
Made sure DS had a collection of Command hooks of various sizes. Visited this past weekend and nothing – absolutely nothing of any kind – on the walls. Boys… I thought he would at least need one to hang his towel, but evidently not.
@scholarme , her school doesn’t graduate until mid-June.
Actually, that was badly worded. Her university doesn’t finish spring finals until mid-June. They run on a quarter system instead of a semester system. They have four equal 10-week quarters, and students choose three of the four each year. The system shifts the year around oddly, but it seems to work.
Also, S08 and S10 both started back to college today. A different school, but they are actually academically behind their younger sister now, and their pride was stung. This is S08’s second try, after military service, and S10’s third try. I think this time’s it’s going to stick. =D>
My DS, the AZ boy who is in college outside Philly, tweeted a couple of days ago that the Philly winter is killing him. AZ didn’t prepare him for nights that are under 70! In other news, he loves his classes and profs, loves being the manager of the women’s volleyball team, and is making friends, mostly with the volleyball women who are a bit less nerdy than the average student at one of the nerdiest campuses in the US (somehow the nerd thing was news to him). We are not making it out for family weekend because he will be away at a volleyball tournament. I thought I was going to get to see him the following weekend because I was supposed to go to DC for a conference at the National Science Foundation and was going to stop in Philly on the way, but when I tried to register for the conference, four days after the registration opened, it was full. DS is coming home for Fall Break, although he cut it short by one weekend because he is missing 2 volleyball games and didn’t want to miss 4. BTW, he has lots of coats and things. Says he needs fall clothes, which around here would be considered winter clothes. Fortunately, he’s making $$$ as team manager.
Seems like every time you feel like you can finally take a breath and relax a little, life finds a way to “keep things interesting”. Just as S is starting to get settled into his classes, we had to take him to the emergency room a week ago Sunday for an emergency appendectomy. Luckily it hadn’t ruptured yet, otherwise the recovery period could’ve been a lot more of an issue. As it was, he had a fair bit of pain and wasn’t even able to fully stand up straight for several days.
He wasn’t thrilled with the plan, but he’s not the type of student that can fall behind in his classes and easily get caught back up so he ended up going back to classes on Tuesday following a Sunday night surgery. It wasn’t easy for him to get around, but Mrs Wolverine and I helped get him everywhere he needed to be and he only missed his 2 classes on Monday. SO PROUD of him for toughing it out and making the best of a crappy situation.
Out of the frying pan and into the fire for him now though as he’s got 3 exams, a group presentation, and an essay all due next week. He’s not a fan of studying very far in advance, but we’re trying to “nudge” him into better time utilization now while he can get ahead of things.
At least it was the local child that had the medical issue and neither of his sisters that are out of state. Small blessings…but we’ll take them. #:-S
@Wolverine86 - sorry to hear about the emergency surgery! A friend’s daughter (also freshman) also had an emergency appendectomy recently. She’s not that near but her big brother is attending the same U so he was a big help.
@wolverine86 goodness! Prayers for his quick recovery!
@PhxRising I had to smile. It’s actually been the warmest September in Philly that I can think of.
Better send the kid some long underwear for actual winter. Also hand and footwarmers may come in handy. 
@wolverine86 so glad he is ok! Praying for a quick recovery and hope he does well on all that is coming his way!
@scholarme, Thanks for the tip. His HS graduation present, or maybe it was his 18th birthday present, was a hat and scarf knitted in school colors by my friend. I think the garnet is actually much nicer than the garnet I’ve seen on their own swag. He also got gloves. I think he just hasn’t realized that he needs to break out some jackets since around here it’s at least Thanksgiving before he even thought about a long sleeve shirt or long pants!
I doubt this affects any of you at all, but I just have to say how happy I am with my engineering graphics class. We had a test today, which was straight from the lectures and homework. Besides that, the teacher and TA walked around during the test helping people. As you turned in the test, they would spot check the last two questions (the hardest sketches) before you left and tell you if you needed to fix something. I think I did pretty well on the test, but even if I didn’t I have nothing but admiration for the instructors in the class - they have been so helpful all around and are really bending over backwards to help people learn the material. It’s easy for a lot of people, not as much for me because I’ve never done sketching by pencil or software, but so far I’ve been able to do well in the class just by asking for enough help because they are all so helpful.
The car is packed (and in the locked garage for security), and everything is pretty much ready to get on the road in the morning. Tomorrow will be a wall-to-wall busy day. I am so glad that her school is only a long day trip. Her second-choice school would have been a two day trip, at least.
My daughter had a trip to the ER this week (she’s 600 miles away, so I couldn’t bring her!) She fainted at her on campus job, so they called the ambulance. Apparently, it was a combination of not having eaten for several hours, being generally under the weather, and working in a very warm, un-air conditioned room. Poor kiddo has been sick twice already in a month. She’s not sleeping well because college has completely disrupted her sleeping schedule.
On the other hand, she is super excited about her vocal repertoire and enjoys almost all of her classes (music theory is the bugaboo - she said the classroom is very warm and the teacher has a soothing voice that makes her feel sleepy). Mostly, her problem is that she learned music theory up to this point in solfege and this teacher is using numbers, so she has to translate.