<p>Phone rings. It’s daughter’s phone number. Haven’t heard from her in about a week, when she told me she had successfully negotiated the across country drive and was on campus safely. My heart jumps. Finally, an update!</p>
<p>D: Hi Mom. What kind of toilet paper do we use?
Me: What?<br>
D: At the house. What kind of toilet paper do we use?
Me: Charmin. Why?
D: Well, boyfriend and I are at Walmart shopping and he really liked our toilet paper. It’s much softer than what he has at his suite. Thanks. Love You.
Me: Love you too. Bye.</p>
<p>me (blushing with anticipation): sure, what do you need</p>
<p>son: how do you clean a shower, that has lots of black stuff</p>
<p>me (knowing he’s referring to mold): spray bottle filled half and half with bleach and water and a scrub brush. Make sure you do it in your worst clothes (or underwear) because of splashback and bleach will ruin your clothes.</p>
<p>Well, it’s good to know I’m in expert in something. I do not want to know what that bathroom that is shared by 3 boys looks like (or smells like),</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for the fun posts. I lost my cell phone at a college town mall while on the way home after dropping off son almost 2 weeks ago. Someone found it, he met them halfway between campus and the mall and retrieved it the next day, walking over a mile each way in subzero weather (phone found, contact made, arrangements made before I even reached home that night). Gave him specific instructions regarding buying a padded envelope and going to a post office, all of which he said were easy to do. He finally bought the envelope, I keep checking the mailbox (it takes one day for mail from there to here) and calling him:</p>
<p>Monday
me- Where’s my cell phone?<br>
son- I forgot…</p>
<p>Wednesday
me- Where’s…
son- You never use it anyway.
me- I want it Friday so if Dad and I are in ---- at the mall we can keep track of each other…
son- silence (he hung up)</p>
<p>So, instead of buying a new, improved one to replace the 2 year old cheap model with a poor battery (son exchanged his for mine somewhere along the way when his wasn’t keeping a charge for long) I’m e-mailing/calling son more times in a week than a semester…</p>
<p>I’d like a new thread on top coats and stuff. My friend told me Brooks Bros has an outlet store an hour away.</p>
<p>Marite,
S has been applying to the REAL jobs–McKinley, GS, etc. He has been way underdressed. First time, borrowed shoes. borrowed belt, long hair. He has learned a lot along the way, & added to his wardrobe. Cacki pants were fine for summer internship jobs. Had he looked for jobs in CS or engineering, casual clothes would have been fine. </p>
<p>If you hear of apartments in Cambridge area, let me know.</p>
<p>We’ve had some interesting phone calls over the past year or so, too.</p>
<p>D: So, I wrote a letter to Grandma. If I want to mail it, do I just put it in one of those blue things? </p>
<p>Me: If by “blue thing” you mean mail box, then yes, and do put a 41 cent stamp on it.</p>
<p>&</p>
<p>D (at an airport 3,000 miles away): Hi, it’s me. Do you know which line I’m supposed to be in?</p>
<p>Me: No.</p>
<p>I’m assuming she could have found someone local to answer both questions, and I’ll charitably assume she was just looking for an excuse to call me. I do love to hear from her.</p>
<p>D: So, I’m thinking about dropping this 200-level physics class I’m taking (2nd semester of freshman year just began this week). It’s way too easy.<br>
M: Listen to yourself; exactly how many college students do you think have had this conversation with their mother? Uh…you’re a wierdo, but I love you…</p>
<p>(Note, she took the initiative to follow up with a physics advisor, and has until Feb 8 to decide whether to drop it and spend more time on her Calc III class from hell or to have an easy A and take it as a general review – with students and a professor that appear to be fun and smart). She’s the kind of student who lays low…only telling me about it being too easy—not something that will win her friends with her classmates…</p>
<p>Best (worst) phone call starter from S:
“Mom, how do you get blood out of a parka?”
Me: silent pause… “How much blood are we talking about?”
