<p>Dear Harriet:</p>
<p>Tried to send you a PM, but your box is stuffed! Have a great wedding weekend!</p>
<p>Mountains, you made me do the keyboard-spray I’d tried to keep others from doing! :D</p>
<p>Mythmom, thanks a million! I’ll be lifting a glass to the Vigil Lounge at the reception. Well, maybe more than one.</p>
<p>Re people critiqueing your child’s choices in school:</p>
<p>Our state has a big 10 school. Kids here are brought up to be state school fans from the cradle. At the high school level it really starts to kick into gear. This particular school (oh for fun lets call it OSU) particularly despises a school slightly to the northwest of us. (lets call THAT one, University of Michigan).</p>
<p>So…my older S ends up choosing between OSU and UM. He chooses UM - the first kid from his large suburban HS in YEARS AND YEARS to go there. I cannot tell you how many people YELLED at me for letting him choose that TERRIBLE TERRIBLE schoool. Ironically most of these people are not even Buckeye alums. They are just idjits!</p>
<p>good lord, kitkat</p>
<p>What a coincidence–most of the people I run into are idjits too–not here on CC though.</p>
<p>KITKAT!!! Welcome back from your biz trip!!! Grab a glass of champagne and let’s party!! And let’s plot to have dinner, hopefully, one evening in August, since we are going to be neighbors, kinda. </p>
<p>My H is a M-fan… and so I have heard a few times “Oh how I hate… O-State!!” But I still love YOU…</p>
<p>Why oh why did I have soooo much work to do today of all days?!!</p>
<p>Lurkers-now-posters all, welcome, and yes, of course you’re supposed to swipe food, whether you lurk or post! It’s there for the eating; enjoy!</p>
<p>I’m baking a devil’s food cake as I type – okay, the oven is, but I had to mix it first – and will frost it with chocolate frosting, and another carrot cake is coming up shortly, too!</p>
<p>Love the twins tales, and appreciate the RKA (ruined keyboard alert) issued as needed! Thanks for those! My exSILs are identical twins; they have the twin ESP thing between them. Both went to CMU – that has nothing to do with the ESP thing, BTW 
– and majored in engineering. Took me a while to figure out which was who, but I have that down now very well. (Sometimes my exH gets confused, though.)</p>
<p>mountains – I think it was mountains – with the sib only 10 months behind; wow! I thought my mother cut it close, with my younger bro and me less than a year apart, but your mom takes the cake!!</p>
<p>Good thing we have extra cakes around here for people to take!</p>
<p>I don’t know whether my S is going to get the deciding-on-college stage; he’s upstairs doing homework, after a horrible fussfit about having to do this particular assignment. Yeah, kid, you don’t like it, but you STILL HAVE TO DO IT! ARGH! He’d rather drop out, die, go to the neighborhood high school (which, according to him, is full of gang members which guarantees he’d be killed within a week if he went there) than do this “STUPID POETRY ASSIGNMENT!!!” </p>
<p>I know you’ll all miss your kids when they go off; at this exact moment, I think I’d be welcoming the peace and quiet!!!</p>
<p>(Oh, I know, it won’t always be like this. Right? Right?? Please?!?!)</p>
<p>Re: OSU and Michigan… I have a tale. I think I haven’t shared this yet. Will check first to make sure I won’t be repeating myself. Back in a minute.</p>
<p>Oh good-- we get to tell “say it with a straight face and see how they react” stories!!
ok-- story #1. Recent trip to NY (the big CC meet-up trip). Big snowstorm the day after we arrived. When I returned the rental car, the agent guy types the info into his little handheld gizmo, and says, “you’ll have to go inside to take care of this. Someone entered the wrong information again, and the car shows the mileage lower upon your return than it was when you rented it”.
Me:// Oh, I am sure that is right. Due to the snow I had to drive the car backwards.</p>
<p>story #2:
(Can’t quite remember the exact conversation/exchange-- so have to paraphrase, and it won’t be anywhere near as funny- apologies in advance, I guess you had to be there…)</p>
<p>Shopping in one of the big warehouse stores (Costco, Sams, BJ’s Price, one of those) when DS#1 was an infant. Had him in a carrycase thing (the hard plastic kind with the handle you strap into the car seat) and had the carry case thing w/son in the shopping cart. Some lady stops me and says “he is so cute”.
