I have that one - HOW do you sleep with it?? I’m a side sleeper and the eyepieces bother me so much!
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I’m a stomach and side sleeper and it’s fine for me? I love that there’s no pressure on my eyes and that my eyelashes can move freely. I also like that it does block all the light but comfortably? I’ve never had a problem.
Maybe you need to move the eye pieces closer? Or it may just not work for everyone.
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We facetime’d with The Child today and I was like this:
Things we learned today:
- loves the way the chemistry prof runs the class
- things with roommate are going fine
- A/C in room isn’t ideal. They put in work order for it then yesterday, asked for RA’s help to move things along. RA reported that facilities requests usually get quicker attention when it comes from the RA. I think us parents deserve a gold star for not getting involved and for not contacting Residence Life about it.
- went to volleyball game and had fun
- has gone on a few late night snack runs with roommate
- ate dinner at a snack bar-ish type of restaurant on campus yesterday.
- labs start this week
- choir rehearsals haven’t started yet because they’re still doing auditions.
- is annoyed at people who don’t follow the RAs instructions and leave hair clumps in the shower and flush paper towels down the toilet. Kid said, “Like, DUDE, the trash can is RIGHT THERE!”
- said the food is ok “but yours is better.”
- said “the professors are more chill than the teachers in high school.”
- is going to do some reading and note-taking this afternoon for tomorrow’s classes.
- sounds happy
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Just got back from second drop off. D24 has been in boarding school so the moving in part was weird. She really didn’t want any help. I guess the independence is a good thing! But us trying to help made her prickly. Otherwise it was good. H and I really enjoyed exploring Northampton and found the coolest bar with the most interesting cocktails! I definitely thought about @NiceUnparticularMan and @DroidsLookingFor when I tried to try a few things that aren’t normally on my radar. Had a “corpse reviver” in memory of my grandmother who liked that one, and a really great blackberry one with gin, mint, and champagne. I’d like to recreate that one!
Rough weekend for S24 who, like half the people he knows on campus, has Covid. He’s one of those people who rarely gets sick, but when he does get sick, he’s quite sick. And he was so sick he skipped the home opener football game he’s looked forward to for months. 
But he reported today he is starting to feel better. Also, his first two weeks of classes are going well and the small honors sections are nice. He is making a ton of friends and really clicks with his roommate and suite mates. Fraternity rush seems to be going well and he and his roommate are thinking about pledging the same fraternity. Initially he was focused on going for the “cool” frat other kids from home pledge, but he has really clicked with guys in a less “popular” frat and I am so thrilled!
D24 called today and seems really happy so far and meeting people she enjoys. She is thrilled with her schedule and even added a fencing class! Also taking Intro to Cultural Anthropology, The American Presidency, The Bible in the Public Square, and Intermediate French. Should be interesting! She and her roommate get along great but are branching in different social directions, which seems good.
H and I are adjusting to the empty nest. He worked on rearranging furniture cleaning out the garage today. I did three workouts. 
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It has been over a week now that S24 left the nest. Wife has finally stopped sleeping in his room, instead she just took his pillow with her to sleep with it. She was like “I missed his smell!” 
Sometimes the wife could be harsh and too strict with S24, but deep inside she loves him too much. She still thinking daily if S24 eats enough, socially adjusted ok… etc.
Oh well, now i want to steal the pillow from her too. 
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MIT parties definitely seem to be drawing crowds! D24 was invited to one last night. She opted to stay at Harvard to hang out with some new friends, but all three of her suitemates went.
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Somewhere along the way I lost my quoting abilities and can no longer figure it out on my phone.
I totally understand your S24’s feelings. Ironically my kid who is that super-focused pre-med kid feels the “slow your roll” and explore. He wants to, it’s why he chose open curriculum, but definitely sentiment he’s picked up on at various schools (even the known pre-med ones). So, by my estimation, your son is doing it just right and hopefully feels that soon!
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My type A that wasn’t able to do his schedule until arriving on campus and having peer and faculty mentor meetings prior to discuss can finally rest easy. He’s pleased he got all 4 classes he wanted, just had to switch first choice timing for math.
