Something Wicked This Way Comes

Parent Cafe
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<p>Finals are upon our children. For some their first. :eek: For others, their last .:eek::eek:</p>

<p>Although not officially a Final , D had her lab final in Histology today. For those unfamiliar with the term Histology , I have learned it is the study of hists.;) She calls about 3:30 "not so pleased". </p>

<p>Dad, It was HARD. I thought since there were lots of seniors in there and it's the (second to the ) last time she was going to see some of them it would be like "What is your name? " but it was HARD. </p>

<p>Well, you studied - right?</p>

<p>Sure I studied but it was HARD. Did I tell you it was hard? </p>

<p>Yes, dear. I've heard it was hard. Dear? Do you remember when we were looking at colleges and they told you that your school was a school where everybody, no matter how smart , had to work hard or die? And that A's were hard to come by? You know what? I hear that Med School is the same way. </p>

<p>Yeah, but by that time I'll already be in, won't I? </p>

<p>And that won't matter a whit, will it?</p>

<p>No. You're right. It probably won't. Gotta go, Dad. I have to drop by the Frisbee party, go out to eat with my Bible Fellowship group, finish my research paper, and redo my Scholarship Essay. I canceled my date to Date Night.</p>

<p>You dumped your date at the last minute?!?</p>

<p>I dumped him last week , dad. It's Finals.</p>

<p>Any other reports from the frontlines? Post'em if you've got'em.</p>

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<p>I guess my little girl is growing up. The first snow fall of the season and she is studying for finals while everyone else is out playing in the snow.</p>

3

<p>Daughter reported last night (midnight their time, 1:00 am mine) that Son has acquired an Official Girlfriend. She’s known about it for a few days, but waited until it went up on Facebook before spilling the beans to Dad. Son swears he’s working anyway, and that maybe he did well enough on the Gen Chem exam. But he did have a snowball fight last night. “It was glorious.” One paper, one exam down, one paper and one exam to go. I’m not allowed to ask Daughter about hers.</p>

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<p>:eek: Jiminy. How’s that working out for ya?</p>

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<p>D reported in about 2:15pm our time today that she was officially done with her fist quarter of college. Three courses, 2 papers handed in and calc final today. It too was “so hard”, but as I said to her, it’s over. JHS, perhaps your son was involved in the snowball fight my D referred to last night when she said, “But Mom, don’t they know it’s finals week?” She was secretly wishing she was out there with them as she did math problems. When she walked out of the calc exam today though she commented that it was really beautiful. However the grades fall out I know she’s worked really hard, gotten a good footing in college and is happy. What could be better?!</p>

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<p>D was acting as if she expected the lab final to be like the old Cheech + Chong game-show bit : </p>

<p>"For all the money and prizes! What is your name? " </p>

<p>“Starts with a b.” </p>

<p>“Ends with a b.” </p>

<p>“Ten seconds , Bob”. </p>

<p>Bob? Who you calling Bob? </p>

<p>“That’s right, Bob!! You’re our Grand Prize winner.”</p>

<p>Now why and how she came to this conclusion, I have no idea. But she says she did O.K. and loved the lab so- it’s all good.</p>

<p>Sounds like nobody has been caught napping yet. That’s a good sign.</p>

7

<p>We haven’t heard from DD. I’m not sure that is good news. Her first exam on Monday was the only one she was “worried” about. Mudge…she said it also was HARD (at least five times in the conversation..before the exam). She said her exams got easier as the week progressed. Her instrument jury is Friday…and she is actually looking forward to that. Then she flies home Saturday.</p>

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<p>Loving it is good..sometimes that piece gets lost in the shuffle!!</p>

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<p>We just got terrible news from WildChild. His entire laptop was stolen today from his disgusting off-campus room with his entire semester’s work, including a completed paper which is due tomorrow and all his research for his 3 other final papers. I HATE that college and that city. I hope anyone’s kids who are applying get rejected. It is a horrible place and getting worse.</p>

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<p>JHS, was your son involved in this snowball fight?: [Operation Snowball…](<a href=“Chicago's Uncommon Application: Operation Snowball...”>http://uncommonapplication.blogspot.com/2007/12/operation-snowball.html&lt;/a&gt;)</p>

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<p>Oh, Gosh. MOWC. :eek: A break-in? That’s horrible. I know you know this better than I do but:</p>

<p>File the police report now. Document everything now. Photographs. Diagrams. Witness statements about the break-in and the “work” stolen. Are there draft copies floating around? Prepare right now for what may come when/if they dis-believe him. </p>

<p>Sometimes D e-mails bit and pieces of stuff to herself. Sometimes she backs up her stuff, too. Not often, though. </p>

<p>He needs to get hopping on protecting his status.</p>

<p>I’m e-mailing D right now. This is horrible.</p>

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<p>My husband used to run the histology course at his med school. Every year a lot of kids flunk the midterm. I guess it really is hard. (These are the kids who made it through pre-med after all…) Anyway, interesting to see it as an undergrad course.</p>

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<p>I don’t have any finals takers in the family but I can’t resist a thread named for a Shakespeare line.</p>

