@payn4ward – thanks, and agree about power outage. My FB feed pushed out ‘five years ago today’ photos of snowfall followed by transformer explosion that resulted in multi-day power outage. We lived through at least four power outages in a span of three years here in coastal CT, but (fingers crossed) have not suffered another since Superstorm Sandy, I think. Weather seems clear here, at least through Nov 1st!
@snoozn – I laughed at your essay paragraph. Can visualize that one easily!
Weekend plans consist of finishing essays and going over those Nov 1 applications with a fine tooth comb. And switching dh’s phone to D’s (her current handmedown 4S is toast). And managing stress, hers and mine!
Still no sign of rec letter #2 on Common App or UMD-CP app. It’s extra for CA but necessary for Maryland as a homeschooler. Grrrr
@hadmeathello D’s discovered several schools that have programs with freshman year abroad. I just don’t know, I’m all for study abroad but feel like the “transition period” might be best close to home. Although I asked her to really think about it, ultimately, I’m trying to keep my mouth shut and let her do it if she really wants to. It’s tough! I must have missed the tampons essay?! funny.
Weekend plans. Who knows! The boy are supposed to have their rescheduled homecoming tonight. However a nasty bug is taking out the school. S19’s friend is out and now S19 may skip as he doesn’t want to go solo. S17 had to be taken home after the halftime show last night and put to bed. He hopes to skip stage crew set building today so he can make it to dinner and dance but then go back to bed after that versus going out with the group after. As I’ve yet to see an appearance…not sure how he is doing.
I am praying praying not to catch it. I have a challenge race in one week that is a destination girls trip. Got my flu shot on weds as well as my shingles shot. Which I have to vent about. I have weird allergies. I was at the drugstore picking up the boys ADHD meds and had mentioned to H that I wasn’t going to run that night as I’d had chills off an on for about a week and didn’t want to push it with the race coming up. He reminded me to get my flu shot, which was brilliant as they do them there. They suggested the shingles shot and I figured why not. Pharmacist brings me in and asks about the allergies, which we review. He says he needs to double check and make sure the shingles one is ok. Comes back, says it is. I get shot.
Not ok. Definite nasty reaction, but almost a 48 hour delay which is a bit typical with contact allergies unless something really activates it faster, it can be immediate or anywhere in that window and does compound with repeated exposure. Freaked me out last night though, took a shower and figured I just had some dry skin as it was super itchy. Not happy to see huge dark scary looking welt that felt almost boil-like upon touching. It’s an annoying contact allergy so I knew I’d likely be ok but then again I’ve never had one of the allergens actually injected into me so spent a bit of last night being paranoid. I will be informing the drugstore today (and never getting a vaccine there again).
Anyway, back to Halloween. The kids have a youth group party tomorrow night and an invite to their cousins after. S17 says he isn’t going so he can get his apps done. They have Halloween off which is good so hopefully he can get well. We are all invited to a party, kids likely will not go but I’d like to make a short appearance even if it is a school night and especially if some apps are actually in as I’ll be ready to celebrate.
@snoozn love the gunslinger analogy. Spot on!
@eandesmom so sorry about the reaction! Is it right at the shingles vaccine injection site?
So sorry about the sick kid. A few days of sickness at this crucial time just absolutely buries these kids under loads of work.
For what it’s worth, both my mom and I had a recent virus–I don’t think it was quite the “real deal” flu, but it was not fun. She had 101 temps, body aches, chills, sore throat and extreme congestion. She was sick for four days solid.
I was fortunately working in the area where my mom lives and got to take care of her—which means I also got sick too. I had body aches, severe congestion and a low grade 99 temp. It was enough to have me completely down for the count for 2 days and then magically better by almost the fourth day.
Hang in there!
I don’t know if the unseasonably warm weather have anything to do with getting people sick.
Hope everyone stays healthy and strong and recovers quickly. :x
I would also like to add that my 76 year old mom has been “too busy” to get her flu shot—you know, because three times a week water aerobics, a trip to DC with the senior choir and volunteering 6 hrs a week is just a packed schedule for a senior adult :))
@VickiSoCal Don’t have the portal info yet, so I’m not able to help right now.
@youcee if the app has been turned in you can create a portal login. They won’t send you and email telling you how, you literally have to figure it out yourself. You need your student’s date of birth and SSN.
@carachel2 that’s pretty funny. Until she gets sick. No fun at all! So far all of us have had dry throat/cough, some headache and for me some chills. S17 has had the body aches/lightheadedness but no fever as of yet. He is really happy it didn’t hit hard until last night but was bummed it hit right before half time (or more accurately that the advil wore off) as rehearsal for the show was fun but the show itself, a bit of a nightmare for him. Poor guy!
