<p>Oh, Carolyn, I do feel for you. You can have my share of the bottle ... you need it more than I! ;)</p>
<p>Hahahaha, wifecam! :) Good idea! Congrats to Curmie and the mudgette. When the acceptances start to roll in, we're almost there. Do I hear the tittering of parents among the Lemon Drops and the Cosmos? We're not in Kansas anymore, and several of us haven't been for some time, now. </p>
<p>We've stood before the Great Oz begging for courage and brains when faced with college apps that make the small and meek tremble. How many nights have we felt old and rusted, in need of a new heart? We've battled flying monkeys (particularly troublesome during Junior Year) and fought with more than one wicked witch along the way. Just when we thought we were out of the woods, someone threw a rotten apple at us.</p>
<p>It's mid-November, and I think I see the Emerald City. C'mon, let's get through the field of poppies before the UC apps are due! Sneak into the witch's castle, grab her flying broom, melt the witch, back to Oz...no problem. Exactly when my house was picked up by a tornado and flung over the rainbow is unclear to me, now. It may have been three years ago when my oldest child was a sophomore. The Munchkins tend to get on my last nerve, and that pesky Horse of Many Colors keeps showing up after I've had a couple of margaritas. But, the last kid is a senior, and I'm starting to find my way back to Kansas. </p>
<p>There's no place like home, despite the new mortgage we took out this year. ;)</p>
<p>
[quote]
We've battled flying monkeys (particularly troublesome during Junior Year)
[/quote]
Right now, I could be easily convinced that my Junior From H*** is a flying monkey. Ye gads. Gimme a shot o' something strong.</p>
<p>Ah Kansas! I am battling to get home. Got my youngun set kind of, got that flying monkey off my back, and flashes! and parents!!!! Hey does this place have sandwiches for those of us who are kind of sandwiched right now to go with the lager?</p>
<p>
[quote]
menopause and ..... a child's senior year at the same time?
[/quote]
I always thought that this was so that [ul][<em>]when they go off on one of their adolescent hormonal jags, we could "get it" and be empathetic, or [</em>]more likely, so we could outdo them at their own game :p[/ul]</p>
<p>All hail Sluggbugg-- bard of sinner's alley!</p>
<p>And then hook Carolyn up with the IV we keep for these kinds of days. Cur has got the natural fizz of an acceptance, he doesn't need to drink...Congrats! Slugg - I'm still waiting for your sitcom to air.</p>
<p>Well, now that I know what I'd be drinking, Alumother, I think the hubby wouldn't mind the view of the Bund. Anything near water makes him happy. I felt as though I was channeling my dear Gramma Dorothy, "Quick, to the OED," I could hear hear chant. Well, I just used the darn search engine, and if she was alive today, she'd be a great internet researcher. "Ah, the hunt," she used to say after two or more sherrys. Uh, Carolyn, so much we could share, I fear a thread on the trials of menopause would be so helpful, yet too scary for the mods. Splashmom, are you really in Franklin? Man, don't even tell me who you run into at the Piggly-Wiggly. Sluggbugg, you rock!</p>
<p>I'm tempted to order some exotic aperitif, my hubby just emailed with news that S will be home the thursday before Christmas. A round of drinks, gentle bartender!!! Perhaps champagne in The Great Leslie's tent?</p>
<p>This has <em>got</em> to be the most inebriated, liquor-loving bunch of my peers that I've ever crawled under tables with. Don't any of you people get hangovers? Or even remember them? :)</p>
<p>We love sinners alley because:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>You never get a hangover (or maybe you're right as we don't remember them)</p></li>
<li><p>No matter how much beer you drink, you'll never get a beer belly :) (But then again, we're not drinking a lot of beer because curmie and dodds spear no expense on the good stuff)</p></li>
<li><p>We love an open bar with free drinks</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Welcome to SA, wife ! I would love a lemondrop martini. </p>
<p>But don't let it get out that curm and dodds made it for you.</p>
<p>The next thing you know they'll think that they have some type of classy joint where they can start getting selective and throw up some type of velvet rope.</p>
<p>can I buy anyone a virtual drink? It's been a long week.</p>
<p>need you ask? we always need a drink that is why this is our home away from home. thanks I'll take you up on it</p>
<p>Pour me a cold one, long week here too. Only working two days next week though. Yippee!!</p>
<p>Oy vey, I have teacher conferences on Mon. morning for The Junior From H***... I think I'll just swim in something alcoholic all weekend so I can (as Arlo Guthrie said) "look and feel my very best the next morning". Sigh.</p>
<p>Jasmom, just slide a tray of flaming shots over this-a-way. First, to the poor, unfortunate DMV examiner who drew the short straw and had to give my SluggS his second driving test. Apparently, it is not cool to floor it into an intersection and lean the car to one side while completing a left turn...It would have earned him a good score if he'd been trying out for stunt car driving, or perhaps, the Indianapolis 500. "Too close?" SluggS asked, one part in earnest, two parts James Bond. Yeah, I guess it was. To be continued next month. :p</p>
<p>Second, to Mootie, who will face the lions, a.k.a. teacher conferences, next week. I'm lending you my short sword and my shield from last year's battles. Somebody has to stick up for the flying monkeys, and it has to be you, brave gladiatrix! ;) He'll come around next year. Doddsdad has a golden bowl of victory tequila set aside for parents of high schoolers who get called in for teacher conferences. Bring your own straws.</p>
<p>And, finally...to the parents of college freshmen who will be returning next week. Remember, it's always Happy Hour in the Alley. Drop in any time! :)</p>
<p>Mootmom, would you like some company? One teacher brags about him, the next just shakes her head in that knowing "I feel sorry for you" way. Maybe there's something he's not telling me? </p>
<p>Slugg, at least he's improving! He didn't try to take out any humanoids this time out did he? With the cost of car insurance I certainly wasn't in a hurry for my youngest to get his license. </p>
<p>I'll have anything flaming.</p>
<p>
[quote]
to the parents of college freshmen who will be returning next week.
[/quote]
That would be me, starting tomorrow! Thanks for the reminder of the Alley-as-haven. Sure to need it. Let's see, tomorrow's to do list:
*trip to grocery store in vain attempt to have "something to eat" in the fridge
*favorite Lemon Curd Squares freshly baked
*clean towels at the ready, so they can be dropped on the floor at the rate of at least two per day
*mental resolve not to ask too many questions
*zen acceptance of his desire to spend more time with the Gang than with the Family</p>
<p>Have I forgotten anything?</p>
<p>My sophomore will be home for about 2 1/2 days. He told me tonight he'll probably spend that time sleeping and studying. I told him it would be enough to know he was upstairs. A few moments of dead silence, then he asked "do you come look at me when I'm asleep?" How do you answer that? I try never to lie to the boys. But if I said yes, well . . . that's just creepy. So I admitted that I've done it since he was a preemie and slept so deeply that I worried he'd stopped breathing. That didn't seem to creep him out too much.</p>
<p>My, how things change. My list of "to dos" before college junior D comes home for Thanksgiving, includes...</p>
<ul>
<li> Buy gin, jalape</li>
</ul>
<p>Ah, Sluggbugg - a woman so much more <em>evolved</em> than newbie jmmom. ;) Something to aim for. :D Good thing we have Sinner's Alley to fill our Mentoring needs. :) :)</p>