<p>Crash, you will be certifiably insane by the end of your trip, but that will not disqualify you from Sinner’s Alley. Come to think of it, there are no qualifications necessary for hanging out in here. Just the ability to drag our sorry behinds through the door.</p>
<p>Watch yourself when you’re up in that tower with a bunch of high schoolers! Just make sure that the kids are aware of the “No Flinging of Chaperones” rule. I think they frown on chaperones flinging themselves off, too. May the saints be with you, Crash. :)</p>
<p>Backhandgrip - this thread is the one that keeps me sane enough to venture back into the wild world of crazed kids and parents salivating for an Ivy degree…please, please don’t bar the cafe - it’s really the only breath of sanity on CC. I’ll hurl myself against the doors, fling myself across the bar, hug the jukebox protectively, or move my gear into a booth beside SB and doze off forever if the Cafe is under dire threat of demolition…and I’m sure there are other revoltutionaries willing to join me…</p>
<p>Ah Sluggbug, you are so right…I am already a bit insane thinking about the trip but it was the only summer “vacation” I could afford this year - and for such a noble cause. It reminds me of my poor graduate school days when, tired of tuna and beans, I’d accept a dinner out with a well-off creep just to eat a decent meal… But it was rarely worth it and I always came home slightly nauseous…</p>
<p>Backhandgrip, I think you took a wrong turn and ended up in Sinner’s Alley. It’s okay, it happens to the best of us. Go to the end of the bar and exit through the big door to the right. Just follow the alley out to the street, and catch the bus to the Parents Forum, which is in a much better part of town. There are 27 pages of threads on the College Search, alone. A great help to those who may be at the beginning of the process or forging their way through. </p>
<p>My gawd, what are those annoying pop-ups on the side of my screen? Harriet, get a newspaper and swat the bald-headed guy! And, give that poor Doberman a Milk Bone and a couple of dog tranquilizers. Heh. It worked, sort of. At least things have stopped flashing and jiggling. I jiggle enough as it is. </p>
<p>The walls of Sinner’s Alley are pretty thin, and I can hear the discussions from next door in the caf</p>
<p>I think the name “sinners alley” was a stroke of genuis; keeps out the riff raff!! </p>
<p>This made me laugh:</p>
<p>ANNOUNCEMENT: Wal-Mart announced that they will soon be offering customers a new discount item: Wal-Mart’s own brand of wine. The world’s largest retail chain is teaming up with E&J Gallo Winery of California, to produce the spirits at an affordable price, in the $2-5 range.
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Wine connoisseurs may not be inclined to throw a bottle of Wal-Mart brand into their shopping carts, but* “there is a market for cheap wine”, said Kathy Micken, professor of marketing. She said: “But the right name is important.”
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Customer surveys were conducted to determine the most attractive name for the Wal-Mart brand. The top surveyed names in order of popularity are:
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10. Chateau Traileur Parc
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<em>9.</em> White Trashfindel
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<em>8.</em> Big Red Gulp
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<em>7.</em> World Championship Riesling
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<em>6.</em> NASCARbernet
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<em>5.</em> Chef Boyardeaux
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<em>4.</em> Peanut Noir
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<em>3.</em> I Can’t Believe It’s Not Vinegar!
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<em>2.</em> Grape Expectations
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And the number 1 name for Wal-Mart Wine:
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<em>1.</em> Nasti Spumante
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The beauty of Wal-Mart wine is that it can be served with either white meat (Possum) or red meat (Squirrel).
*
Bottoms Up!</p>
<p>They neglected to include my favorite: pino grungio.</p>
<p>I agree, slugg, it is a very scary place “out there…”…and so redundant. Haven’t we been through all of this several times before? Can’t we just pull up last year’s threads on the same subjects? And the sex (or ‘no sex’) and politics threads can get so nasty.</p>
<p>So girls, buck me up with one more brew. I’m about to head out to do battle again. Phew. What a crazy world.</p>
<p>Speaking of virgins…a recent study (cannot site source, sorry - saw it on the internet actually) discussed the benefits of girls who were still virgins by the age of 18 (and yes, there are a significant number of them…) in comparison to those who lost their virginity in middle (yikes!) or high school.
Benefits included: higher level of education, higher salary, lower incidence of STD’s, get married later, have children later, get divorced less, fewer addictions (drugs, booze, smokes and, I guess, sex)…
I imagine the study’s findings have a great deal to do with the fact that many of the kids who do not give into the immense peer pressure to be sexually active are focused, have a solid sense of who they are, have the patience to wait, and concentrate on their studies rather than where the next party is.
I worked really hard - as my mother did with me - to give my daughter a strong enough sense of self-esteem not to give in to the incredible amounts of peer pressure girls (and boys) face these days and to her credit, she succeeded. But she got everything thrown at her from “loser” to “lesbian.” Actually, I got the “lesbian” logo, too, from a pathetic sicko in college - but hearing that at a seasoned twenty as an attempt top bed you is sure different from being labeled that at 14.</p>
<p>That’s some back seat you have. You try it on for size, take a little nap they next thing you know you hear somebody talking about getting back to the college search. Why are they trying to mess with my buzz?
