<p>I head to the beach, and all of a sudden y’all are buying old VW buses! I remember one of those from my softball-playing youth. :)</p>
<p>SBMom, I think Thoreau said to “Beware any enterprise that requires new clothes,” but the sentiment is the same.</p>
<p>On the road report #3:
Bought some boots;<br>
Dropped his cell phone in the toilet;
Headed for Santa Cruz to visit his older, wiser, boyfriendless, sister. :)</p>
<p>aries, </p>
<p>I remembered the correct quote but not the author; thank you…</p>
<p>slugg, </p>
<p>BOYFRIENDLESS?!! Do Tell!</p>
<p>Did he rescue the cellphone?</p>
<p>Do tell!!! And with any luck that sis will talk him or boss him into more sense:).</p>
<p>BTW I flew to SB last weekend to see my mom, in one of those Brazilian turboprops. It FELT like a '64 VW bus flying through the sky…</p>
<p>Sorry, SB! I was madly skimming through pages and pages of VW and shoe nonsense - glam girl meets Woodstock?</p>
<p>Shoe nonsense, perhaps, but VW nonsense? Never!</p>
<p>And now for news on T(J/S)FH: his senior portrait proofs arrived today… OMG is that MY KID!!! Where did this heartthrob come from?! I’m afraid I’m going to lock away the car keys and chain him to the doorknob for this last year! How did I miss noticing that he was turning into a dreamboat… wow.</p>
<p>He did, however, leave the headlights on in the car tonight. Luckily someone noticed before the battery drained. Ditz. ;)</p>
<p>Well, Mootie, sounds like he won’t have much trouble getting a woman to rescue him from his own ditziness. ;)</p>
<p>I want a story about the former boyfriend! (Of course, “former” means that we all have to stop scheming to do horrible things to him. <<pout pout=“”>>)</pout></p>
<p>Next time, Alu…</p>
<p>Highlights of my Las Vegas weekend: </p>
<p>I stood in line at the Las Vegas airport behind super-woman bodybuilder, Claire Rohrbacker-O’Connell, and her family. She’s a part-time bookkeeper, kickboxing instructor, and full-time mom who just happens to be a muscle goddess. I would love to sit in on one of her parent-teacher conferences.</p>
<p>4th Grade Teacher: Mrs. Rohrbacker-O’Connell, your daughter is a good student, but you simply must tell her to stop bench-pressing fifth-graders during recess.</p>
<p>Principal nervously thumbing the cap of his Bic pen: Mrs. Rohrbacker-O’Connell (cough)…We’ve had a some complaints that you…uh…well, during this year’s Back-to-School registration, ear-clapped and head-butted several parents who forgot to bring in their children’s disaster prep kits. ;)</p>
<p>While I was waiting for my plane to arrive, I started thinking about getting a tattoo of a gecko on my calf. I looked at her leg, and then, at the area below my knees. A tattoo of an elongated slithering reptile on me would look like a slugg no matter where it was placed on my body. In some places more than others, but it would always end up looking like a slugg. A slugg tatt on either one of my ankles (which, incidentally, qualify as my two carry-ons) would not have the same effect as a cool gecko on a female bodybuilder. Perhaps, if it were adorned with some fangs or some huge claws, it would look more like a dragon. A slugg with a tatt of a slugg…nahhh.</p>
<p>Other highlights included four full nights of sleep and the news that buggson passed his summer Calculus class. Since this was the third time he’d taken that class, it can be put on my list of celebratory K-12 Last Lasts. I also enjoyed the thought of my two grown-up kids spending some time together at slugggirl’s apartment-- sans parents. It may be too early to start planning for next Thanksgiving, but I’m contemplating a turkey-gram to slugggirl’s apartment, along with the number to the Butterball hotline, while we slugg our way up and down Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. :D</p>
<p>Boyfriendless? Wha’ happened to Mr Denmark?</p>
<p>Cheers, I hope that he fell off of his parents’ yacht and was eaten by a sea ■■■■■. Despite my wishful thinking, she is flying to Copenhagen to visit him in a couple of weeks. </p>
<p>As far as we’re concerned, it’s an <em>educational</em> trip. Since BF#1 and BF#2 are no longer around, sluggyD has said that she’s happier than she’s ever been since she started college. So, whatever the deal is with Mr. Danish love muffin, it falls into the category of “Things Parents Don’t Want to Know and Shouldn’t.” :)</p>
<p>
Ah, yes. We had an entry into this category yesterday. Returned from a 3-day/2-night getaway with DH, having left DS the requisite love note instructing him to: Have Fun, Clean up after himself in the kitchen, Have Fun, take out the trash and do the recycling, Have Fun, yada yada.</p>
<p>Is it possible we put the emphasis in the wrong direction? :p</p>
<p>Returning home, we found about half of the usual archeological evidence of his/his friends’ meals in our kitchen. He had actually done <em>one</em> load of dishes, so some progress is being made. Next artifact uncovered re his weekend doings was the fully-extended dining room table, site of a major Poker Tournament the night before. Fine. Wet beach towel in the front hall - what else is new?</p>
