<p>Wow… get busy for two days and there are pages of “lives” to catch up on. </p>
<p>To back up, most of my son’s friends were last year’s seniors and he absolutely had to reinvent himself this year. I know it wasn’t easy all the time, and I agree that being an athlete helps a great deal. It also helped a great deal when he was the new kid in 8th grade. Seems with boys if you can catch a ball, you’re in. Really limiting in middle school. However, as part of reinvention and taking is own advice about stretching outside your comfort zone with new friends, experiences, he was in his first play. It was really fabulous and most importantly, he gained and earned respect for some other kids he never really knew before. And we’re talking a class of 125!!</p>
<p>I have loved watching my son on the field over the years. But I agree there is something unfair about the value given athletes over artists. However, blame larger society for this, at least when it comes to boys. Seriously, how much money do we pay our athletes, promote them by giving them prime airtime on TV and charging ridiculous prices for tickets to events. The thing is, he is really a smart kid as well. I mean deep thinking smart and I would say that while the teachers like him, his love of learning is a much quieter pursuit.</p>
<p>Shy vs Extrovert: When I first met my husband I thought he was arrogant. Turns out he is just somewhat shy and doesn’t really talk a lot unless he has something to say. And well… umm… I talk enough for both of us!! S is somewhat like him in certain ways. He has never been the one to jump head first into the pool. He’d much rather watch to see who drowns and who floats and calculate the risk. He will jump eventually, there’s no doubt, but he generally has some angles figured out before he does. Youngest daughter? She’ll jump and will barely make sure there’s water in it!!</p>
<p>I won a prestigious fellowship to Worcester College, Oxford University, and it was embarrassing, because I had to ask someone how to pronounce it.</p>
<p>It was a joint party with the parents of Son’s two best friends - they’ve been best friends since second grade and we’ve become great friends with the parents. Believe me, it wasn’t my idea to have a 10-hour party! One of the other families hosted it - they’ve got a great party house. And it was very, very fun.</p>
<p>Shawbridge FWIW my D wrote her admissions essay on erroneous perceptions of her. For many people shy is not = to lacking confidence and that is certainly true of her. Though she is intellectually and physically bold, she is socially reticent and like TOS’ boy not so keen to fight to be noticed. It’s a temeramental difference.</p>
<p>Thank goodness for the audience who appreciates the stars no?</p>
<p>S, who is headed to WPI, definitely knows how to pronounce “Worcester” since H & I both grew up in MA – in fact, H grew up 2 towns over from Worcester! I grew up in western MA, and know how to pronounce “Amherst,” too. (In case you’re wondering, the “h” is silent!)</p>
<p>I’m so tired! Wednesday evening my D had an achievement awards ceremony. Thursday, all afternoon was day one, of the state track meet for 2 of my three kids. Friday I had to clean up my house for my parents visit. All day Saturday was the second day of competition at the state track meet, and then I had to pick up parents at the airport. This AM I slept until 9:15AM! I haven’t slept past 7AM forEVER. Oh my goodness, I needed that sleep.</p>
<p>My parents are visiting for 3.5 weeks. They’ll be here through D’s graduation ceremony and open house. At the state track meet, S2 qualified to compete in a national track competition in North Carolina. This takes place about 1 week after parents leave. S2 wants to compete in the meet, so it appears as though I am planning a combo track meet, college visit tour of the south for both boys. I’m not ready for this AGAIN! I don’t even have a handle on getting DD off to college :eek:</p>
<p>ok. I am just gonna say it… if my mother visited for 3.5 weeks all of our savings would be diverted to my time spent in a mental ward when it was over!!</p>
<p>But today we did a major assessment of our yard. H’s mom is coming in two weeks for son’s graduation and she is a master gardener. We will go to the nursery tomorrow to buy filler plants for where my garden has never seemed to grow (thank you deer and rabbits). Hopefully, she wont be too offended.</p>
<p>I got all the invites ready to be mailed (for the most part), but am now feeling overwhelmed at all I need to do to get ready. I’ve procrastinated hugely and will definitely have to “let go of things” over the next few weeks. Not exactly my strong point. Fortunately, I have younger D who absolutely adores her big brother so all those sentimental things, slideshows, etc she has promised to do after her finals this week. We have until the 14th.</p>
<p>Next problem… still have no idea what kind of event we are having. I only know the date and time. Since it’s on a Sunday afternoon, I am hoping for something slightly simple, but I want it to be fun for the kids. So now I am thinking… maybe I should have a fortune teller or something? S will probably reject. But I’d like to think of something somewhat outside the box so people have a memorable time and not just another stop along the graduation party train.</p>
<p>We lived in CT for 10 years, and MA and VT before that. Worcester is the most difficult to pronounce LOL. But what about Leominster (with a MA accent of course)?</p>
<p>But WA state has to take the cake with towns like Puyallup (pooYALLup), Enumclaw (EEnumclaw), Wenatchee (wenATchee), Okanagon (OkanAHgan), even Spokane (SpokANN) So easy to look like an outsider.</p>
<p>I could deal with my mom for 3.5 weeks, would welcome it, but dear hubby on the other hand…oh dear, <em>I</em> would need mental health counseling to deal with HIM afterwards</p>
<p>My MIL comes for a day I lose my mind. She wants to be taken care of all the time. Especially now my plate is full and my tank empty. My mom is nice but quirky 3 days is good. My brother now thats a whole other story…I didn’ t know H was silent in Amherst.
Grad party is a challenge, I went to one todya with a DJ , the food was great etc… I plan on something very simple. It will be nice to see people. but just want to keep it low key.</p>
Amen to that! We’ve invited family and a couple of friends. It’s also a chance for the family to visit w/ D after her 4 month “Amazing Race” study abroad program, before she takes off again to NC for her summer fellowship. I haven’t sorted out the food yet – partly because hardly anyone has RSVP’d. How annoying is that??? Gr-r-r-r!!</p>
<h1>TM – oh yeh, the Massachusetts accent!!! LOL! As far as I can figure, the accent stops somewhere around Athol. (Bonus points if you know where that is!) H has been away from central MA for 30+ years, so has lost almost all traces of an accent. In western MA the accent simply doesn’t exist.</h1>
<p>Around here we have to know how to pronounce things in both Spanish and the Anglicized version. For example, there’s a street in Houston called San Felipe. If you’re a native Houstonian, you know to pronounce it “San Phillip-ee”.</p>
<p>Which leads to the old joke:
Two travelers found themselves stopped at a restaurant in the Texas town of Mexia. As with most people, they were confused about the correct pronunciation. They finally decided to ask the waitress - “Miss, how do you pronounce the name of this place?” The waitress gave them a look, then very slowly said, “Daaiiirrrryy Queeeeeen”.</p>
<p>Fireflyscout, don’t forget Bexar County (“Bear”). But then here in Dallas at least, when referring to “San Jancinto Street” you pronounce the J as in “jump.”</p>
<p>Our backyard neighbors have a senior also. All weekend a lot of trimming of trees, hammering and sawing…I think they must be preparing for out outdoor grad party.</p>
<p>We are having people over for a cookout and swim this evening. Have chicken breasts marinating and pork ribs sitting a rub. Trying not to stess…I’m not the most relaxed hostess, but I’m trying not to let it consume my day.</p>
<p>I grew up in WA so had no problem with the place names. However, when I spent my time in upstate NY for two years, I had to acquaint myself with how to pronounce the place names there, especially the Native American related ones. A friend came from a place in the Finger Lakes region called Skaneateles which she claimed was pronounced Skinny-atlas.</p>