<p>Hah! The memories, when I left home (the first time) at age 16 for a finer education, I lived in a room in Toronto. I ate at a hole in the wall diner, the lone waitress, a lifer with with brilliant blue eyes, permed ginger hair and no thumb…served my roast beef sandwich on a dinner plate - the white bread melting under gravy and garnished with grey tinned peas…hmmmmm :)</p>
<p>No offense to any current denizens or parents of denizens, but the Lehigh Valley in the 00’s was not one of the selling points for either Lafayette or Lehigh when we did our visits, although we liked the schools. Now, if we’d found that chicken and waffle restaurant, Alu, could be a different story…</p>
<p>m&s, the “Hon” thing is now a part of our family lexicon, since we are Balto folk, once-removed. Have you been to the Cafe Hon for breakfast yet?</p>
<p>The waitress I will remember?</p>
<p>Before I moved to the Lehigh Valley I lived in Manhattan. Office down on Broadway and 14th. Used to walk over to a sandwich/grill place and get a chicken liver sandwich on toasted rye with steak fries for lunch. Never eaten anything like it since.</p>
<p>The waitress, she was probably 60? 65? Age was difficult to tell. Had the hair in a bubble do, and the bright pink lipstick, and the wrinkles, and the apron and the thick shoes and the “yeah whaddda you want” attitude. But she also had a number tattoed on her forearm. Which she made no attempt at all to cover up. I was so young and clueless. But I think I understood the gravity even then because sitting here at my desk I have chills.</p>
<p>Yeah, waitresses.</p>
<p>“Chicken salad in my neck of the woods means rice vinegar dressing, cilantro (actually I’m starting like it…maybe the big 5-0 has made some chemical changes I was unaware of?), peanuts, shredded chicken, water chestnuts…”</p>
<p>pouting…</p>
<p>That may be good, but it’s definitely not Elsies!</p>
<p>Elsies chicken salad had a white dressing mostly mayo I’m guessing, but it might have had cream or something as well. It was runnier than mayo.</p>
<p>Hey Alu, I worked at Broadway and 14th for several years back-in-the-day, too. That’s where I learned to love Cel-Ray over ice, and big ol’ half-sours, and cole slaw on my sandwiches (which were of course stuffed larger than my head, not to mention my mouth). </p>
<p>Wouldn’t it be funny if we worked at the same place and passed each other on the street every day on the way to the deli for lunch?</p>
<p>Announcement: for those of you who don’t venture into the “Just say NO…” thread, I must report that itstoomuch just claimed the following:
I’ve just spent the last 10 minutes wondering which of the topic threads in the past 4100+ posts my mommy would have picked up on. I think the ones about dancing with the chicken bucket on her head would have been about her course and speed.</p>
<p>Hey itstoomuch, c’mon in and mix it up with the rest of us! Am I presuming correctly that you’ll be bringing some testosterone along with you? We’re an equal opportunity hormone outlet around here. Just try us! (Do I hear an “Amen!” from any of the guys in the place? <em>crickets chirp</em>)</p>
<p>“equal opportunity hormone outlet” may be a stretch, but I’ll give you a small “amen” for the effort.</p>
<p>And I don’t think it’s too much mommy talk.</p>
<p>How about more discussions of sports, monster trucks and hunting?</p>
<p>moot - there was a health club, maybe a New York Athletic Club, right around there. I used to work out - how about you?</p>
<p>And as for itstoomuch, yeah, it is “feminine” here if you mean there are a lot of women posting. But I am too tired to fight the battle of whether discussing sons counts as “mommy” talk. i.e., why isn’t it just parent talk? I mean we have a whole thread in the Parent Forum started by a DAD about how much he misses his kid. At least we just talk about how our sons grunt at us and disappear into closets and do or don’t take meds…</p>
<p>Whatever. Boys. </p>
<p>Let’s talk sports!!! (I don’t think I can do monster trucks and I know nothing about deer except the time I struck one with my car at the age of 21…)</p>
<p>I don’t know whether to root for the As or Detroit. They are both working class towns, where someone might actually own a welding torch. So either way I am happy. And it was about time the Yankees blipped.</p>
<p>I’ve got my purple respirator on and have just sprayed all the ferns with ‘Round Up", cranked the music up so loud the floor boards are bouncing, wearing my Huntin’ jacket, polished up the spitoons…OK , …but someone else can do the entertainment… ;)</p>
<p>
Williams is going to have absolute kick-ass squash [shakin’ up the Ivies] for the next few years, and WUFO is the greatest Ultimate Frisbee machine the world has ever seen. How’s that?</p>
<p>That’s cool. Can someone elaborate for me on the phenomena of Ultimate Frisbee? I remember back in the 70’s they played it at UC Santa Cruz. Fill me in on what has happened since.</p>
<p><em>pretending not to notice that driver has made a rare visit</em></p>
<p>::: pushes open the doors with her bow and arrow, tosses her Blaze Orange hat on the bar, hikes up her camo pants, and hangs her Blaze Orange jacket on the wall hook:::: </p>
