<p>I can relate. I was grunge before grunge.</p>
<p>m&sdad – The first visit back home from college is always sweet and memorable, for parents and for college students. All of that defiance and insufferable insolence (speaking of my own kids, of course) that defined them over the summer melts into genuine and sincere appreciation. </p>
<p>It’s a new scene in the morning when your daughter gets up at the same time as you do and lunges toward the coffee pot for her a.m. dose of caffeine, a new habit she’s developed while away at college. It’s gratifying to hear the former high school student who hasn’t eaten at home since her junior year express wonderment when she opens the refrigerator door and gleefully spots her favorite treats, chocolate Silk, cucumber sushi, and edaname. Ohhhhh, can I have some of this Silk, and is this sushi for anyone?! </p>
<p>And yet, the old habits are still there. The way she pets the dog(s) on the ears, the blanket she wraps around herself while complaining that the house in free-eeezing, the way she throws her clothes on the chair/desk/floor in her room, and the makeup on the bathroom counter.</p>
<p>We parents are simple creatures, really. A little appreciation goes a very long way, and that first visit back home really is special. There may be other visits when you hear the dryer buzzer go off at 1 a.m. and are reminded that she still hasn’t learned to start packing before 10 p.m. the night before she leaves. 
Happy homecoming to the m&sfamily! </p>
<p>SluggJr called yesterday just to chat. At least, I think that’s why he called. I’m still waiting for something horrible to happen, and I expected him to ask me for a few hundred dollars at the end of the phone call, but he wanted to tell me about his job with the campus radio station.</p>
<p>Me, you want to talk to me? Are you sure you have the right number? Did you wake up married to a pole dancer named Sugar, and you have a skull tattoo with a dagger sticking out of its eye, and you’ll be shipping off to boot camp next month? Some guy in your new band sells orphans on the Internet? You were sleepwalking, and they found you curled up in a stall full of fainting goats? You flunked out of college already? You’re selling blood to pay your Visa bill? You must have accidentally speed-dialed my number, and you think that you’re talking to one of your IdiotFriends in LA.</p>
<p>Nope, he wanted to shoot the breeze with good ol’ Mom, like Dennis the Menace always wanted to talk to Good Ol’ Mr. Wilson. A tinge of guilt, perhaps, for showing up at our house last weekend while we were in Hawaii and letting his band friends stay here for a couple of days. I’m not going to describe what we came home to because if I have to talk about it, I may weave myself a banana peel skirt, build a heiau in the back yard, and resort to the ancient island ways of human sacrifice if I ever see one of those guys again. 
~I’m all about Aloha…~</p>
<p>sluggbugg - Haven’t posted in a while. I normally hold my breath went my oldest S calls me out of the blue- want to know what’s wrong. We call every one to two weeks. Called me two days in a row at 8 am. Needed his passport/birth cert. for his co-op job and couldn’t figure out how to turn off the dome light in the car. First time talked for fifteen minutes about his job. Was pleasantly surprised. Hope to see him Thanksgiving.</p>
<p>Golly, Slugg, you got a shoot the breeze phone call already! Congrats!</p>
<p>My second son took TWO YEARS to get to that point, of calling to just, you know, CHAT, and it completely unnerved me. </p>
<p>First son, has he ever called when he didn’t need something, you know, like some money? I don’t recall that happening.</p>
<p>So, third child, a girl, and a senior in high school says to me today, "Well, you’re not going to expect me to call or e-mail every day, are you? How about a couple of e-mails a week? </p>
<p>And I reply, “Well, no, you don’t have to e-mail every day, but I do expect you to do better than your brothers.” </p>
<p>“Oh, THAT won’t be hard, Mom,” she answers back.</p>
<p>OMG. Slugg - the James Joyce version of your inner questions to SluggS are in my top 10.</p>
<p>Mstee - Hi! Was just wondering where you had gotten to.</p>
<p>slugg,</p>
<p>thank goodness for wanting to shoot the breeze (even though it hasn’t blown my way yet as child is too cheap to call so she shoots one liner e-mails)</p>
<p>Did you really want to hear about a potential DIL who is a pole dancer named sugar? I am quiet sure that her alter ego is right here somewhere in SA</p>
<p>
I keep telling y’all - I do not pole dance! Yes, I did a table dance during a semi-formal while I was an undergrad, but once dance does not a profession make. </p>
<p>I usually email my parents, as they tend to not really like “just to chat” phone calls at midnight, which is usually when I have time. Then they complain that I don’t call enough. Sheesh!</p>
<p>Found my Halloween costume today. Will be a Roman empress. Original plan was to wear a toga (I love having a classics degree - it’s an excuse for togas that will last a lifetime), but that would have involved sewing… not my forte.</p>
<p>Hi Alumother! I’m still here, checking in from time to time, just not feeling moved to post. Writers’/posters’ block? I’m touched that someone was wondering about me :). </p>
<p>I also feel like after three years of gathering information from College Confidential that I should be more on top of things with my third child applying to college now, but strangely, I still feel clueless. Her list is rather long and unfocused. And I’m not being of much help, I’m afraid.</p>
<p>And this getting old business is getting to me-- I want my eyesight back, my energy, and my pretty face. GAHHH. My 13 year old daughter went to see The Guardian, and she said “the old guy” was pretty good in it. The old guy, you mean Kevin Costner? Yeah, that guy . . .</p>
<p>Oh well, onto my next project. Learning to make Cosmos. Yes, there are still things for me to learn. I noticed a few posts back, that someone posted a recipe. Think I’ll give it a try . . .</p>
