<p>Congrats, hyperJulie. There’s nothing wrong with looking good when you achieve something big.</p>
<p>Since my sis is not on CC I have to brag on my nephews. Younger one is a H and father to two lovely children - so sis and BIL are happy to have a DIL and two grandchildren who only live an hour away. Older nephew is high achieving academically, hard working, and a nice guy. He was a Rhodes finalist, his PhD is a published book, he has taught some years as a tenure track prof at a regional state university (and was voted by the student body as the best teaching prof last year). He is now in his first year of scholarship paid law school, and also now lives close to sis and BIL - they are thrilled. </p>
<p>One thing we all are proud of is this next generation being good people - how they treat others as part of that ‘package’. Some are church attenders, others are not. Glad my two are following their faith. The youngest on both sides of the family is my DD who is a college freshman, and her sis who is a college junior. One niece is graduating this year and has a great job lined up - hired where she interned last summer, also a nice brag.</p>
<p>All nieces and nephews not in school are employed in good career jobs; parents of all are in pretty decent situations too. No one is living off the gov’t or incarcerated.</p>
<p>I love hearing all the brags, big and what may seem small 
Achievements to be applauded and good things to be cheered on. </p>
<p>My most important life event to date has been surviving stage III cancer (it was very aggressive with high proliferation index - bad is < 30%; mine was 52%), and I am cancer free now for 4 years. One hates to have ‘cancer’ be one of the top 5 life changing events in life, so I focus on the survival, esp because at stage III it is 50/50 for long term survival. So far I have happily stayed on the living side of those statistics. Have friends who are survivors, and some only survivors for a while. Gratitude goes along with the survival.</p>
<p>I thought I had posted this, but wanted to brag on my D, who started her sophomore year in HS by creating a new club, the Black Student Union. She drew up the contract, recruited members and an adviser, met several times with the principal, and promoted the first meeting. They want to focus on the school’s tepid MLK assembly and college planning. </p>
<p>She is also doing all the planning for an all-school assembly, including finding guest speakers to involve more teens in service as part of her commitment to Free the Children for sending her to Africa last summer. All that was required was that she do a service project, but she doesn’t do anything small. This will involve a class vs. class competition, lesson plans that she writes and speaking to all 300+ students and faculty. She isn’t even 15 yet.</p>
<p>^^^ Wow.</p>
<p>My husband fixed the fan extractor. It would have cost us $600 plus labor. Originally he didn’t know what to do but he decided to sleep on it. Your brain solves things when you sleep. Since he was about to order new part from Home Depot he figured it was worth give the fan a good bang with a hammer, why not, if he is throwing it away anyway. Guess what that did the job. The fan is now humming as it should be. </p>
<p>My H, an engineer, often during his morning shower has brilliant solutions - probably his brain worked it out overnight and the relaxation of the shower brings it to the surface.</p>
<p>On my earlier post I meant to say bad proliferation is = or > 30. My cancer was so fast growing that my (fired) GYN insisted it was a harmless cyst (I have never had cysts). I argued with him in the office to move up the mammogram. At that time, a patient could not move up a mammogram, while now they can for this kind of a change. Couldn’t sue the doc in my state (two legal hurdles, and doc was protected). So part of me being here is to tell the story, so others can learn from my story.</p>
<p>Always is nice to get something working and save some money good job Herr Google.</p>
<p>I am glad to hear a brag about living!</p>
<p>I am so tickled over our DS. He is in the first quarter of his Masters in Comp Sci. He had a WONDERFUL undergrad time (anyone can PM me about how UCSB-CCS changed his life) so didn’t expect grad school to go as well. The prof in one programming type class decided to make a homework project a competition and DS decided NOT to compete. (afraid of both failure and success). However, he reported that his first try, lamest solution came in 5th so he decided to try to win. (I think the solutions were submitted and run against some criteria and the scores generated immediately. And you could keep submitting until the deadline.) He got caught up and kept working until 2am to win the competition. 2am isn’t late for him. However, in typical fashion, he had a midterm that day and didn’t do as well on it because he made a dumb mistake. </p>
