<p>Oh, it won't be on until October--we're heading into our winter down here...we're still in shock about the role though. </p>
<p>S2 left for your side of the pond last night. He should be getting to Gramma's house right about now. Off to the prom at his old school on Saturday night...</p>
<p>"Cooper is not a school, dad. It's a cult."</p>
<p>Wise words from my daughter. Sorry to hear, m&sd. The combination of the mystique, free tuition for all, acceptance rates that put HYP to shame, and the hometest-from-hell, manage to work quite a few kids up into a cultish frenzy. One need only to read the trainwreck that is the Cooper communnity on LiveJournal to understand.
There were quite a few dinner conversations where I asked my daughter to use her AP statistics knowledge to get a handle on how slim her chances really were. We were also able to get her to 'see' herself going somewhere else. I spent the better part of the last month preparing my d, who is under normal circumstances an emotional and passionate girl, to be let down gently.</p>
<p>In the end that wasn't needed. She's one of the lucky few. She worked hard as heck, but it also took a support network to pull it off. A high school that's very strong in the arts, additional continuing ed art classes, summer program at an art school. etc. etc. etc.</p>
<p>I think there might be a slight advantage to applying early to Cooper, as then you get to do the test over the winter break, which affords a good chunk of uninterupted time.</p>
<p>The whole process has made me thirsty. The hard stuff isn't usually my style, but I think some shots are in order!</p>
<p>Cheers.</p>
<p>Yeah, but Cooper nurtures such great talent. Some of the most creative architects I've ever hired or worked with graduated from Cooper. I'd hire most any Cooper grad. The place is worth the psychic pain, if you happen to be have a passion for art or architecture.</p>
<p>Congrats to your D, Th.</p>
<p>Forget the glass, just give me the bottle.</p>
<p>SluggJr totaled our car this morning at 1 a.m. on the freeway coming back from San Francisco --where he was not supposed to be. He's fine, but the car is a goner. </p>
<p>He hit a wheel on the road, drove right over the top of it, and basically, shredded the bottom of the car. There are pieces of the undercarriage hanging down from underneath the engine. When he ran over the wheel, it wrecked the underbody and caused the car to bleed antifreeze and oil. He drove the car as far as he could until it ran out of coolant and died on the freeway. So much for the engine. He was able to pull it off to the shoulder, and that's when he called us. For those of you in the Bay Area, he had gone over the Bay Bridge (on 80) and had just turned onto 580 heading toward Oakland and Berkeley. </p>
<p>SluggH had him walk down to the nearest call box and give him the call box number, so we could get a location. Btw, tell your teen drivers to pull over immediately if they ever hit something. Don't keep driving the car. CHP recommends that drivers wait in their locked cars for help, with the emergency lights on and the emergency brake off (in case you're hit from behind). </p>
<p>Our car's engine was still so hot when it finally arrived at our house that the tow truck driver inspected under the hood for ignition sources. This was what we were thinking when we told SluggJr to walk down to the call box and find a safe place to stand away from the vehicle. </p>
<p>We called 911, and the CHP sent a tow truck out to get him and tow the car back to our house. The tow truck had to turn around in a neighbor's driveway and back all the way down to our driveway with its headlights blazing and beeper going the whole time. Not one of my neighbors came out last night or this morning to ask us what had happened. Evilneighbors, plural. </p>
<p>I'm a member of the club, now. Spend the money and get a good, safe, newer model car for new drivers. SluggJr got his license in December. Believe me, this was a manageable nightmare compared to rolling the car, which could have easily happened if he'd been in a lighter vehicle, like my Mazda Proteg</p>
<p>OH S---, Sluggbugg. I'm so glad he is OK. Boys and cars= sleepless nights. We have had our share of car issues with Wild Child. Two totals before he even got his license-won't go into that now. Taught himself how to drive sneaking out at night with our car. Recently, after being really responsible about his car, which he NEEDS at school for his medical appts for his knee problem (90 minutes away from school), he got a ticket that was so bad it wasn't even speeding- it was reckless driving. Consequences abound, but in order to protect the family's car insurance, I had to hire a lawyer in the state of the crime (CT).</p>
<p>Yeah, well, girls can be just as bad. I had to hire a lawyer in NY after my D's third major speeding ticket on the Taconic Parkway. Such a wimpy state--no talking on the cell phone in the car, no handguns in the car, and a 55-mile-an-hour speed limit on a beautiful winding road with no one on it except a few travelers and the cops waiting behind the trees. But seriously, it's definitely worth it to hit the internet and hire a lawyer to plead the offense down to a non-speeding offense. It's not fair, it's not reasonable, but $300 paid to a local lawyer can make all the difference. It also impressed the hell out of my D---"YOU GOT ME A LAWYER????" Yeah, and you're paying for it, and if you don't deal with this you're going to lose your license. She's been a model driver ever since, which is the good news. The bad news....I just attended a funeral for a 21-year old who died in a crash. There but for the grace of God....</p>
<p>Joke of the day:</p>
<p>THE LONELY BRAIN CELL</p>
<p>Once upon a time there was a female brain cell which, by mistake, happened to end up in a man's head. She looked around nervously because it was all empty and quiet. </p>
<p>"Hello?" she cried, but no answer. "Is there anyone here?" she cried a little louder, but still no answer. Now the female brain cell started to feel alone and scared and yelled at the top of her voice, </p>
<p>"HELLO, IS THERE ANYONE HERE?"</p>
<p>Then she heard a faint voice from far, far away.............. </p>
