Coskat - congrats to you and to your D on her happy and very exciting news!
GSharp - how awful about the cleaners burning to the ground and about your D2’s clothes being lost in the fire. What a shame. Good that she was able to replace a few items before her trip, but I can imagine how upset she was.
Sorry I missed all of you in NY last weekend. I’ve never been to Café Lalo, but I do love The Met. Cute about the picture of the two of you in Central Park along with the caption.
Mathmom - I sure hope they get the right recruiter lined up soon so they can get the right recruit!!
Scualum - Sounds like lots of next steps in your parts - grad school, job, new residence. Hope it’s going well for all.
Coskat - So nice that our “group” has another grandchild on the way, but I’m glad it’s yours and not mine. Seriously, congratulations. And best wishes to your D, she will surely need them combining motherhood and PhD!
G# - That is rotten news about the dry cleaners, but great news that your D2 has her graduate school plans settled. I’m glad you got a chance for a visit with her, too.
LiMomof2 - I hope your D emerges from grad school limbo soon.
My D seems to have been admitted to the masters program in Brussels - I say “seems to” because the wording of the email was so odd. It says they have determined that she “is qualified” for the program. My thinking is that’s because if she had her undergraduate degree from a Belgian university she would have automatically been qualified, and the application process would have been entirely different. Now she has to figure out what it takes to actually enroll. One interesting development was that she originally intended to leave in June for the month-long Italian bicycling trip she and her brother have planned, and then stay in Europe till school starts in September, but when she started filing out paperwork indicating she would be in Europe for over a year, she changed her mind. She was not ready to pack up her life in the next 7 weeks to get ready for that. So she will come home at the end of June after the bike trip, hang out over the summer, and then head back for the school year (although presumably in Minneapolis and not here). She is very happy with this new plan, and I think it makes a lot of sense too. I was amused by the paperwork we had to sign as “guarantors” in order for her to get a visa for Belgium - it was entirely in Dutch! Do you think it’s enforceable when we don’t know what it says?? Just kidding - of course we’re her backup plan, though we are not the primary financiers for this venture.
That was long winded. The rest of us are doing fine - though I woke up with a cold this AM. Hope all are well.
D had this weird idea to do a Medical Intern this summer in Ethiopia and we had to foot all the bills, the intern is free but not everything else. It was her medical school sponsored program. We feel uncomfortable with this Africa situation. Finally, after some arm twisting, we had her to go to Taiwan where we know it is safe and upscale.
Just wanted to drop by and catch up a bit. We are still doing well here in Texas. I just finished my second year of teaching high school English. I well remember how kind and encouraging you all were when I went back to graduate school/applied for teaching positions.
DS continues to work in the music industry in NYC and is thriving. No talk of graduate school yet, which my checkbook deeply appreciates!
I hope all is well with all of you and your families.
I have not posted in several years. I’ve been busy with my DS who is graduating from high school in 5 days. My DD graduated with honors from Washington University in St. Louis in 2014 and is employed and doing well. Her brother will be headed to the same school in the fall. We spent a good deal of time this past year visiting colleges and revisited 6 between the end of March and May 1 so DS made a well informed decision. I wish they were both closer but am happy things are going well for them. Hope everyone here and their families are well.
Just came to report that S2 is in a new sort of limbo. Apparently for OTS you have to apply for a particular specialty or specialties. He applied for something that hasn’t been offered in a while. There were 200 applicants, they took 12 and waitlisted 6. The recruiter seems to think that because it’s the end of the fiscal year they may have really wanted the other six and will have room on the next go around. So he’ll put his name up again, and then also apply for other things for the next go round. Which is in a few months I think.
Checking in on the thread to see how everyone is getting along. I am still traveling every week and working on a project that leaves me little to no down time.
I couldn’t help but think of everyone as we essentially did D2’s launch #2 this weekend. Didn’t we just do this 6 years ago? D2 begins her term of indentured servitude (aka PhD studies) in 2 weeks. She took the train to her new campus and we met her with “Dorm Mountain” #2 in tow. Actually she will be living in a room in a house near campus. The house seems like a mansion to D2 after living in apartments the size of closets for 2 years. The neighborhood is a mix of elderly people, young couples with small children, students, etc. The first thing that D2 noticed was that everyone stopped to say hello vs. NYC where you never speak to people or make eye contact on the street. She sold her furniture in NYC so that it would not need to be moved and bought some new furniture to start her new life. We brought her a dresser (sssh, it was the one that we could afford when her sister was a baby), a printer, and miscellaneous other stuff. D2 and the roommate that has already moved in seemed to get along well, or as DW put it, “had a good discussion about late 18th century American history while we sweat like farm animals moving.” Saturday was DW’s birthday, so D2 posted a picture of them assembling bookshelves with a caption to the effect of “Birthday Mom moving her precious daughter.” Two years in NYC did nothing to reduce the snark factor. D2 went back to NYC to pack the rest of her belongings and officially moves out the end of this week. She is nervous about leaving NYC (a city that she loves) and having to start over. Her last day of work was last week, but her employer said that they are keeping her on their insurance plan until her school’s plan kicks in. I guess that it is time for her next chapter in the “and Beyond” to begin… wish her (and us) luck!
@GSharpM7, best wishes to your D (and to you, too).
S is still enjoying his first post college job at a brand marketing firm in his alma mater’s small town. But now he is feeling the itch to move to a big city. A couple of his friends have moved to the Pacific Northwest and he’s thinking of checking it out. DH finally signed the car over to him and with that, he officially became financially independent. It wasn’t fun to watch him have to buy 4 new tires for it - I asked DH if I could at least pay for one of them.