They are heavily advised to take 4 courses only first semester and actually can the whole way through. He’ll have the math course, a chem lab he needed in order to take orgo in spring/fall sequence, Health Care in the US, and a cool 20 person seminar called Pride and Prejudice in the development of scientific theories which also satisfies a bio requirement. Starts class Wednesday, it’s been a full week of programming, and the social exhaustion is setting in with very little downtime. Boat tour today and then a silent disco tonight (probably his personal nightmare 
).
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4 courses is the norm at D24s school, and so many parents were upset about this and adding courses for their kids and redoing registration - “adjusting to college” is the 0 credit ‘extra class’ that every student is enrolled for, even if it never shows on a transcript.
If she had ended up at a school where 5 is the norm, I’d still have had her do four just to leave room for that adjustment, just because of her own needs for balance, etc.
ETA: If your kid is doing 5+ and struggling with the adjustment, see if they are still in add/drop and drop a class - YMMV, but I’d rather see my kid be successful in 4 classes than struggling and risking the transcript on 5 classes. (there are almost always options for a summer or winter term class to keep the pace, even doing one at a CC over summer break and transferring it over - check with your own school, of course, but this is not unusual at my school.)
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That sounds fantastic! I’d classify that as within the field of History and Philosophy of Science, and it is one of those sneakily useful things to learn about.
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Yes! The course description is so cool, these are moments I want to go back and have a do-over. Such a fun time of exploration.
We will examine how the pace and shape of scientific progress is affected by the social/cultural context and the “personality” of the individual. We will look into how the interplay between society and the individual affects how scientific theories arise, are presented, are debated and are accepted. The course will initially focus on Charles Darwin and his theory of Natural Selection using the biography of Adrian Desmond and James Moore, “Darwin:
The Life of a Tormented Evolutionist.”
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The biggest, craziest party I have ever been to in my life was a party at MIT. People who think those kids are nerdy and sit around studying 24/7 are definitely misinformed
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My daughter has 4 ‘real’ classes and then one that literally just attendance at weekly speakers that’s a part of her liberal arts minor, and then choir and it seems to be a good mix. Of the 4 academic classes, two are the requirements she’s not enthused about (math and biology) and the others are exactly up her alley.
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My daughter has one class at a time, for a total of 4 classes each semester. Option to take half credit during January half block or summer credits as well. At the LAC I attended in the 80s, 4 classes per semester was the norm and I can’t recall anyone taking more than that.
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Yep, it seems LACs are 4 4credit classes per term and 128 to graduate, and state schools and other privates non-LAC are 5 3 credit classes and 120 to graduate. (quarters are a whole ‘nother ballgame that I haven’t had to deal with.)
Or 8 one credit classes per year with a total
32 to graduate. My older kid is a senior at a school on the quarter system. I have no idea how many credits needed, but thankfully she does!
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My D24s school had this calculation until this year, actually! I’m sure it makes it a lot easier for transcript interpretation if a student transfers.
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I thought this had been discussed here, but I don’t see it - but this is good info and worth repeating as your kids may be finding as they find themselves on the first downhill of the W - curve right now. Mine has - after a packed orientation and first week of classes, it’s been 4 days of downtime and worrying she’s not clicking with anyone “everyone else has friend groups already” (I assured her, they don’t) and feeling stuck without a car (so we got the bus app sorted over FaceTime, and she will strike out on her first bus run this week.).
https://www.mayoclinichealthsystem.org/hometown-health/speaking-of-health/the-w-curve-theory
Might be helpful for others to have and share this info if they are hearing similar from their kids!
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I’ve lost track of the details, but S24 is taking four full classes, plus a lab, optional discussion section, and pass/fail 1-credit pre-health planning class, which apparently adds up to 15 credits, which is a full schedule for WashU. And actually between APs and a couple summer college courses, he is a bit ahead and will be able to take less some semesters.
Anyway, I am glad he only has the four full classes to start off.
My S24 mentioned several times in our last conversation he did not really understand what, say, 3 miles meant until he lived without his parental chauffeurs and/or a car. He is figuring it out but I kinda forgot what a shock that is.
On the flip side, my car hasn’t been this full for this long in two years!
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