I survived prom.
@2014novamom ^^Whew! You made it, and I’m sure your D was just gorgeous!
I lucked out with a low maintenance S who went to Ross Dress for Less to buy a shirt and tie to match his girlfriend’s dress for her junior prom. For his prom in two weeks, he’s probably just going to use his suit, the only one he owns.
Any takers to join my “prom recollection” bandwagon? I remember my Lee press-on nails, pink shoes to match my ridiculously lacy pink dress, and the hairdresser using glitter hairspray on my hair. Hey – it was the 80s, the decade of big hair and questionable fashion choices! :))
DD wants to wait until she gets her room mate assignment. The only thing is she might not get an assignment until June/july. Does anyone have a link for a good memory foam pad? I keep reading don’t go cheap on mattress pad but haven’t heard good recommendation.
@jafamama prom memory lane - I wanted a Gunne Sax dress, my mom said no too expensive, and I ended up with a JCPenny knock off, pink swiss dot, lace and all. I did not have big hair in the mid 1980s, but I did have bleach blonde and a deep purple “Some Kind of Wonderful” ala Watts pixie cut. I tried to convince everyone in my class that the prom song should be Modern English “I"ll Stop the World and Melt with You”; which ultimately lost out too REO Speedwagon “Can’t Fight This Feeling”. My choice of dress was in complete dichotomy to my well constructed alternative/post punk persona.
I’m itching to do some dorm shopping, but we are probably flying rather than driving our S to school (we don’t have a minivan, our station wagon isn’t super roomy for three people’s luggage plus everything to go to school, and if we rent a van our S can’t help with the 11+ hour drive, and I am not very comfortable driving a large vehicle, so it’d be mostly my husband driving). So it likely makes more sense to ship everything there for move-in, and/or to order from a nearby Bed Bath and Beyond for hold. They had complimentary shuttles there during move-in last year! Nice, but also means there may be hundreds of us there waiting in line for hours?
But there’s only one day for move-in (Wildcat Welcome orientation starts the next day and is full-time for
S – with a separate family orientation, which is nice!). We only will see S for 15 minutes the rest of the weekend (in the official schedule as ‘Kiss ‘n’ Bye’), so it wouldn’t work that well for us to do the shopping after move-in day (and I want to attend all the family orientation stuff they’re doing Fri/Sat). So I’m nervous about leaving stuff till later. We can always ship things to him via Amazon. But I may check with cousins who are somewhat local to see if we could ship a few things to them to pick up before move-in, it that’s not an imposition.
Meanwhile I’m a little worried that things I want to get for him will be sold out if we wait till close to move-in, b/c of all the parents and students doing dorm shopping this summer. Even though NU starts almost a month (!) later than most other schools, who knows if things will be restocked by then. Ah well, it’s a minor problem, as I’m sure we’ll be able to get the necessities.
@pickledginger I see your son made the same choice as mine, UCLA over GW and American. It’s hard to turn down the in-state tuition at such a great school - and I definitely feel we should get something back for all the taxes we pay in California.
So I’m happy from a financial point of view that the colleges both my kids chose happened to be the cheapest schools on their list, but also a bit sad that they had to consider cost as a factor in their decisionmaking.
@3scoutsmom Almost same dorm situation at UAH - 4 single rooms to a suite, each have their own sink, two share toilet/shower.
I too am dying to do some shopping - we have checked off all the University requirements but I NEED something else to keep me occupied, this annoys the heck out of DD.
When DS went to school, I couldn’t even get him to reach out to see who was doing micro and who was doing fridge - He would have laughed at any attempt to coordinate a room.
I am starting to look for a mattress topper - any suggestions? I was at Kohls over the weekend, they have a 5" memory foam but when I squished it, it really did not seem all that thick, it actually appeared to be whimpy. Like @birdie3 I’m curious if any of y’all have done the research.
@labegg Ohhh man, the Gunny Sax dresses were so feminine, I loved them. I went to a private Christian Jr/Sr high and they were all the rage as our dress code was dresses, heels and pantyhose - no uniforms. I grew up close to San Francisco and many of my peers would venture off to the Gunny Sax outlet in the city - Mother was a prude and felt the dresses were too “racy” and would not allow me to have one. I never attended prom and while all my peers were in the Gunny Sax at 8th grade graduation, I was in a Mervyn’s gown that to this day makes me cringe when I think about it. It was not even a knock off, it was orange and hideous Mother selected, I had no say. That is how she was. Recently a friend found a photo from graduation and put it on Facebook, I still hate that dress LOL
@SnowflakeDogMom here’s the one we got https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CICW2YA
there’s a $20 off coupon.