Yes, right at the injection site. It is the neomycin. Which I noted on the allergy checklist, discussed with the pharmacist and he allegedly double checked! And yet it is listed right on the handout you get AFTER the shot. I didn’t read the handout mind you until after the reaction happened. Of course the neomycin reaction was not helped by the bandaid over it (allergic to the adhesive as well as the bandaid itself) but I got that off pretty quickly once I got home.
Oh well, you only need one of these and I’ll take the reaction over actual shingles. Although it did make me feel old when they even suggested the shot in the first place! So far S17 is the only one who hasn’t had the flu shot so I am hoping that doesn’t make him a target and of course mine was only a few days ago so…ugh.
DS just went in for his Harvey Mudd interview on the campus. He was working on his Caltech essays on the drive here. We get close and he says, “remind me why I want to go to Harvey Mudd, again?”
Virtual hugs to those who are sick, have sick family members, or injection reactions. I’m waiting for the new shingles vaccine that should be out in a few years.
@paveyourpath try logging in with a different browser. We had this issue with MIT and somebody on here told us about using something other than google chrome (I think they recommended firefox). Voila, she was in.
Oh, wait, I see what you’re saying-the HS did this to keep parents out of their hair. Not cool!
My weekend plans consist of getting this darn powerpoint presentation done and sent. I’m currently struggling over creating a budget and timeline for creating the 4 pieces for the show that are due next May. Dang it, I’m an artist, not someone good with planning and spreadsheets. Oh. Wait. Well, not good when it comes to being creative-I can’t put that on a spreadsheet. H says suck it up and get it done. sigh I’m just going to make up numbers…
On monday I’ll probably go to school dressed as a zombie prom queen. That way if I get clay and paint all over my costume it won’t matter. The girls are going as a mermaid and Maleficient.
@Ynotgo most folks aren’t allergic to neomycin so I wouldn’t let that hold anyone back. Having seen folks deal with shingles, I still would likely choose to err on the safe side. That said, I was not aware there was a new one coming in a few years. What makes that one more attractive?
UGH on the remind my why I want to go to XX again question. S17 does that on the way to each interview.
I’m getting to the point that I wouldn’t mind schools falling off the list. We’d probably have to see results from the non-safeties come in, though, and none of them have EA cycles, so that won’t happen until everything (or nearly so) is in.
In good news, the GC submitted her report for the three Common App schools D17 had already submitted her application to, and they only require one LoR apiece, which her primary recommender has now also submitted—so that makes 5 applications in and complete! (The latest three: Kenyon College, which didn’t technically need to go in this early but they don’t require an additional essay, so it was easy to complete; St Thomas, which is a deep, deep safety but she likes the Catholic social justice tradition that the school appears to have deeply embedded within itself; and George Mason, which she’d been very excited about until she went to a summer program there and the campus felt a bit dark and brutalist for her tastes—and let’s face it, the whole rush to rename their law school after Antonin Scalia before the body had even cooled off didn’t help, either.)
Is there such a thing as “reverse nesting”? I’ve just cleaned out the pantry, which I never do unless we’re moving out of the house. Now I’m going to go plant some stuff. S is out refereeing soccer so I can’t spend my day giving him SAT and college things to do and I’m avoiding filling out the FAFSA.
@dfbdfb St. Thomas in St. Paul? That was DH’s pick for the college list, and we should be headed up there in a week or so. Have you visited?
@IABooks, we visited summer before last. I’d expected it would fall off the list, but the visit kept it on—I mean, given her stats it’s on as a deep safety, but it easily stayed on.
It’s a beautiful campus—they apparently landed some serious money from a donor with no previous connection to the school (a life-size-or-bigger portrait of him and his wife is in the student union, which I’ll admit was kind of off-putting) and went on a building spree a few minutes ago. The only real worry in terms of physical plant is that there’s a major intersection in the middle of campus, and so the science facilities are separated from the rest of the campus by traffic.
I will say, though—if your kid doesn’t like purple, don’t apply. The school (more the interiors than the exteriors) is all purple, all the time.
One bonus we hadn’t thought of before we toured: My daughter absolutely loves Roman Catholic liturgical music, but neither our family’s religious tradition nor the area we live in has much of an outlet for that.
I’ll have to dig up my notes from the trip, if I can find them…
I don’t know a lot about this, but doesn’t the Shingles vaccine have to be given every couple of years?
10 years for cpox/shingles
@mommdc no thank goodness! It’s a one time vaccine at least right now. It does look like some sources are predicting a need for more frequent dosing in the future so---- maybe?
Vaccine recommendations for frequency sometimes do change years later when it is realized that length of immunity and antibody response was not as originally tested and predicted.