Just dropped D17 off for band camp. What a band geek, she’s so excited to be going, and to be spirit team leader…whatever that is.
Essay doldrums.
Son17 had a week off from sports last week and managed to get caught up on AP homework and summer reading so that was good. Not much progress on essay, but he did talk to a few friends who finished theirs, so that inspired him a bit. I’ll start giving him some grief this week, but I told him I’d like to see it done by 8/31.
Soccer training starts this week, no rest for the weary.
Going to finish our last 2 college visits this week, son mysteriously wants to check out Northeastern’s Business day this week. I don’t know why, never expressed in interest in that school before. Also, going to meet a lax coach at a local school and see what he has to say and check out school in more detail.
@CT1417 Our college counselor who was an admissions person at a university refers to those as smiley notes. She says that sometimes she would read a kid’s application even if it was not in her queue to make sure it was properly assessed.
My daughter wrote 12 last Thursday night to to pass out on Friday to staff at the Engineering company she did an internship at last week.
Thank you notes are required in our family 
@snoozn thank you for your thoughtful story on diversity. Probably our most immediate sense is sight so even though the word diversity can cover much more then color - it is probably the first barrier. My kids have 1 white parent and 1 brown so they are very comfortable with all shades of people as well as a shmorgas board of cultures… However everyone around them identifies them instantly by the chocolate of their skin. In today’s more p.c. society people are much less likely to speak their discomfort with brown and much more likely to express the much more subtle racism of exclusion… mostly unintentional. Many white kids will never know how much they might have in common with my half Germanic and Eastern European kids because they never take the time… I have seen much less well behaved and worldly beige kids (I like that word better) be much more successful with other beige kids because they will bother to get to know each other… By the way I am beige… So I definitely hope to send my kids where there is a rainbow
Ugh. First day of school and NOW DS17 is worried he won’t get a parking sticker because he hasn’t taken the drivers part of the drivers test yet.They only have so many parking stickers and once they are sold that’s it. He didn’t seem to care all summer that if he didn’t have it he couldn’t drive the car to school…
@CT1417 notes I have my kids mail thank you notes all the time. It takes a few minutes more, but I think people enjoy them more.
My advice to my kid would be to email the person who interviewed you to thank them. Since written thank-you notes haven’t been part of what we do as a family since they were really little, but we do (as a family) say thank you a lot, it seems like how you express the gratitude/appreciation is less important than the act itself. I wouldn’t worry too much about much time has elapsed-I don’t think the interviewer is keeping tabs and getting a nice email (especially on a monday!) is always a good thing. I haven’t bought stamps in years…
Public transportation-we’re surburbanites, but when we travel we make a specific effort to use public transportation whenever possible. D17 used the T with her dad and grandpa in Boston and Gpa was blown away by how much nicer the T was than he remembers. The DC metro was nice, and we took the BART in San Fran. I got super annoyed with both of the girls on the BART for not paying attention despite me repeatedly asking them “watch for our stop” and they had their heads buried in their phones and they kept putting their earbuds back in despite me telling them not to.
So we get to the stop and they are totally oblivious. I give H a bloody-eyed look and flick both of them on the ear with my fingers (enough to startle them) and snap at them 'good job paying attention-get off the train!" They were super pissed at me for a while, but I was like, you CAN NOT zone out on public transportation. Ever. So aggravated with them that day because they were completely acting like brain-dead suburbanite tourists in the city.
The only lesson they apparently learned is not to take public transportation with mom because she’s mean on the subway.
@MichiganGeorgia Bummer about the parking sticker. We, too, have a limited number of spots. When I dropped D17 off for band camp she texted me to say they’re being sold online starting this morning (they’re like Stones tickets). I raced home and got one in her preferred lot, with only 12 left to spare.
We can’t pick up the sticker without a DL/Insurance/Student ID, and it must be picked up by next week.
Public transportation: D17 is, more or less (that is, she does as well as one could expect coming from an area like ours with such an anemic system), but D19 is for whatever reason afraid of it. Not sure where that comes from, really.
Thanking people: If only a few days (even a week) have passed, email is still fine, I think—people know that it takes travel to get to colleges, and travel back can interfere with getting on the internet right away.
JOTD: So a baby seal walks into a club…
@dfbdfb So you had to go with the baby seal? I specifically bypassed that one for our Alaskan brother! =))
Did anyone else see the Pajama Diaries comic this morning? =D> http://pajamadiaries.com/ If the link doesn’t work, it is pajama diaries . com without the spaces.
Public Transportation
yes, no, yes, not really.
LOL! In order of child. We live in the suburbs. SS11 has always figured out how to get around, long before he had a drivers license or a car with our local (and rather terrible in my opinion) bus system. He’s also traveled solo to many places and manages just fine, NYC, Europe, etc. Granted, he had help and training on those early bus days. SD14 on the other hand…has major challenges in this area and would prefer to either walk, or be driven everywhere and never figure it out. Doesn’t have her license yet (another story entirely) so this is more than mildly annoying. She did manage to catch the bus to her summer session classes at the CC near her college though so that is actually huge progress.