<p>So besides the “he won” brag, I also am here to brag that I bit my tongue and didn’t point out that 2am and dumb mistake MIGHT have some correlation. YAY, me. The “kid” is 22 for heaven’s sake. My job is to cheer and support, no longer to whack, I hope. </p>
<p>I am glad to hear that DS has finally found a girlfriend who appreciates him.</p>
<p>He was treated badly (IMO) by his ex-GF last year and felt miserable. I do not know whether or how he tried to “improve himself” or it was just a pure luck this summer. He met a girl who appreciates him. Last time I heard about it, his GF lent her unisex jacket (which happens to be too large for her) to him, likely because she thinks the jacket looks good on him.</p>
<p>I an glad for him. For heaven’s sake, at the ripe age of mid 20s, he should have scored something after years of trying.</p>
<p>I helped my sister went with my old lender that gave her more loan than the one she is with. They made her put down almost 70% in cash. The new lender only requires 55% cash. This means she doesn’t have to liquidate all of her 401K or IRA money. She is really happy, and I’m happy too.</p>
<p>The second brag is my daughter in college finally got some tractions with her internship search. She’s so busy that she was unable to go to a lot of career fairs at her college. She thought perhaps her resume is not right. Keeping my finger cross that she does well with the interview or at least get some practice.</p>
<p>My kid got a great promotion at work. Just her hard work. YESsSS</p>
<p>I am surviving the semester (barely but I am doing it!)
Even my PhD friends aren’t sure how I’m surviving lol. </p>
<p>Now I need to survive and get in my PhD apps- one month to go 
</p>
<p>I was chosen as a patient representative in a panel to review medical grants funded by congress in connection with the Deoartment of Defense. Two different national organizations tried to nominate me for this–I accepted the first org that had asked. </p>
<p>As a patient rep, I’m supposed to especially focus on impact and relevance of the research. It should be fascinating. We will be done before the Christmas holidays, so that’s a good thing. </p>
<p>My son is a freshman and he has already lined up a job “in his field” (at an accounting firm) for next summer. The good news/bad news is they want him to work next semester also. Fortunately he had lots of AP credit, so he is planning to take only 4 classes so he can work. He couldn’t be an “intern” because he hasn’t taken accounting classes yet, but they are willing to hire him to do filing and things like that. He’s hoping it will grow into a better job once he gets more business classes under his belt. I’m proud of him for at least trying, and being willing to work. Closest other 2 have come to working during semester was tutoring an hour or 2 a week. </p>
<p>DD has ben invited to sing at a major event in NY after the person heard her sing at an unrelated audition. So proud of the hard work she has been putting in and results finally showing. </p>
<p>DD2 and I had a great talk about career and much adult type of decisions. Have to plant the seeds for her to mull over.</p>
<p>BLATANT BRAGGING ABOUT A LUCKY BREAK</p>
<p>Husband and I are traveling – Denver-Chicago-Frankfurt-Chennai (south India)-Chennai-Frankfurt-Denver. Thanks to a friend who works for the airline we’re flying, we’ve gotten upgrades to business class on every leg of the trip. I write this in a posh Frankfurt lounge, where I’m being wined and dined after having taken a shower in a posh private bathroom. RICH PEOPLE TRAVEL VERY COMFORTABLY. Going back to economy for another very long trip (Thailand & Cambodia) we’re doing in another couple of weeks will really, really s**k. :(</p>
<p>My candidate won–my D was room mates with our future governor! Woot! He’s a great guy and will help lead our state well!</p>
<p>Wow, that’s cool, HImom. Jeez, he must be really young. I hope he does well.</p>
<p>No, meant that D was room mates with the new Gov’s D. Sorry about that. He just appointed his new chief of staff, who is willing to take a 50% cut in pay to work for him! I’m looking forward to seeing what he does. I’ve known him since we met in the honor society our freshman year at the local U.</p>