<p>For those of us stressing over course registration, football tickets, packing, move in, becoming an empty nester, etc., here is a little College Humor:</p>
<p>Letter home from school…</p>
<p>Dear Dad,</p>
<p>$chool i$ really great. I am making lot$ of friend$ and $tudying very hard. With all my $tuff, I $imply can’t think of anything I need, $o if you would like, you can ju$t $end me a card, a$ I would love to hear from you.</p>
<p>Love,
Your $on.</p>
<p>A week later… a letter from “home”</p>
<p>Dear Son,</p>
<p>I kNOw that astroNOmy, ecoNOmics, and oceaNOgraphy are eNOugh to keep even an hoNOr student busy. Do NOt forget that the pursuit of kNOwledge is a NOble task, and you can never study eNOugh.</p>
<p>Stressing big time over the apocalypse - course registration and football tickets in the same morning. I’m sure this will be when my WiFi connection fails…</p>
<p>MaBama - we had to do course registration and football tickets the same morning last year at Bama Bound. A word of advice - if you are on campus the night before, go ahead and connect to the WiFi network, because there is a short login process. Then you will be ready to go straight to the ticket site the next morning. Good Luck!</p>
<p>MABama- GREAT post! I needed that right at this very moment. Thought that I would take a little break from packing up the DD for tomorrow’s departure to T-town. She’s officially a Senior in high school as of this afternoon. She’s moving into Lakeside East this weekend for Capstone Summer Honors Program. Not exactly stressed but trying to stay upright through this whirlwind that I’m stuck in. Thanks again.</p>
<p>I showed this to my husband who remarked perhaps you had been eavesdropping on his conversation with our S who is a rising senior at Loyola in Chicago???
Don’t stress…it all works out! Last year, on this exact day, we were expecting 250 of DD’s friends to arrive between 12 and 4 for her grad party…DJ was setting up in the downstairs patio even at 6 am!!!..had 20 of my favorite relatives here from across the USA, my 3 other kids were home and there was stuff EVERYWHERE!!! Caterer was due at 10 am and I couldn’t see my dining room table because my oldest likes to drop her purse and belongings on it. Had just finished putting on a Senior Breakfast for 515 kids on Friday morning. Dogs had to be boarded and the balloon bouquets were being delivered at 8 and I REALLY needed a Starbucks (Now is a good time to mention I perhaps have THE BEST husband in the world!). Graduation was on Sunday (we had the late graduation this year…4 pm).that meant we had a huge brunch for all the out of towners (yet another caterer visit and set up, thank goodness they come back and clean up as well)and then after graduation we were hosting a dinner for 35 at a local restaurant (did I mention it was also our 25th wedding anniversary??)
AND then on Monday morning DD and I were in a car on our way to Tuscaloosa for Bama Bound!
At the end of the day it all went smoothly. We still talk about the craziness of that weekend. We ended up getting the football tix and registered and bought the tix for Parents Weekend, met the roommate and her parents and hung out with them, made the final selections on bedding and coordinating the room colors and incidentals with the roommate and her mom. I also had time to talk the roommate’s mom off the ledge because they had not attended Panhellenic Preview and she didn’t know about rec letters, resumes and headshots. AND…all this with out Valium or any other drugs (hmmm I did consume GALLONS of Starbucks however and actually trained a very nice boy at the FERG to do it EXACTLY how I like it…he’d see me in line and have it done by the time I got to the register to pay.).