@birdie3 - I’m considering Costco’s NovaForm 3" Pure Comfort Memory Foam Mattress Topper. The twinXL is $99.
https://www.costco.com/NovaForm-3%22-Pure-Comfort-Memory-Foam-Mattress-Topper.product.11765557.html
@Twoin18, congrats to your son! We had kind of the opposite situation financially. The cost at OOS schools was either lower than UCLA or very close to UCLA because the OOS states schools were very generous with merit aid (although the more lenient AP credit policy - allowing credit for lower AP scores at UCLA -and reduced travel costs for visits do boost UCLA’s affordability).
I was really encouraging OOS schools for another reason. Thinking long term, I don’t know that my kids will be able to afford living in metropolitan CA, regardless of whether they are financially successful. There are so many other parts of the country where they could be able to buy a house without having to somehow come up with a $200K down payment, etc. I feel fortunate to have our in-state schools as an option, but I fear that staying in CA for college may reduce the likelihood that my kids broaden their horizons down the road. I guess there’s always grad school!
Just a tip for those who may have waited to make hotel reservations for move in day or parents weekend. Don’t forget to check out airbnb and vrbo. I actually made reservations for a room with 2 queen beds at a Courtyard back in January. But the other day I went on airbnb and found a two bedroom condo for about $150 per night instead of the $300 a night at the Courtyard.
Oh, move-in day reservations! Thanks for the reminder. I already made reservations for parents weekend but totally forgot about move-in!
Hmm, maybe that was a little subconscious slip about not wanting her to go, but wanting to see her again…
One of the best things about my son’s choice is that his school is 10 minutes from my mom. I likely won’t ever need hotel reservations for move-in day or whenever we visit! And, sister, also 10 minutes away, has volunteered her minivan, so may not need to rent a big vehicle, especially since we can make multiple trips if necessary. Whew!!
Same here, thanks for the move-in weekend reminder to book a room! Done. I too did parent weekend but since we are planning a road trip to arrive for move in, I hadn’t gotten to our destination yet on the planner .
@Genevieve18 we flew across the country and got to sons college a day early and did shopping the day before move in. So we were ready to go we did the bed bath and beyond pick up and it was great. I also shipped a few things from Amazon directly to our hotel or school. Most schools will take things for your child to pick up once they get there. Check on the policy for Northwestern as I think a lot of them do it. I had to go run a few other errands once he moved in to return things and buy other things but it worked out well.
Prom 1988 memory: My older sister made my red taffeta off-the-shoulder dress. She is a talented seamstress and it was very pretty. We ate at the Old San Francisco Steakhouse (with the girls swinging from the ceiling). Do y’all remember those? They are all closed down now. Prom theme song was “I had the time of my life” from Dirty Dancing. Our prom was held at the Marriott in downtown Austin and the hotel actually rented out the rooms to students so we had an all night party in the halls/rooms on a couple floors.
@SnowflakeDogMom I think you mentioned using that drive to UAH to visit some places you’ve never been before, am I right? I visited Memphis once and the music on Beale St was terrific, and I thought the music museums there were fascinating and I personally enjoyed them more than the music museums in Nashville. I learned so much about the origins of rock n roll, and musicians role in helping to advance racial relations. I also enjoyed seeing Elvis’ home, which wasn’t that special itself, but instead enjoyed learning a little something about the man. Since I’m not a fan, I never realized what a decent human being he was and how important he was to his community.
@melvin123 Yes, we are doing some sight seeing along the way. My DD wants to visit the graves of famous people - We will be visiting a cemetery in Little Rock and then spending 1.5 days in Memphis where we will go to Graceland and then will be visiting The Civil Rights Museum (recommended to us). We took Nashville off the itinerary as it just added to many additional miles, we will save it, she will be in school for 4 years.
Thanks for the tips on the music scene. I am not an Elvis fan either but hey, he’s the King, he’s pretty famous and his grave is in Memphis B-)
@labegg - I think we had the same prom dress except mine was the powder blue version. 
@SnowflakeDogMom we went to the Rock N Soul Museum and the Cotton Museum, both of which were very worthwhile. Enjoy your trip!