S: “Lots, like really really lots”</p>
<p>He hit a snow fence with his head while skiing (or rather, while falling). 16 stitches. He now wears a helmet!</p>
<p>Of course the physics course in easy in the first few weeks… they’re reviewing! Unless she KNOWS everything in the syllabus, she should stay in it.</p>
<p>Senior year, visiting colleges, my daughter stays with a friend at NYU and is taking the subway to Barnard.</p>
<p>My husband gets this phone call:</p>
<p>D: I can’t find the train station.
H: Where are you?
D: I don’t know. I’ve looked for the station everywhere.
H: Look at the street signs and tell me the names.
D: 7th Ave and Christopher St.
H: Honey, it’s right in front of you.
D: Oh. Yeah.</p>
<p>(She calls us a lot when she’s lost, and so far, amazingly, we’ve been able to help her. I’ve been on mapquest at home giving her directions when she’s been miles away.)</p>
<p>OK, another one, just from last week:</p>
<p>D: I lost my cell phone.
Me: How??
D: (long story about a frat party, a messy closet, and a cell phone in a coat pocket).
Me: We’re not buying you a new one, we’ll re-activate your old one. So, what have you learned from this experience.
D: Silence.
Me: Is there nothing you can say about making sure this never happens again?
D: More silence. Finally she says – no.
(I think, what’s this thing about learning from our mistakes?)
Me: How about not putting the cell phone in a coat pocket where it could easily fall out.
D: But where would I put it?
Me: Pant pocket.
D: What if I don’t have pockets?
Me: How about the little purse I got you at Christmas for this very purpose? Or that coat you have with zippered pockets?
D: Oh.</p>
<p>She’s been living cell-phoneless for a week, and is very lucky we didn’t discard/donate our old cell phones.</p>
<p>I have to laugh as I can relate to BOTH of your stories. </p>
<p>First, my D who goes to school in NYC has called a few times from the street looking for a certain location and has asked me to look it up on mapquest and tell her how to find the spot. (They could not do this in the old days)</p>
<p>About the cell phone…so (don’t tell my kids!), last weekend, I went to my D’s college ski race. I had my cell phone in my ski jacket pocket (don’t carry a pocketbook to the race). I was walking up the long hill from the parking lot carrying a tray of food for the team lunch. On way up the hill, having left my house at 6:30 AM to get there, other D rings from NYC. I have to set the food down on a car to answer the call and tell her that unless it is pressing, I can’t talk to her and carry the food at the same time and had driven hours to get to the race and so didn’t want to miss it as I still had to climb the ski hill to see it. I put phone back in my jacket pocket and proceed to lodge and hike up the hill to see the first run. After the first run, I realize my cell phone is missing and must have fallen out of my pocket but I am not sure where. I go to Lost and Found, nobody has turned it in. Another mom tells me to call my cell (on her cell) and see if we hear it ring in the lodge but no, we don’t. But then we get a call right back on her cell that someone turned my phone into the pass office. Meanwhile, I never admit this to either of my daughters because we have gotten on their cases about cell phones (or particularly for younger D, lost items) and I know that they would never let me live this down if I ever got on their case again. So, shhhh. (from then on, I put the cell in my jeans pocket the rest of the race day)</p>
<p>Hm. ^^ Got talked into an adorable teeny tiny clutch (brand name which I don’t usually allow) for just this purpose. Don’t know if there was validity there, but sold mom on outrageous purchase!</p>
<p>Here’s another of mine:</p>
<p>D: I finally know just how much liquor it takes to get the right amount of buzzed! Three of four shots in twenty minutes. Weak shots. They make their shots weak in England.</p>
<p>Me: How buzzed is that? </p>
<p>D: I can dance without feeling self-conscious. That’s it. Isn’t that great?</p>
<p>Me: Honey you weight 105 lbs. Sounds like a lot. People do get alcohol poisoning. That’s a lot for your liver to process. Plus people get dependent on alchohol that way.</p>