<p>Doorbell rings and three former classmates of the female persuasion arrive, looking for a left behind purse and lost earrings. Hmmm, things begin to get interesting.</p>
<p>Taking a quick look into the Master Bedroom and noting that all was in order, I looked heavenward and murmured a quiet thanks. ::Hold it. Not so fast.:: DH, close behind, noted that while the bed was nicely made, the duvet cover now had the button-end on the side of the bed, not the bottom. :o</p>
<p>Ain’t it amazing how different things look when you are the parent of a near-20 year old and his friends vs the parent of a 17-year old? DH and I took a moment to celebrate that we had managed to avoid this milestone of <em>someone</em> taking a little “nap” in our bed until after we had safely seen them all through the high school diploma and one or two years of college. We didn’t want to know any more about who, what, when, where or why.</p>
<p>Although, I could have lived without the sand on my sheets as I crawled into bed later that night. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>He he. THREE girls showed up? Whoo.</p>
<p>Anyway. Can you hear the drums? The Drums of August, in this case, the drums of benighted parents trying to get their kids to apply to college. It is starting again. Somewhere in America kids are being required to write essays early, to focus on urban or rural, to think about the Greek system, to study for SATs…</p>
<p>Gird your loins oh you denizens of the Alley. Drink all the good stuff and leave the commodity vodka on display and call it Absolut. They won’t notice. They will be too frazzled. Let’s help them. And of course, since our own Mootmom is among them (eeek), let’s really help them.</p>
<p>Heaven help me, indeed. I am likely to be starting on the hard stuff early, around about, oh, say… October.</p>
<p>jmmom, </p>
<p>At our house similar doings. “TMI!!” I say as DD prattles on and tells me lots more than I want to have to tell to/withold from her Dad…</p>
<p>Similarly, I have felt all summer like she’s “done” and that she’s come out great and her shenanigans are normal ones, within reasonable limits. Now I just have SFS & Littlest S… but believe me they will require my FULL attention. </p>
<p>I bet you $100 that the girls slept over because they could, and nobody wanted to be the Designated Driver. I notice my D likes to sleep over at a party when there is going to be drinking-- unless she is the DD and can trust herself to be sober. Seems sensible to me.</p>
<p>Alu,</p>
<p>Right you are. All parents of seniors, we are here for you!!</p>
<p>Yes, POS (parents of seniors, wit’ or wit’out the FH designation), we are here for you. </p>
<p>Although, I confess to a moment of unadulterated smugness while reading the the Grading Scale thread. Much weeping and gnashing of teeth over the 0-100 point scale vs. the more forgiving A-D 4.0 scale. As a 100-point scale parent, I just wanted to chortle “Get thee behind me, grade scale. This, too, shall pass, suffering parents. Chillax.” But I held my piece. 
</p>
<p>They are in the thick of it, poor souls. They don’t know they will come out on the Other Side.</p>
<p>I’ve had recent tete a tetes with one of my sons about inappropriate risque business with the gf. Naturally, he was adament about his innocence but I declared that unless they cease and desist whilst in my house, his 48 year old parents will start getting jiggy with it when his friends show up. </p>
<p>Just the mental picture of jiggly–I mean jiggy–parents was enough to shut him up. ;)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>as a new-to-CC POS I am amazed - it is possible to to get said senior to deal with this in August? At our present rate we are looking at about October.</p>
<p>PS, does the D in DS, DD, DH stand for “darling”? Cause I can think of a few other “D” words…</p>
<p>I thought the name “sluggyD” was the most appropriate for my senior, until I realized it was parent-specific.</p>
<p>drb: pretty sure “DS” and “DD” mean “dear son” and “dear daughter”</p>
<p>there is actually a wikipedia article about college confidential which explains all the slang/abbreviations.</p>
<p>Yes, it’s supposed to mean dear son and dear daughter. If, however, you see the acronym, TJFH, it means the junior from h***.</p>
<p>And drb, yes, some people will be asking their kids to start writing essays now. However, some of those same people will STILL be asking their kids to start writing other essays in November and December:). It’s just one of those things we each, as the parent of our own particular kids have had to learn to either go for, or ignore…There are many many such moments in this whole application/admissions process. Welcome and good luck in yours.</p>