<p>Since its bumped … D got a paid internship in her field this summer! Journalism!.. lets hope it’s not her last paid work…</p>
<p>Shrinkrap, huge congratulations! Betcha it was harder to get one of these internships than to find Osama! 
</p>
<p>Thumper, the finish line is so close! Go, thumper, go!</p>
<p>OK, I’ll play. Daughter graduated in Boston a week ago, she’s now home in Denver. Tomorrow 3 of her college friends are flying in, and they’re taking a week-long road trip throughout the West: the Rockies, Moab, Las Vegas, Venice Beach, Laguna Beach, Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Telluride. Mid June she’s off to the mountains as a backpacking guide, will spend the whole summer doing that. Doesn’t pay well but it pays. And in September, she’s off again, this time to NYC for her first real job. It’s all exciting and fun, and I’m so proud of her! :)</p>
<p>Megga brag here, with an ironic “OMG ,I missed it!!” thrown in-
Son graduated a week ago from USC. The day before he and 45 other graduates were honored for their academic achievements both in and outside the classroom, pix taken with the university President, etc, etc.
Well, DS didn’t want to do the big Graduation ceremony the next day- only the satellite one, so he wouldn’t have to get up so early to sit in the sun for 3 hrs, etc, etc. We agreed. … Little did we know that the President of USC would mention DS’s geologic research and publication in a scientific journal in front of 20K people as one of 3 examples of extraordinary academic achievement from this graduating class! And we missed it!!! Oh well… Very proud, but sure wish we had known about it in advance…</p>
<p>menloparkmom – bummer you missed it!! could the ceremony have been recorded & available for purchase? in any case, huge congrats to you and your son.</p>
<p>first thing I did when I got home from USC was order the graduation DVD, which wont be here for 3 months… Oh well…</p>
<p>Congrats,M LP
It seems someone from his dept should have tipped son off. what an honor</p>
<p>thank you! I think it caught a lot of people in his dept off guard-lots of applause when he arrived for the dept lunch, and we had no idea what brought that on until the Pres’s comments were mentioned!</p>
<p>Brag: I got Oliver North’s and Red Skelton’s autograph (not at the same time/place). Both kids are currently #1 in their classes. DH is retiring this year from military…no more deployments!!! I can write all the letters and numbers upside down (had to learn how to do this when I worked at FL welcome center to mark routes for people and hasn’t really come in handy since). :(</p>
<p>S1 is about three quarters of the way through his backpacking adventure through Europe. So far he’s been to England, Wales, The Netherlands, Germany, Czechoslovakia (thank goodness for spell check on that one), France, and now he’s in Italy. He’s having a great time, even though for a good part of the trip he’s been traveling by himself. </p>
<p>At the hostel he stayed at in Berlin, he ran into a kid working there who was a year behind him in our HS in CT; they knew a ton of kids in common. It really is a small world, isn’t it.</p>
<p>So, not really a “brag,” but at least a “feel good.”</p>
<p>thumper, you go girl!</p>
<p>mpm, how wonderful!</p>
<p>Attended the PBK installation for D last Friday, graduation last Saturday. Both really wonderful. Yesterday D learned that she got the one-year position she was recruited for (not the only one recruited), so she will be in the USA for one more year, then off to get the MIT from a Spanish U, leading to work in the EU. </p>
<p>She arrives home with a British friend tomorrow for a week, then she and H have to head back to SA and in three days move her out of one apt. into another. Or, put her stuff in storage for the summer and get the place when we all return for my son’s July wedding in Spain.</p>
<p>I get tired just thinking about it.</p>
<p>Such great news from everyone. This is graduation time…and end of year time for those in school. LOTS of good reasons to brag!!</p>
<p>I am going to brag here about D2. As some of you may know, we moved to Mexico this year and D2 started her junior year at a new school, new country and semi foregin language (she took Spanish in school, but not fluent).</p>
<p>She is finishing her first year here (2 more weeks to go). Last week she found out she will be the editor-in-chief next year, head of Link (a group which helps new students), president of cancer society for children. We got a letter from school about attending an award ceremony for some special award(s) D2 will be receiving.</p>
<p>We would have been very happy if she could just be a member of any of the clubs, but for her to play a leadership role is something we didn’t really expect. It is an indication to us that she is well liked in school and is adjusting well. We worried about her starting a new school in a foreign environment.</p>
<p>Thumper- I am counting those days for you too.</p>
