<p>Sophomore S called: Dad I hit a tree and wrecked my car
Me: are you alright?
S: Yes, but they towed it off to a body shop and they said it was totaled.
Me: How fast were you going?
S: I don’t know - the speed limit was 15</p>
<p>Yes folks you read that right. Totaled car in 15 MPH zone ON CAMPUS</p>
<p>uskoolfish, that’s horrible! I wouldn’t have waited till dawn.</p>
<p>not a phone call but got emailed a picture of large rash on chest - “what do you think this is - should I go to the hospital?”</p>
<p>I may have mentioned this on another thread several years ago. We got a call from S2 early one Sunday morning – very unusual! – to let us know that the fraternity house, where he lived, had a significant fire. He and everyone else were OK, thank goodness, but there was significant property damage. Thankfully it was Winter term, when many people do an off-campus term, so there was plenty of dorm space left to house the brothers. I’ll never forget that call as long as I live.</p>
<p>Son, “Mom, I’m sorry, I know I’m waking you up but I wanted you to know we’re all OK before you listened to the news this morning”</p>
<p>^^^that’s a good one!</p>
<p>I’m dating myself, but the one phone call my parents feared was the one that began with, “Mom, Suzy told me the rabbit died.”</p>
<p>Throwing stones at bears? I bet you miss that campus where bike riding gets you in trouble.
Bad one’s so far:
Dad, the clinic said it’s mono.
The room the bike was in was supposed to be locked.
The insurance deductible on the rental truck is $1500.
The flight left yesterday.
That was the girl, I can hardly wait for the boy…</p>
<p>The above phone call was from when the Texas A&M bonfire tower collapsed and dead and injured students were trapped in the logs. Son’s dorm was one scheduled to be working that night. He and his friends weren’t. We were seriously glad he woke us up first.</p>
<p>Call from college daughter several years ago…
Mom, I’m okay, the shooter is in the next building. We’re on lock down. (UAH)</p>
<p>Call at 4am, summer: “Mom, can I talk to Dad?” (Always a giveaway.) Tell me. “You need to pick us up.” Where? “I don’t know.” </p>
<p>Daughter #1 - Labor Day at the beginning of her sophomore year - 7 a.m. (Sobbing, hiccuping) - Mommy, this is the worst day of my life!" Person in the background says “Tell your Mom you weren’t raped.” Becauseshe was crying so hard, it was difficult to get the story from her. She was in a rural hospital emergency room. Unknown to us, she had borrowed our tent and gone with several friends to a Dave Matthews concert at an out in the middle of almost nowhere music venue - (Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Washington). She had (obviously) had too much to drink, and had gotten up in the middle of the night to go to the PortaPotty. She was spotted by the police, who patrol the campgrounds for underage drinking, and after getting argumentative with the cop, given the choice of going to jail or the hospital. </p>
<p>She had left her phone in the tent, so her friends had no idea where she was. We didn’t know any of their cell phone numbers, and neither did she, since they were programmed into her cell phone.</p>
<p>Her dad drove the 3 hours to get her out of the hospital. The 3 hour drive back was very quiet. This adventure cost us a fortune, because the hospital E.R. assessment was considered mental health, and since it wasn’t pre-approved (!) the insurance wouldn’t cover it. I think it was about $900.</p>
<p>(The friends found out from the festival security staff that she had been taken to the hospital in lieu of jail, and got back to Seattle on the their own, with our tent.)</p>
<p>She had never been in any trouble before and hasn’t since, thank heavens.</p>
<p>Daughter #2 - 6:30 a.m. “Mom, I’ve got a bad situation here.” A few weeks ago - She’s a college senior, living in a house with several other girls. She had locked herself out her room at about 10:30 at night. Each room has a deadbolt. She called the landlord to ask if he could let her in. He said he could come over in the morning - could she sleep in another girl’s room? She thought that was a fine solution, but apparently some of the young men who were over visiting after the basketball game wanted to be helpful. One of them put his shoulder to the door and cracked it. Then they all joined in and broke it into bits. </p>
<p>My daughter is an uptight rule-follower. She was very worried about calling the landlord and telling him about it. The young men thought they should go to Home Depot and buy a door - thinking the landlord would never know. (I’m pretty sure the carpentry involved would have been way beyond their skills.)</p>
<p>I told her to call the landlord. He wasn’t upset with her - just said “That’s why I prefer to rent to groups of girls.” And asked her if she wanted to deal with the vandals, or if she would like him to have a conversation with them. She handled it herself. </p>
<p>During my son’s sophomore year, he tried to downplay the tornado that was bearing down on Tuscaloosa, AL with, a Facebook chat with his dad, saying, “Well, there’s a tornado coming, and we’re all going to die.” Not funny, of course, because there were students who lived off campus who did lose their lives. </p>
<p>When the tornado passed, he managed to call me, and he said that he and his friends were going out for dinner. I told him not to leave campus, because it was a mess (I was reading the tweets). I mentioned that several businesses were destroyed. To which his roommate responded, “No!!! Not the Krispy Kreme!!!”</p>
<p>Earlier in the year, I got the call that his girlfriend had just dumped him. He sort of saw it coming, but what probably annoyed him the most was it came a night after he gave her an expensive pair of earrings for Christmas.</p>
<p>Got the mono call my son’s senior year. Boy was he sick.</p>
<p>And there were lots of calls to vent about everything from roommates to various issues with his fraternity brothers.</p>
<p>Cannot wait to see what law school brings this fall.</p>
<p>And the younger son goes to college this fall, too. Now, he’s not a big talker, but that could change. Usually I’m the one who handles the crisis, not Dad.</p>
<p>S1 (end of freshman year). </p>
<p>S1: I’m on my way home.