<p>ariesathena - my mother was a wonderful seamstress, and I believe I aged her considerably by going out of the house with my hems duct taped 
…forget sewing duct tape is great…</p>
<p>mstee - I had the same reaction to that recipe (thanks SBmom - it’s officially filed in my cook book under “SBmom’s Cosmos”) have you tried it yet mstee? Don’t worry about getting old, just breathe…wonderful surprises are still left to discover!! ;)</p>
<p>Glue guns! I can’t sew for s***, (no small motor coordination), and I made so many Hallowe’en costumes with glue guns I can’t tell you. Tin Woodsman, Peter Pan, Diana the Huntress (well actually had to borrow a sewing machine for the Roman ruching stuff…), Black Cat, Leprechaun, Fancy Princess, Wonder Woman, Power Ranger…and that was just for the girl child! The boy required once to be an origami display and once to be a potato. </p>
<p>For the potato I bought a huge sheet and glued it into a bag. Then hand-sewed little “eyes”. Then filled with foam rubber shreds. But he kept falling over when he ran so I wound up holding the costume in my hand all night.</p>
<p>I believe I have told that story before in Sinner’s Alley. Dear God. If I am repeating myself perhaps it is time to move on?</p>
<p>Or else just join in the Cosmos and then no one else will NOTICE that I am repeating myself.</p>
<p>A Clink of Glasses and a Hearty Heigh Ho Silver! Join you in the Cosmos Alumother…Ah costumes, the first year mine were the owl and the pussycat, 2 year old daughter cat, 1 yr old brother in stroller - an owl with feather ears 
(the things we do to them before they can complain…no wonder they don’t talk to us down the road, all those repressed memories probably begin to surface around the age of 15!) . Best part was how daughter infuriated competitive neighbor mother by reciting the poem when asked what she was…Heh Heh…</p>
<p>Ha! I actually can sew but working on costumes for HS shows cured me of being perfect. It only has to look good from the 4th row! So I am willing to improvise, glue gun, and baste with the best of them.</p>
<p>And getting old is the pits, isn’t it? I was going to say I don’t plan to, but some things are inevitable, no matter how much you exercise & try to stay healthy. And gravity affects us all! ;)</p>
<p>My friend and I joke about running wheelchair races in the home for the elderly. We’re going to be troublemakers. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, I am exercising my brain & so forth by practicing my long-neglected flute again (like reading, the person who doesn’t is no better off than the person who can’t. And practice makes, if not perfect, at least tolerable.) </p>
<p>And mstee–doesn’t matter how many children you have or how experienced you are in the college thing, the kids are all different and you keep learning new things. Well, sometimes I learn the same thing over and over again. :/</p>
<p>I’m excited–the freshman S is coming home tonight for fall break! Wonder how long the hair & beard are?</p>
<p>We were in Maui a couple of months ago. Saw all the required attractions. Haleakala was a wonderous place but driving above the cloud layer got me scared. Being in an airplane above the clouds - that’s normal, but not so in a car.
The road to Hana was nice, but no longer a survival trip. Not a lot different than driving down Highway 1 here in California except for the one-way bridges, which are just a lot of stops. An article I had salted away said that it used to be a survival drive becasue the road was full of potholes, but they have all been fixed now. So I didn’t buy a t-shirt.</p>
<p>P.S. Nobody has to do a pole dance on my account.</p>
<p>A potato! How adorable! I can just see a cute little potato trying to walk down the street collecting candy. I’m having trouble visualizing the “origami display costume”, however!</p>
<p>mommusic–hmmm, does that mean you have a kid who is interested in music? Maybe you’ll be around in four years for help when #4, the music kid (though that could change, I know), applies to schools. Yes, they are all different. I just feel like, here I’ve been gathering all this wisdom for several years, and I know that daughter should have at least sent in a couple of the rolling school applications by now, but she’s like, well, you know, “get off my case mom, none of them are due yet . . .” Okay, maybe I will be posting/venting more as this process starts to unnerve me once again!!!</p>
<p>S was obsessed with origami from the age of 5 or so until about 9, with breaks here and there. So he pinned 50 of his creations to black pants and a black sweatshirt.</p>
<p>Was a high-concept costume…</p>
<p>
Which explains Alu’s affinity for Christo.</p>
<p>Or the converse.</p>
<p>OK, Freshman son is home for fall break and once again I have that feeling of “who are you and what have you done with my son?” And it’s a great feeling! He’s happy at school, working hard, playing hard, seems to have a great social network, and is willing to tell us all about it! How different from HS…</p>
<p>He remarked “Nothing prepares you for the first semester of living away from home.” I had to laugh, because we tried so HARD to get him prepared. He just didn’t want to be independent & responsible while he was at home, and the more we pushed, the more he resisted. So now he’s been thrown out of the nest, and learned he really could fly. Wow. :)</p>
<p>I hope everyone else is enjoying similar successes. Cheers!</p>
<p>mommusic,</p>
<p>Sounds like a great report. Doesn’t it just amaze you at how much they have grown in such a short time.</p>
<p>Have a round on me because even though they would never admit it, it’s nice to know that somewhere in the back of their minds they have always been listening;)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Sybbie, SO TRUE!!</p>
<p>My earworm has just turned up again so now I remember what it is. Gene Autry singing “I’m Back in the Saddle Again”. But I have no idea why it keeps popping up. And it’s not a very interesting song, all in all.</p>