<p>MOWC, that’s awful! Why won’t these kids back anything up? My son had a similar disaster when his laptop committed suicide by leaping from his bed.</p>

14

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<p>Just fine, as it turns out. She just called and volunteered a whole bunch.</p>

<p>She just doesn’t want to feel like the puppet of our expectations. That’s OK. I don’t want her to feel that way, either. And – disregarding a little adjustment problem her first year – she’s got plenty of her own expectations, and she’s 21, and she’s been a strategist all her life. I don’t have any reason not to trust her. Well . . . not much reason.</p>

<p>EDIT: MoWC! I feel awful about your son. I wish I could apologize on behalf of the whole city. It’s really a nice place, I love it. I’m sad he (and you) haven’t loved it, too.</p>

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<p>I can’t stress enough the importance of reminding your kids to back it all up.</p>

<p>D twice had computer failures - both times duing exam periods. She went and bought storage and backed it all up.</p>

<p>The other day I was talking to her and she said her computer had stuttered on a reboot. Back it up babe I said. Oh yeah, said she, I guess I should.</p>

<p>Of course that doesn’t help if your stuff is getting stolen unless you keep the storage device separate from the computer:(.</p>

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<p>MOWC- so sorry to hear that, I have had Ds have hard drive crashes and despite all the warnings to back up, there is always something critical due the next moment and no copies anywhere.</p>

<p>My Ds are under strict orders to email a copy of anything and everything, including drafts along the way to their hotmail accounts, their sisters and their mother, so there will be copies. If that is not done, they better not call with a problem!</p>

<p>So sorry your boy is hit with that disaster.</p>

<p>Grad school just got back her mid-term- it was “hard”- it was a take home, which is deceptively difficult as they are not testing your memory but your ability to think and write your ideas well- yuck! :eek: D got the top score in the class!!!</p>

<p>Another D in a science lab was told they would be tested on 100 items- they got to the lab and drew 10 items of the 100 (each person drew any 10 items) so you had to know all 100 and only prove it by showing your knowledge of the 10. D loves this class, but that was…wait for it…HARD</p>

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<p>D’s computer went “GLURTCH” the other day on start up, she is hoping it is fine and no need ot replace it yet, but she bought a portable HD and backed up- not so worried about school stuff, but about all that imusic!!</p>

<p>My computer died a couple of weeks ago, just week after I had backed up for the first time on my new HD, thankfully when it came back from repair, they had not wiped the HD, but boy was I feeling smug that I had actually backed up my photos, etc :)</p>

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<p>Sodium Free: I don’t think it could have been that particular fight, because his was right after dinner, and he was on the phone with me, at the bus stop, when that one would have been happening. But – like the Peloponnesian Wars – they’re all probably a continuation of the same, extended snowball fight.</p>

<p>Great moment of having two kids at one college, by the way: Kid 1 calls while waiting for a bus, and Kid 2 arrives at the same bus stop five minutes later. They weren’t even taking the same bus. But she had treated him and a bunch of his friends to brunch on Sunday at her apartment. Warm feeling!</p>

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<p>My son learned the hard way, beginning of frosh year, that he either needs to put stuff on a disk or at least print out a hard copy so there’s “proof”. Fortunately, it wasn’t that major of a situation; he just had to spend an entire night rewriting, and probably received a lesser grade. Yuck.</p>

<p>I have two sons who are completely opposite. One will say “I’m acing all my classes” (and actually believes it), and isn’t. Although in his defense, he’s an A/B student. The other responds to grades in histrionic porportions. “OK, be prepared for me to get a really cr**py grade, mom…” and then ends up with a 98. Between the two of them, my blood pressure is all over the charts, and I’m in a state of confusion all the time, trying to keep it all straight. ("OK, he’s the one who always thinks the worst, so it’s OK. OH NO. He’s NOT that one! :eek:)</p>

<p>My big concern today is that son received a ticket last night for burned out headlight. I’m now obsessing over whether he will blow off replacement throughout finals week, get caught again, and end up in jail. The BEGGING and PLEADING… “Please son, please go to Pepboys NOW.”</p>

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<p>Finals for WashDadJr start Monday.</p>

<p>Dad: Are you ready for finals?
WDJ: Sure!
Dad: Did you finish that English paper you were talking about?
WDJ: Not yet.</p>

<p>(pause)</p>

<p>Dad: You haven’t started it yet, have you?
WDJ: What do you think?
Dad: I think I need about eight Tums.
WDJ: Heh.</p>

<p>(pause)</p>

<p>Dad: Calculus, how is calculus going?
WDJ: I missed a test last week because I stayed up helping <girlfriend> study for her Calculus 1 class and slept through my Calc 2 class.
Dad: You missed an entire test?
WDJ: It’s OK. I talked to the prof and he said that he scheduled this test late, so I could either take the test right then, or just add the weighting to the final.
Dad: So, you took the test, right?
WDJ: Nah, I’ll just add it to the final.
Dad: How much is the final worth?
WDJ: Now, it’s worth 41% of my semester grade.
Dad: Have you started studying?
WDJ: Not yet.</girlfriend></p>

<p>You get the idea.</p>

<p><em>sigh</em></p>

<p>I’m buying stock in Mylanta.</p>