<p>TYG, slide into a booth, and I'll buy you a Cherry Coke. We'll ask the waitress for an extra cherry. Making sense is not a requirement in here! :p</p>
<p>Much appreciated :)</p>
<p>Guys,</p>
<p>When I'm in China, you gotta keep the Sinner's Alley open for my sanity's sake....</p>
<p>Yoo hoo, I have an early drive this am, Alu! A couple of irish coffees maybe?</p>
<p>When I plan my trip to China, I am getting info from you!</p>
<p>You got it, Alum! :) There is never a shortage of rants for this time of year. For those in the trenches of college apps for the first time, there are the November 30th, 11:55 p.m., tales of sitting at the computer, buzzed on adrenaline and Rockstars, reviewing the app one last time before hitting the "Send" button. There are the life-and-death survival stories from parents of high school seniors who wait until the family has to leave for the airport to finish the app, and then, get it to the Post Office before it closes. </p>
<p>There are the post-Thanksgiving stories of college freshmen visits, and how it turns out that they would rather stay out until 2 a.m. with their friends than show their undying gratitude toward their long-suffering parental units. The antidote for that type of frustration is to fire up the old imagination and pretend that they are showing their gratitude by throwing their towels on the floor.</p>
<p>There are stories of sleeping in your in-laws' twin beds that have either no springs whatsoever or are firm enough to qualify as reinforced concrete...with matching pillows...in a room full of nauseating, Country dolls.</p>
<p>There are the turkey disaster stories ranging from, "How My Brother's New Wife F---ed Up the Turkey," to "43 Hours and the Turkey Still Wasn't Done!"</p>
<p>Oh, there's plenty to talk about, Alum! :D</p>
<p>Slugg, SB, </p>
<p>Thanks for being there when a girl needs you. Slugg, did you decide what to do about the BF father Emeril-wannabe? SB, I am afraid I won't be much help on the China trip planning, although I can ask around. My trips to China are the reverse equivalent of someone to China coming to the US and spending all their time in Fremont, in an office, eating at the cafeteria, occasional jaunts to Red Lobster, and sleeping in a motel-style corporate apartment....</p>
<p>Bummer!</p>
<p>I am presently in a hotel full of HS students as a <em>ahem</em> chaperone. They have no idea they've entrusted their precious kids to a barfly!</p>
<p>Just had to add that my son RESENTS me coming on the trip. He said, "Mom, don't you remember being high school, how you went on trips like this to get AWAY from your family?!" grrrrr</p>
<p>You maybe a barfly, but they are not ready to let you go yet. Don't ya just love how you send your kid off to college and you get more kids :D</p>
<p>
[quote]
fire up the old imagination and pretend that they are showing their gratitude by throwing their towels on the floor.
[/quote]
Ooooh, DS is <em>so</em> grateful. I'm thinking that the socks are the little exclamations points of gratitude that he left down there for emphasis. :p</p>
<p>I'm hoping that he'll bug out on me, Alum. This guy is notoriously inconsiderate, and my Las Vegas upbringing is laying odds on his canceling a day or two before Thanksgiving. D's b/f told us yesterday that his dad prides himself on undercooked poultry. He's paranoid about a dry bird, and he always chooses an overcomplicated method for cooking it. Really, it's not that complicated to roast a turkey, but if you're using an ancient, obscure Aagean method of dressing it in a loin cloth and hanging it from an olive tree in your backyard while fanning it with cork smoke from below, it can be tricky. Sheesh. :p</p>
<p>I doubt if he'll settle for a WillyBird cooked in my humble oven. Otherwise, Alum, we're making our Thanksgiving plans underground, incognito, and on the QT. I'm seeing it as our holiday version of Mission Impossible<a href="from%20the%20classy,%20old%20TV%20series">/i</a>. Our mission is the same: *An elite covert operations unit (our family) carries out a highly sensitive mission (Thanksgiving dinner) subject to official denial in the event of failure, death or capture. If we screen his calls, he won't be able to drive us crazy, and I think he may get bored and seek out easier prey. ;)</p>
<p>SBmom, the song from RENT, Seasons of Love, would be appropriate for this trip. "Five hundred-twenty-five thousand-six hundred minutes"...(Parent Chorus) "minus a couple of months, and they'll go to coll-ege!" Has a nice ring to it, don't you think? :)</p>