It all falls into place…really it does and y’all will look back and smile with very fond memories. If you need to be talked off the ledge I am offering my services…am very good at it :). I did find that the Parents Breakfast on Day 2 (this is while your child is registering) was a great time to sit back, meet lots of great parents (I ended up meeting a mom form Oak Mountain…we exchanged info… her S and DD sub sequentially met and became really good friends)…also the Parent info session that morning was informative but also had time to network and met and chat to other parents…I found myself relaxing for the first time in a week. Gotta tell you when DD arrived things got a little more chaotic. she had met so many people and wanted to hang out with them :). I was glad she had so many new friends. We had already booked the hotel room for an extra night and so DD went with the kids for that evening (several of them had brought cars…most being from the B’ ham area) and I got to get a great dinner and go back and relax. Suggestion…I did make DD walk her schedule twice before we left the next morning (she didn’t want to leave anyway so this was just fine with her) …just wanted her to get a handle on it because I knew when we arrived for Recruitment that things would get crazy busy and she wouldn’t have time to do that…especially because the sororities take the girls on retreat immediately after the festivities of bid day (if they don’t go that evening they leave very early the next morning) and most don’t return until Tuesday afternoon before classes start on Wednesday and there will be laundry ect (oh hint to parents who have girls going through recruitment…if you come for Bid Day …I stayed and did DD’s laundry so she would not have to deal with this when she got back…they ended getting back at 3 in the afternoon…she had a meeting at the house at 7 and class at 9 am the next morning…just a thought…she said it was VERY helpful!)
Roll Tide! enjoy the ride it will be fast and furious but oh so worth it and you will have great memories at the end :).</p>
<p>*Stressing out as well! I’m home with super undependable internet and it would choose to not work the morning I need it most. Thanks for this! *</p>
<p>4 years ago when S1 was going to be an incoming frosh, I knew that our internet at the time was not reliable…so, we got up early, headed to a local coffee shop that had internet, and did his football tix order there.</p>
<p>ahpimommy…wow…what a story…love the part about teaching the Starbucks guy how to make your coffee…reminds me of my baby sister…when we walk into a Starbucks by her home, they KNOW…Chai tea latte, 6 pumps of chai, 2% milk, triple blended. </p>
<p>Do you have 4 kids…I lost count in your story! LOL…Older son at Loyola-C…older D’s stuff on the dining room table,…graduating D…and…I think…1 other? Wow! You’re a busy mom!</p>
<p>We do have 4…oldest is a movie production coordinator in NYC currently working on CBS fall line up “A Gifted Man”…graduated from Columbia, second D is in marketing in DC, graduated from Missouri State, lives in Arlington VA, S is a rising senior at Loyola in Chicago and baby DD is a rising sophomore at Bama…life at our house is always CHAOS!!! Has been for years…Love it wouldn’t have it any other way :)…
m2k…you also are a busy lady I believe…maybe sometime we can meet when I am in the T-Town area…have become very good friend with DD’s boyfriend parents that live in Muscle shoals. Already been to visit once and hope to go back again.</p>
<p>oh, that’s right…forgot to include the Venti and the no foam part. That’s also part of sis’ litany order. LOL It’s been a few months since I’ve been with her at a Starbucks. I just laugh when she gives her order at “new Starbucks”. </p>
<p>My order is: Venti Passion shaken iced tea, one squirt of syrup, one Splenda packet.</p>
<p>ooh, I didn’t know they made iced teas, I always buy a bottle when I meet my friends for coffee since I don’t drink coffee. By the time I meet them I usually have had 2-3 cups of brewed hot tea so I am ready for an iced tea.</p>
<p>I really enjoyed the humor. I’ve had a busy week as my sister is graduating, enrolling in college, and I’m leaving for summer school.</p>
<p>I joke that I’d lose my Washington residency if I didn’t have a super long Starbucks drink order. My drink (not on the menu) is a half strawberry, half orange mango, 3 pumps creme base, passion tea, 3 pumps raspberry, and a grande scoop of ice blended and put in a venti cup smoothie, but charged as a grande blended strawberry lemonade. </p>
<p>I’d forgotten how many Starbucks and other coffee shops are in my home town. In a city roughly the same size as Tuscaloosa, there are at least 20 Starbucks locations.</p>
<p>My current week is going to be crazy! I graduated earlier today from eleven to one or so. We have a school-sponsered party from 7PM-6AM tonight. As soon as that is over, I am driving 5 hours to Destin, FL for 3 days. I will go directly to Tuscaloosa for my overnight orientation. At the end of the first day, I will be going to a Birmingham Barons’ baseball game. The chaos only stops after orientation ends on the 4th. I will be a crazy week for me.</p>
<p>As for my Starbucks/coffee place order, I am actually not too picky. I am really fond of an iced peppermint mocha with an extra shot and skim milk. That has become my recent tool to keep myself going during work.</p>