<p>"We're down here .....</p>
<p>SluggB, I swear there's something hard-wired in sons to be bone-heads when it comes to cars... ESPECIALLY if you've warned them about something very specifically NOT to do! It must be a "don't-think-about-pink-elephants" syndrome. "Do NOT drive to (you fill in the blank)." Clear? Apparently not. I feel your pain, believe me. Three years ago, I let my s take his car to college for the year, WARNING HIM specifically "... only if you DO NOT drive 5 hours to visit your girlfriend at her college." Two weeks later, I get a call at 2:00 a.m. "Uh, Mom? Well... I'm standing on the side of the freeway. I just totalled my car. These STUPID people in front of me mashed on their brakes for NO reason!" Like, I was going to be sympathetic? Bad, bad night. I'm having flash-backs....I'm very, very glad your s is okay, though - the most important thing.</p>
<p>Driver- so true about getting the lawyer. The one I found in New London, CT went to my law school and graduated 10 years before me. He was awesome. Got my son deferred adjudication because the prosecutor is his friend and they agreed to postpone the hearing until a more favorable judge was sitting. So-that stretch of I95 has been donated by my family..... Wild Child, "I had no idea I was going that fast. There were 6 lanes and traffic was light."</p>
<p>Omigod, I am soooo sorry you have to go through this, Slugg! It's great that Jr. wasn't hurt, but it must have been very scary for you.</p>
<p>I had a car of mine die right on that same ramp when my son was about 2 -- it's a scary place to be stranded, because there is no place to go to get off the freeway. This was in prehistoric times before everyone had cell phones, and I remember walking to a call box carrying my 2 year old and being scared to death of being hit along the way.</p>
<p>If it's any consolation - my ex totalled his car about 3 weeks ago by running over a traffic barrier - or, as my son puts it, the traffic barrier must have leapt out and attacked his car. Ex-hubby was talking on the cell phone at the time. He feels vindicated because the city removed the traffic barrier the very next week, proving that it never should have been there in the first place. </p>
<p>As to your son: well, if it had merely been an accident while he was being a good little son and driving where he was supposed to be, then I suppose you could hug him and console him and leave it at that. But since he specifically disobeyed your rules for the car... well, keep in mind that UC Davis is a great place for bicycles -- no particular reason for your kid to have his own car or do be doing much unaccompanied driving from now on. If he absolutely needs to drive for any reason, I would suggest one of these devices for the next car : <a href="http://www.pimall.com/nais/tracking.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.pimall.com/nais/tracking.html</a></p>
<p>And I will definitely take your advice and remind my own daughter of what to do in the event of an emergency on the road. It's a good reminder for all of us.</p>
<p>One benefit of living in the city is my D's HS provides a city bus pass. Never pushed for a license, never had a permit, never even got the book. And she is planning to go to school in a city.</p>
<p>One thing I have been spared during the HS years. But there is a 13 year old S approaching fast...</p>
<p>Oh slugg, sending 25 gallon martini IV stright to the hot tub in back!!</p>
<p>SO GLAD it was just the car, & sluggson's driving priveleges, that got totalled. XXOO SB</p>
<p>Slugg:
Glad to hear the young numbskull (sorry) made it in one piece. Kids - when they pull dumb stunts like this, you first want to kiss them for sheer relief that nothing worse happened. About two seconds later, you want to smack them upside the head for putting you through all that grief.</p>
<p>(It hasn't happened to me as a parent. Yet. But I did pull a 3rd world equivalent of this on my parents back when I was in high school - speeding down a winding mountain road on my bicycle, overtaking buses & cars, and then coming a cropper on loose gravel at 30+ mph. Totalled the bicycle, shredded a tough T-shirt + jeans, but didn't break any bones. But I got hugged/smacked when I finally came home... )</p>
<p>Slugg, so sorry to hear of this close call.</p>
<p>Oh Slugg, you win a prize of some sort for this....</p>
<p>SluggS had better appreciate you and have many many grandchildren that he brings over to you only when you ask having already fed them and then picks them up WHENEVER you call.</p>
<p>Also I think you just earned the right to choose his wife:)</p>
<p>Glad all are safe and sound except machines.</p>
<p>Ugg-Slugg - file it under thingsthatshortenourlives, dept.</p>
<p>teens-n-cars - </p>
<p>teentotaledcar - been there done that, she was followingtooclose&drivingtoofast&onthecellphone </p>
<p>three strikes, have a seat.</p>
<p>Thankfully, no one was hurt and it was a big wake up call. Her driving skills made a big leap after that one. Scared the you know what out of her.</p>
<p>slimy cyber hugs for a slug because they like slime.</p>
<p>cyber smack upside the head for sluggjr. Hopefully you have heaps of disgusting labor fto entertain peabrain sluggjr now that he won't be Mr Man About SanFran.</p>
<p>Classic story about a teenage boy. Honestly, it's a wonder any of us are functional adults.</p>
<p>Hi Slugg! I am SO GLAD your crazy little boy slug is okay! Man, these kids . . .</p>
<p>Tomorrow night will be an anxious one for me--PROM night. A whole bunch of teenagers will be on the road driving to Prom in Alameda. Oh boy . . .</p>
<p>Mine is going to prom at his old school. The parents have been telling my mother (Gramma) that the kids will not drink. They are sending their kids with cars to drive home at 3 am.</p>
<p>Pshaw. cheersjr has been given instructions to take a taxi. We all know how they listen....but hopefully he will not get in a car.</p>
<p>::: Paddling around in the hot tub with a martini IV::::la-lala-la-la::: :)</p>
<p>Thanks, sluggbuddies. You don't know how much you've helped me and SluggH get through this day. CGM, LOL! Laughter is the best medicine...and cyber alcohol....lots and lots of cyber alcohol! ;)</p>