<p>It seemed fitting to save my 100th post for sliding up to the bar. I'd like one of those really dark, peaty Scottish ales and a bag of haggis-flavored chips, especially if this is 2-for-1 happy hour. (Or it is always happy hour in cyberspace?). Anyway, I became a lurker a year ago when I was trying to keep the duct tape over my mouth while my son finished his (blessedly only) ED application. (I am in thorough empathy to all of those trying to get apps in the mail currently) After the initial jolt of the "My chances/ boast posts" one can find, I managed to stagger over to the Parent's Forum where I discovered a wealth of useful information and a covey of wise-minded parents. Carolyn was a great guidestar as I waited out the December notification (I wasn't brave enough to post then but I discovered the PM function!). Any number of you have made me laugh over the months or made me feel delightfully normal and a good-enough parent. Once I got drawn into posting, it took me a long time to learn how to edit (consequently Curmudgeon once sent me a very nice PM about how we didn't correct other's grammar on this forum--because I had posted a correction to my own post. His reply to my reply to him was a keeper) Even though I don't need to wade into college search for a little while with my second child (9th grade daughter) yet, I find I am thoroughly addicted and have decided in deference to that useful 12 step model I should just surrender. Thanks to all of you for this congenial space to not only get educated and share what we know but to also get seriously silly sometimes.</p>
<p>mmaah,</p>
<p>I guess you discovered that cafe posts don't count toward your total. "Boast posts"-definitely catchy & appropriate for many in the chances forum.</p>
<p>Ale and haggis for mmaah! Have it ready for her after she runs over to the "real" forum and gets that 100th post counted. Spike it with champagne for that celebratory flair.</p>
<p>No need to worry about her overdoing it here in Sinner's Alley--her definition of addiction=100 posts! (please don't look to the left to see my count :o)</p>
<p>Skoal! (or whatever they say in peat and haggis country)</p>
<p>And don't you all think that the revelation of Slugg's upbringing in Las Vegas explains MANY MANY things? Maah - welcome! Just take note that most of the best communication here is done from a prone position.</p>
<p>Yes, she slid that Las Vegas bit in rather deftly, I thought. Thinking we might not notice :p?? Although she did not wear her stage make-up to Klatch1, she did seem to do a rather sophisticated shuffle-shuffle kick on her way in. I wonder if SluggH knows her history?</p>
<p>mmaah, welcome to our little den. Our warren. Our "cubby" for those still with young young-uns. </p>
<p>And I sure hope "keeper" means I was on my best behavior in my reply to your reply to my reply to your edit of your ungrammatical post.</p>
<p>Whoa. That hurt.</p>
<p>I'll be stretched out here behind the pickled snack section. </p>
<p>As is our usual, we have our version of those new-fangled fancy "self-checkout" stations. Scribble a rough estimate on a cocktail napkin and spindle it on the virtual moose's head as (or if) you leave. ;)</p>
<p>Oh. If I start snoring, would someone please record me? I've been told that at my present weight it's a eerily accurate elk bugle and I need the extra cash.</p>
<p>I was once in a bar in Troy , NY when a group came in from their bowling league and they were all wearing bowling shirts that read McDonalds Funeral Home on the back and it had an embroidered stained glass window scene....Perhaps we could engage in the design of bowling shirts. Since we'd need a league, maybe there should be one for Confidentialia College and one for Sinner's Alley (i suppose in virtual space you could even play on both teams...?) Whoa, way silly for a Sunday night. Must be the high of 100 posts plus that champagne jmmom added to my ale....</p>
<p>Mmaah, we are happy to have you! Bowling shirts are an inspired idea.</p>
<p>Cur, I'll be right behind you, in the pickled patron section. I just got back from a huge student gathering and I am staggering in on my knees for libations... Great moment: me driving six teens; six different ipods. Remember the good ol' days when a car full of kids could enjoy fighting over the radio?</p>
<p>Grew up in Las Vegas, hmmm?... Sure explains the plastic butt.</p>
<p>Just so long as SAT scores are nowhere to be found on the bowling shirts, nor any sign of orange and black, I'm in.</p>
<p>Can we have our names in glitter script? Also glow-in-the-dark? Will be useful for those nights staggering home.</p>
<p>My sons were on a bowling league as pre-teens and chose to have "The Waterboys" for their team name (from the Adam Sandler movie, 'the Waterboy'). We suggested they put "He loves his Mama" embroidered but they nixed that.</p>