<p>Hunting talk! Moving to Maine finally pays off. I know from hunting. Hey, I know what Blaze Orange is. Don’t think I knew that 20 years ago. It’s moose season right now. None of me and mine are hunters (altho DH was as a kid), but we know not to: wear white mittens or hats in the woods in deer season; not even take walks in the woods in deer season; or if you absolutley must, wear blaze orange, cross fingers and say prayers.</p>
<p>Okay, enough of that. </p>
<p>Anybody want to discuss their late 1980’s labor and delivery?</p>
<p>And after you explain Ultimate Frisbee, could you opine on DS’s extra-curricular sortie while at Bates into “casual frisbee?” There was a Casual Frisbee Club. </p>
<p><em>notes that we are pretty good at this gol’ darn hunting and sporting chatter</em></p>
<p>No. No labor and delivery. I sense that male creatures are wandering by the door. Let’s all hang our Blaze Orange hats on the door as a sign like Boy Spoken Here. We will break out the large pieces of meat that are hanging in the refrigerator and put a big-screen TV out by the hot tub in the back.</p>
<p>Now if we just wait for SluggBugg to report back on EvilNeighbor or SluggS or a topless woman in Hawaii perhaps we can shed the dreaded label of TOO FEMININE!!!</p>
<p>Um, um, quick, stop me before I tell you about my visit to the gynaecologist today…</p>
<p>The big-screen TV is a nice touch, Alu. I think we are on the right track.</p>
<p>This is totally not on your current topic (lol), sorry…but where else to post my “musing”? </p>
<p>A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A COLLEGE PARENT:</p>
<p>So, last night as I was having dinner, D2, who goes to NYU calls, “Oh my God, I just had to tell SOMEONE so I am calling you. The fire alarm went off and I was in the basement of my building in the practice room (she goes there each day to practice singing, acting and piano…she’s in musical theater) and the elevators were not operating and I have only gone down there by elevator and didn’t know my way out. I was panicking looking for another way out and found some stairs and I am outside now and there are all these firetrucks and firemen rushing into the building. I’ll call you later with an update, bye!” </p>
<p>OK…so, uh, right. Let’s just keep eating dinner and hope she calls back. I wait a half hour and decide to call her as I figured she’d be in rehearsal all night as usual (that is if nothing drastic has happened) and she says, “I’m back in the dorm. Someone was cooking a steak (she lives in an apartment style residence) and it wasn’t in my tower. Sorry to alarm you before, but I had to tell someone after I was desperate to get out as it was real this time.” </p>
<p>Just another night in the saga of being a college parent. </p>
<p>Then, in the past day’s news in Vermont, a very alarming story. A 21 year old college student fromn Arlington, VA who attends University of Vermont, was walking back to her dorm late at night after going out downtown with her fellow students. She was apparently walking alone, though at one point was walking with one other person. UVM’s campus is within blocks of downtown. Her parents were in town for Parent Weekend, expecting to meet up with her the next day and she did not show up. She is now missing! I can’t tell you how often I think of my girls walking home at night to their dorms, one in MANHATTAN and one in Providence and currently in an apt. in Florence, Italy and the dangers that could befall them. But here in bucolic Vermont, it is a bit less of a concern though I am NOT naive that problems like this exist ANYWHERE unfortunately. The police and FBI are on the case. There have been vigils and pleas by her parents of anyone who saw anything. They are here in VT as they were visiting her. Scary. </p>
<p>OK, back to your regularly scheduled program…</p>
<p>To post "on topic’…Alumother, you can tell us about your gyn exam today and I can share about my mammogram on Friday? Deal?</p>
<p>I have a huge photograph of the FIL with his first Moose kill. The moose is hanging from a tree, with an enormous tongue sliding out of the side of it’s mouth. I could frame it with old hockey sticks and hang it over the bar…</p>
<p>We’re all probably all too old and droopy for pole dancing and wet Tshirts (sure fire measures to entice male patrons :rolleyes: ), but perhaps if we had a compliment barrel by the door they might be intrigued? “Hey, that is some pick up truck, did you choose the color yourself”?..hmmm needs work…</p>
<p>Re: Ultimate frisbee. There is “casual” frisbee, as in the case of intramural pick-up games. And then there is the Ultimate Frisbee league which is set up and run by students, for students. Regularly scheduled tournaments, matches, etc. They’re very serious about it, and some of them are retired college athletes. The games can be pretty to watch. I will be in Williamstown in a few weeks to cheer the Ephs on during the Purple Valley tournament. Wearing sunglasses and a groucho mask.</p>
<p>Sports . . . ok . . . my niece (recently moved to Atl to do her MBA at Emory) and I joined a fantasy football league (at the invitation of her boyfriend). there are 3 girls in the 12-team league, and last week, the girls all were tied for 2nd best record in the league. This week, we are at #1 
Had a minor crisis today when our secret weapon tight end was re-classified as a wide receiver only . . . so we had to go find another one . . . .</p>
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<p>Can we use this when pole dancing?</p>