S17 takes after big brother and can get himself wherever he needs to go, bus, uber, lyft, walk. He’s navigated the NYC subway and can figure out public transportation if I dropped him almost anywhere I am quite sure. I’m a big fan of not dropping everything to drive kids wherever they want to go and S17 is quite social so he’s motivated to figure it all out.
S19 is not as street smart as either of his big brothers. He can read a map with the best of them and has gotten himself around DC but has not managed a lot of bus riding solo. He should be fine too but needs more practice.
Senior pictures
GRR. S17 is scheduled to have his today, on the beach and it’s grey ugly drizzly day. Not sure how this is going to play out!
Summer homework
Turns out he HAS read some. One chapter of one book.
Oh well, it’s better than nothing. Right?
thanking people The kids are definitely trained in the art of the hand written thank you note. I’ve not been great about enforcing it lately and have allowed email. We have not done any for college visits as for the most part they have been group tours. Should have for one visit, though since he won’t apply I guess it’s not a big deal (outside of reinforcing proper behaviour). I do agree a handwritten note is an entirely different statement than an email and see no reason not to do both.
@greeny8 My DD14 had the same stress with the bus. If you haven’t already, you can download a UF phone app that’s a real time bus tracker. It’s helps a bit with the stress. 
Boy Scout Hiking Badge
For those of us that were chatting about this awhile back I received some clarity on the hiking portion. The 100 miles must include 20 in one day. I dropped S19 off for his 50 miler yesterday and it looks like our troop is going to try to plan a 20 miler for sometime this year as most of the boys have hit everything else and it seems really silly not to!
I think Pitt students can use some kind of smartphone app to help with the bus system.
My D used the bus a few times to go eat with friends downtown or to go to a concert.
My son hated camping. Made moving forward in Boy Scouts very difficult because so much advancement happened during campouts. Dropped out after 2 years. I lost a lot of my dad friends in the process because he had been in scouts for 7 years at that point.
Speaking of 100 miles of hiking, this weekend while walking our dog, my wife, daughter and I stumbled on a local 100 mile race. Runners/walkers had 30 hours to finish the 100 miles. Some special award was given for those who finished it in 24 hours. The also had a 50 mile race and 100 mile relay races for teams up to 4 people. Didn’t know anything about the event until after we got home. People on the trail looked totally beat. Which made sense knowing that they were about 12 hours in. Can’t image. We did about 2 miles in about an hour. Though that included some stops to take in the scenery.
We are in the suburb; both kids started driving and have their own cars since high school junior year. They both have school bus stops right in front of our house every day but they refuse to take school bus even in the bad driving weather. I think it’s the junior/senior pride thing. That bugs me as I tell them that I wish I have someone driving me in bad weather.
When the kids go on their summer programs in various cities or other counties, they would take public transportation everywhere they go, bus, subways, etc…
Now at college, DS14 takes uber everywhere he goes. He wants to take a car to college this year, we told him not until senior year. We told him that he can spend $1,000 on uber (we know he won’t spend that much) and still be cheaper than taking a car to college.
@4beardolls – I agree about the cost of having a car at college. I think my older son’s school charges $600 (or more) for a parking pass and then the insurance goes up substantially. I suppose I would reconsider if he did not have options to travel back and forth, but I don’t see a need for him to have a car there.
** Public transportation: ** We live in lower Manhattan and he travels every day to the Bronx (northern NYC) so yes. I would tell all you folks who’s kids have no public transportation experience…they’ll figure it out very quickly.
I’m more concerned about my son’s driving experience. And his friends’ driving experience. And drinking and driving and his friends drinking and driving. Or texting or talking or any other distractions. I hope I’ve taught him enough sense to navigate those awkward and difficult situations properly.
** Thank you notes: ** Any form of immediate and thoughtful thank you is required in our home. I prefer email, personally. And whenever they get a response, I say “See how easy that was???”
@Mom2aphysicsgeek - No public transportation where we are either. We are in a suburban/rural area. There are buses in the area, but you have to drive more than 5 miles down a highway with no safe pedestrian access to get to the closest bus stop. But since you’re already in the car, you may as well keep going. Plus parking is relatively easy and cheap/free downtown, so no bus incentive. D15 learned to navigate the city bus system in Cleveland this summer during her internship. S had a brief lesson in cabs and Uber while in DC this summer. He doesn’t like to drive, so I think he will be happy to learn to navigate public trans at his college.
@CT1417, I also insist that the kids write thank you note to any faculty or staff at a school that took time out of their day to do an interview, meet with them, or provide something not on a regular tour. I prefer hand written notes over e-mail. It takes more effort and I think it’s good for our kids to experience.
@lemetz I hope the wisdom teeth extraction goes smoothly.
@dfbdfb - Oooo about the baby seal joke.