me:// It is a shame they only sell them here in packs of 6.</p>
<p>Yes, I have shared it, and it’s here: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1059967861-post12.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1059967861-post12.html</a></p>
<p>To add to that… I went outside to see the director off; I think I must never have seen his truck before, a pickup with a cap, or maybe I’d just never associated that vehicle with him if I had seen it. The cap, sides of the truck, and back were completely covered with bumper stickers, all extolling OSU or dissing UM (“The loveliest site I ever saw was Ohio in front of me and Michigan in my rear view mirror”).</p>
<p>Up until that day, I had had NO idea that this guy, someone I’d known for some years, was such a… a… well, fan, let’s say.</p>
<p>(My father went to UM. I did not mention this.)</p>
<p>Owlice</p>
<p>I doubt your son would rather die than do his poetry assignment. I think when people say these things, they mean, “It would be EASIER to die than to do ___.” I feel this way about public speaking, but I don’t kill myself in response, so I guess I’d rather live. Thanks for the virtual goodies and yes, you will so miss him when he’s gone–just maybe not everything about him.</p>
<p>bethievt, just going by what he says. It’s not even a hard assignment, but it’s POETRY. Geez louise!!!</p>
<p>I know I’ll miss him.</p>
<p>OMG… He just came out of his room and said, “I think I should start working on stuff when it’s assigned.”</p>
<p>I… I… I must be dreaming!!! Someone pinch me!!</p>
<p>(My response: “Good idea!”)</p>
<p><clunk></clunk></p>
<p>Ow!!!</p>
<p>Owlice: Hate to burst your bubble, but nah! It doesn’t get better. They stay themselves in all their splendid glory with all their warts intact.</p>
<p>DS has been wanting to be a doctor since he was four. Recently we have been telling him he doesn’t really seem that interested and maybe he should re-evaluate. He balked at this. Hard saying goodbye to a dream.</p>
<p>He chose a very expensive EMT class for this summer, which of course, also means he can’t work. Okay with me, if he really did want to be a doctor and showed signs of being interested in ANYTHING besides acting in The Tempest. He doesn’t. Also okay with me, but let’s be realistic folks.</p>
<p>So, today I called him up with an alternative scenario because they’re asking for the money for summer course. Oh, it was a doozy, plan A’s, plan B’s, all NOT including medicine.</p>
<p>He said, “Okay mom, sounds good. Now I’m getting off because I want to take a nap.”</p>
<p>Apparently I can pick his career, his summer plans, anything I want, as long as he doesn’t have to and can get his beauty sleep.</p>
<p>I can’t even tell you all how much I love him, but focused? proactive? self-aware? brave? NOT.</p>
<p>Creative, compassionate, witty, extremely profound and dear, YES.</p>
<p>:: picks self up off floor ::</p>
<p>Sorry about that. And it wasn’t even from champagne!!</p>
<p>bethievt, thanks. </p>
<p>Re: public speaking, once I realized that public speaking is really just (!) teaching, I had no more fears about it. I know I can teach, so I must be able to speak to an audience, too. That worked for me.</p>
<p>jym, you’re wicked; I like that!</p>
<p>owlice: I hope you were sitting down for his eureka moment. Apparently you weren’t!</p>
<p>Tonight I asked my 13 yo daughter why she hadn’t yet done her math homework. Her reply: “That’s not how I roll.”
Paging Archimedes…</p>
<p>mythmom, I’m okay with S staying himself, just at a lower volume!</p>
<p>OK this hits the twin thing and the people thinking they should tell you how to raise your kid thing.</p>
<p>DDs were BALD until about 18 months then it grew in in the back not on top…ready made mullets! When they were a little over two we were in the twin stroller in the check out line. They were dressed in girl clothes but I had never cut their hair. I refered to one of them by her name which is gender neutral. </p>
<p>Woman behind me: What are your babies’ names?
Me: E and K
Woman: Oh! I thought they were both little boys.<br>
Me: No they are both little girls.
Woman: (voice dripping with disgust) Why on Earth did you cut their hair in such a boyish fashion.</p>
<p>What I wish I’d said: Well we just trimmed the back cuz’ the monster truck rally is next weekend and we wanted their tats to show.</p>
<p>but I was too taken aback to come up with more than a stammer.</p>
<p>What an incredibly rude thing for someone to say!</p>
<p>And oh, what a great comeback that would have been!! lol!!</p>
<p>owlice</p>
<p>My son has figured out that I basically like all kinds of music–as long as it isn’t too loud. Maybe we need ear plugs.</p>
<p>Mathson had a poetry assignment as a freshman. (Write one.) He didn’t and got a zero. Did wonders for his GPA. As a sophomore the assignment put him in tears, but he did it. As a junior he gritted his teeth and stayed up till the wee hours. It was very short and about math. As a senior he found an elective that didn’t make him write a poem.</p>
<p>owlice,
I regret to inform you that they have a poetry unit EVERY YEAR in high school. And every high school age young man I know despises it. (This includes my IB son, who picked the program in part because of its excellence in English instruction.) You can tell him I said he’s in good company – and my kids still had to do the stinkin’ poetry HW.</p>
<p>This is also why neither of my kids will take AP English Lit – there is a poetry unit.</p>