G# - great to hear your update. Here’s hoping that your D really enjoys her PhD program and her new digs. I understand your reticence to share her whereabouts (after all, someone might find out who her relatives are), but if she’s in anywhere in the Boston area - please let her know she has a cyber aunt nearby, and I can give you contact info by PM.
lilmom - Nice to hear that your S is financially independent - and that he’s still enjoying his job.
My S (2014) probably should be financially independent, but we still own his car and insure it. He would have had to pay for tires if he needed them, though. This may change soon, as he is moving to a new apartment in a town that requires resident parking permits, and proof of the resident’s registration in order to get one. I think he’ll be surprised to learn that it will be cheaper for him to pay for an off-street parking spot than to pay for auto insurance! He is still in his first job, and it seems to be okay, if not exciting. He and my D biked around Italy (about 1200 miles) earlier this summer. My D is getting ready to head off to Brussels for her one year masters program. I’m looking forward to visiting and trying all the chocolate!
Looks like S2 will indeed be moving out of the attic. Unofficial word is that he was accepted at one of the Navy Boards he applied to. (The other one meets later this month.) Apparently that still doesn’t mean you will be sent to the next available Officer Training School. So we will see. I’ll actually miss him for yard work and drafting.
I’ve mostly been working overtime, but we did have a nice extended weekend recently in Cape Cod. S2’s girlfriend is in the midst of indentured servitude (aka PhD program), but all her classes are directed reading and she only TAs on Tuesdays. She did bring a lot of reading with her, and spent a fair amount of time reading it.
Hi! Hope all had a happy thanksgiving with family and friends. Just wanted to stop by and see who still checks in. Sounds like the beyonds are doing well. My DD had a beautiful baby girl in July and went back to grad school 6 weeks later. Mama, Papa and baby doing great. Baby is in daycare of university and very close to DD’s lab, she is managing very well. It amazes me to see my “little girl” handling motherhood, working on her PHD and a new marriage plus they bought a house and moved in in August. Wow life moves fast doesn’t it? Wishing you all peaceful and happy holidays filled with love and family.
Congrats to @coskat! with the new Grandchild and new SIL.
We had high hopes for my DD’s marriage but she broke her relationship with this guy after 5 years. My DW was the one who had the most despair. Well, nothing lost nothing gain, just hoping for the better.
I haven’t been on this thread in forever, but I heard a GWAR reference this weekend and immediately thought of @GSharpM7. Seems a contestant on the NPR show Ask Me Another answered a Craigslist ad for a room posted by a former GWAR member. He has costumes everywhere. She said that it was like a medieval sex dungeon.
Just stopping by to wave at anyone else who still visits. Wishing the best with military service to mathmom’s S, congratulations to coskat on the grandbaby, and commiseration to artloversplus (and his wife). And happy holidays and a happy, healthy, and peaceful new year to all.
I just had to stop by and ruin everyone’s holidays… I mean catch up on our illustrious thread. Happy Holidays everyone! I hope that everyone survives their family time!
Mathmom – Looking forward to an update on your S. In the meantime, our collective fingers are crossed.
Coskat – Many congratulations to you and your DD! Time does move fast, doesn’t it?!?
YDS – Thanks for reminding everyone of my affiliation with the dregs of humanity. You say “medieval sex dungeon” like it’s a bad thing.
AliceinW – Happy Holidays to you too! Guess who is getting a Lewis Carroll mug for Christmas?
A new year brings a new job for DW. She is just waiting for the written offer to arrive. With both D’s out of college, she is going back to part-time with the potential to travel with me every few weeks. Yes, I am still on 4 planes a week, ergh!
2016 has been a rough year for D1. Her DH had to have 2 surgeries which eventually led to being laid off, so they are dealing with the stress of one income. On a positive note, her DH is doing much better physically. Hopefully, this is a temporary setback.
In “and Beyond” news, D2 is here for a few days. She survived her first PhD semester and says that she is now an adult with 1 and 1/10th degrees. Apparently, her week consists of meeting with her advisor for a couple of hours and being assigned 5 books to read between classwork… repeat weekly! Her current area of interest is “medical jurisprudence” (I trust that’s a thing) and she spends much time reading old newspaper articles and court records (in all their gory details) about murdered prostitutes… not exactly holiday-friendly topics of conversation, so naturally I encouraged her to prepare a Christmas PowerPoint titled “Homicide and Harlots” for when my mother gets here. D2 scored a job in the library for a few hours a week. The pay isn’t great, but as she puts it gives her the resources to upgrade to guacamole with her Chipotle. Several of her UG friends have gotten married recently which means travel cost and cost of alterations for the one wedding in which she was a bridesmaid. She and another friend in grad school were lamenting spending $250+ for dress alterations on a student’s pay.
Stopping by to update on my kid. He started Officer Candidate School back in February. There was a slight glitch when he got sick the first week and he ended up being rolled back a class, but has now made it through all the “rollable” events. (Various exams, inspections and physical fitness tests.) They spend the last few weeks of the program being pretend officers for the newer classes. Barring injury or illness he should be graduating in May.
Saturday was DW’s birthday, so D2 posted a picture of them assembling bookshelves with a caption to the effect of “Birthday Mom moving her precious daughter.” Two years in NYC did nothing to reduce the snark factor.