Hey, we’ll pass a few schools while we are out on the road (the operative word being pass). If there is a kid in the car, we’ll slow down, toss em out and pick em up on the way home.</p>
<p>Catching up, no one should be having this much fun while also finding out that my guilty pleasure (after the alley of course), Desparate Housewives has been nominated for 15 emmys.</p>
<p>Wassup with Walmart now wanting to sell wine? I heard this morning on the news that they want to also have singles night. You come in , tie a red ribbon on your cart and the rest is up to you. Why leave the store to go out for a drink when you can have a pino grungio on aisle 3.</p>
<p>doddsdad,
Don’t worry about us, we are a bunch of classy drunks here on the alley. We’re still drinking Boones Farm, MD2020 and an occasional Bartyles and James. But we’re going to have to stop by Walmart and pick up a few bottles for the cooler so that we can have a little something for the road.</p>
<p>crash, thanks for mentioning that study. I agree.</p>
<p>Young people need to develop a sense of self, personal ideals & dreams, and the ability to depart from the crowd. Any distraction from this path is damaging. Early sex, early drugs, drinking all make selfhood & confidence harder. (So does being plugged in to tv or computers 24/7 and having that value system pumped into one’s brain.)</p>
<p>I am soooooooo happy to see my D very secure in her choices, very accurate in her friend-picking skills, very confident in herself. I feel she is beautifully launched and can handle whatever life throws at her; she has the inner balance to regroup from dumb mistakes. Her foundation is there.</p>
<p>A middleschooler who starts taking on the drama and heartache of immature sexual partners? OMG! It’s like building a house with bad lumber and NO foundation; of course it will fall.</p>
<p>Luckily in middle school my D was a nerd!!! Thank God for that.</p>
<p>“I imagine the study’s findings have a great deal to do with the fact that many of the kids who do not give into the immense peer pressure to be sexually active are focused, have a solid sense of who they are, have the patience to wait, and concentrate on their studies rather than where the next party is.”</p>
<p>Or maybe they are just geeks. (Sorry, couldn’t resist “the urge”. ;))</p>
<p>Hey - the mantra these days is “Geeks are Good.” They are the new golden girls and boys for the Echo Boom generation. Heaven save me from having a “popular” kid (though I think my youngest is already an “Alpha” type male;the 3rd grade girls are already crazy about him…this calls for heavy braces in 10th grade and no proactive zit creme - anything,. anything to slow him down!)
By the way, my geeky daughter is a 34 D, 5’9" model (and no, not for Playboy). So much for Geekdom.</p>
<p>I mean, Mini, don’t get me wrong…I want my kids to have fun. I just want them to survive it (and wake up fertile and able to have my grandchildren in fifteen years…)</p>
<p>Man, just thinking about all this gives me a headache - like ducking mine fields and peer pressure bombs. I need a drink. Bad.</p>
<p>I was just talking to my oldest about how different she and her sister were from me.
Of course I would never have dreamed of having sex in middle school- but spending time on a college campus relatively unchaperoned as my 15 year olds and her friends do- would probably have seen me doing a lot more risky behavior, than what they do which is spend the whole time in the computer lab doing layouts for their online friends.
I wouldn’t call them “geeks”, they are more renassiance women than anything, but they aren’t ready for a sexual/emotional relationship and so they distance themselves from getting in that position prematurely.
When I think what I was doing at my daughters ages- my mind boggles- when I was 15 I was probably on my 3rd serious boyfriend ( which means more than a 6 mo relationship) and when I was 23 , I had been living with my boyfriend for three years- which wasn’t my first live in relationship and would marry him the next year.
I am so happy- that they are finding themselves first- and then a partner when the opportunity presents itself- instead of the other way around.</p>
<p>but back to the drinking! ( well not much drinking - but I did bring some cognac for my coffee)
we have ( my H and I) just returned from our romantic camping trip
not so romantic- not a lot of privacy when at the ocean- but the water was warmer than puget sound-although I wasn’t inclined to have a wet dog in the tent so I discouraged her from swimming too much.
we were at Cape Disappoinment- where the Columbia river meets the Pacific ocean- lots of great hikes ( they weren’t even hikes- not much change in elevation) with stunning views.
and Jake the alligator man
<a href=“http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/WALONmarsh.html[/url]”>http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/WALONmarsh.html</a></p>
<p>Gosh, emerald, what a bizarre museum - Jake is really creepy - but I’d really love to see the World’s Largest Frying Pan, just like the World’s Largest Ball of String…I’ve never seen any of that kind of stuff. Just have led a deprived life I guess.
I love “Cape Disappointment” (what’s the story behind that?) - It reminds me a bit of “the Bridge of Sighs” in Venice…</p>
Go to the end of the bar and exit through the big door to the right. Just follow the alley out to the street, and catch the bus to the Parents Forum, which is in a much better part of town. There are 27 pages of threads on the College Search, alone. A great help to those who may be at the beginning of the process or forging their way through. </p>
</p>