Me: Did all your stuff fit in your car?
S1: I threw the sheets and comforter away.
Me: Why?
S1: Well, I hadn’t washed them all year so figured you wouldn’t want them back in the house. </p>
<p>Technically not at college - S2 was a junior in HS.
S2 & S1, home for spring break, went out to lunch together:</p>
<p>S2: Mom, I just got rear-ended by the deliveryman from our favorite Chinese restaurant! What should I do?
S1: Don’t worry, Mom, I’ll handle it. I’m experienced with accidents.
S2: I guess this means that we can never go back to that restaurant.</p>
<p>Five weeks later:</p>
<p>S2: I just got rear-ended. Again!
Me: >sigh!< You know the drill. What happened?
S2: The guy said, “Dude, I didn’t see you. I’m taking these new prescription painkillers and I must have blacked out.”
Me: Did you mention this to the police officer?
S2: Why would I do that? It’s not like he was drinking.</p>
<p>Four weeks (and one speeding ticket) later:</p>
<p>S2: I just finished the court-recommended defensive driving class. But I think we’ll need to buy new tires for the Bionic Pickup.
Me: ???
S2: After the defensive driving part, we did an obstacle course. I melted the tires down to the steel radials while cornering around the cones. But I was only 4 seconds slower than the Corvette!</p>
<p>Glad I have girls. </p>
<p>Oh, how could I forget this phone call from S1 in college: “Come and pick me up. I’ve resigned.”
48 hours after drop off. Yep. </p>
<p>Fortunately it ended well: I enrolled him in community college, he transferred to a top 4-yr university, did very well, and graduated in 2010. He’s now working FT in his field and also going to grad school. But it was a bumpy start.</p>
<p>My daughter was attending college in Philadelphia as a day student and was trying to park before class. She was 17 and a relatively new driver.
D: Mom, I kind of had an accident.
Me: What do you mean? Are you ok? Is your car ok?
D: I’m fine but the car door’s messed up. I hit a taxi and the driver is standing here yelling at me.
Me: What happened?
(She had been on a one-way street, trying to get to a space on the left hand side from her place in the middle lane. She missed the taxi coming up her left side and pulled over in front of it, damaging her door and the taxi’s headlight.)
D: The driver is on the phone with her boss and she wants me to give her $200 to fix the headlight.
Me: Don’t give her any money! Call the police!
D: (taxi driver yelling in the background) I have to get to class! And she’s yelling at me!
Me: You have to call the police. Then you will exchange insurance information - that’s why you have insurance.
D: Ok. I’ll call you back.
(Now I’m wondering if I should send my husband up there to help her, or what, and about half an hour later:)
D: It’s all worked out.
Me: What do you mean? You didn’t give her money did you?
D: No. I found a junk yard. I told her it wouldn’t cost $200 to fix a headlight, so she came with me to the junkyard and I found a replacement for $35. I asked the guy for a screwdriver, and he said I wouldn’t be able to do it myself. But he gave me the screwdriver, and I replaced the headlight. The taxi driver’s happy, and I’m going to class. Tell Daddy thanks for making me work on my own car!
Huh!
(btw - she had to pay for the damage to her car, bc we no longer carried collision insurance on it, but still!)</p>
<p>Call at 10pm: Mom I can’t breath (asthma). The RA call 911 and they are taking me to the ER</p>
<p>5 Months later: Mom I am having trouble breathing and the Campus Health Center cannot stabilize me after two hours of trying. They are sending me to the ER.</p>
<p>Freshman year is really aging us. Fortunately, my daughter is rising to the challenge. </p>
<p>“Don’t panic, but I’m in a ditch…” </p>
<p>My mom’s gotten that one twice 
</p>
<p>Or, while your child is in a foreign country and living in a rain forest:
“Don’t panic, but I’m being hospitalized for x.” </p>
<p>This was several year ago- A phone call at 4AM: “Hello, this is Sargeant *** from the *** Campus PD.” My heart stopped! Turned out my D had left her wallet in a building and he was trying to track her down. He was on the east coast, we are on the west which explained the early morning call. </p>