<p>My son was pleased to tell me (and I was happy to hear) that he was recently awarded an additional grant of $1000 from the Art History department at the U of Chicago (beyond the $3,000 grant he already received from the study abroad program) for his research in Germany this summer. And I’ve already paid for his plane fare one way, as well as half of his rent to the family he’ll be staying with during his month in Berlin, so he should have more than enough with his $4,000 to manage for five or six weeks and get himself home, without my paying for anything else! (Not counting the week I’ll be there with him in a hotel, before he starts.)</p>
<p>Several of his professors have been encouraging him to apply to grad school this fall, since he’ll already be a senior (hard to believe). They seem to think he should do very well, given that he does have a 4.0 GPA in his major, and not so very much less than that overall. His main hesitation is that he doesn’t think he’ll have time to study for the GRE’s in the foreseeable future. (Not that I think his verbal and reading facilities have declined since high school, when he did as well on that part of the SAT’s as anyone possibly could, but he knows he’d have to study for the math part, given that he’s not a math person and that it took a lot of studying for him to end up in the high 600’s in math in the SAT’s, and he’s taken only one math course in his three years in college. Of course, I don’t know how much Art History graduate departments would care about how he did in math on the GRE’s, but he doesn’t want to be embarrassed. So he’s started talking about maybe going to grad school in Canada or the UK, where he wouldn’t have to take the GRE’s. Whatever he decides, I’m confident he’ll do fine.)</p>
<p>And not that it really counts as bragging, but I’m also pleased that he’s made time since he got back from Vienna in January to do some things outside his course work. Like the “Art Should” program, for which he goes with some other students every week to inner-city elementary schools that don’t have funds for art programs, to teach art to the children:</p>
<p>harte.cps.k12.il.us/pdf/1011After%20School%20Program%20Schedule.pdf</p>
<p>Art Club - Art Should is a University of Chicago student-developed organization. It is currently entering its second year. The organization has two major missions 1) to teach visual arts to elementary school students in Chicago public schools and 2) bring together artists from the University of Chicago and the greater Hyde Park community by organizing artists’ workshops throughout the year. Elementary school students work with teachers in the classroom to create a variety of art projects over the year, specifically those geared toward improving artistic, thinking, and creative skills. The end of the program is marked by a gallery and celebration for the students and their families. </p>
<p>He seems to very much enjoy it, and mentioned that he might also get involved in the curriculum development next year. I have to admit that for purely selfish reasons, every time he tells me how much he loves being with and working with children, it gives me some hope that maybe I can actually be a grandma someday! (Last night he was telling me how much he likes 2d-5th graders because you can have really interesting conversations with them – there was one 8-year old girl with whom he had a long talk about her life – but they’re not sullen, self-conscious teenagers yet.)</p>
<p>I guess that’s partly the same reason I enjoyed hearing about something he did recently as part of his work for the admissions department (where he’s been a tour guide and worked in the office the last two years): he gave a tour to a kindergarten class from an inner-city Chicago charter school where the different classes are apparently modeled somehow on different universities; this class was the “University of Chicago” kindergarten class. He says it was a lot of fun, and the kids were incredibly sweet and adorable, and one of them told him after the tour that it was the “awesomest day ever”!</p>
<p>He really would make a wonderful daddy, and stuff like this does give me hope, although God knows parenthood isn’t in his immediate future; he’s only 21, after all, and he’s never been in a long-term relationship. But at least he likes children!</p>
<p>You go, Thumper!!! (I’m only 5 1/2 years behind you… ;)) And congrats to everyone else, too!</p>
<p>Thumper, you’re really a short-timer now! Congrats! </p>
<p>I’m somewhere between you and Anxiousmom with about 17 months left to go. I have a great iPhone app called Countdown that I look at quite often, mainly when I’m having a bad day at work. It shows the sand in the hourglass slowly filling up while it keeps a running count of the time left to go. Right now it says I have 1 year, 5 months, 1 week, 1 day, 15 hours, 19 minutes and 7 seconds until my retirement.
Can’t wait…</p>
<p>D got a chemistry award this semester and S just got a letter inviting him to academic awards night! He is thrilled and very curious to find out what the award is for!</p>
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<p>Is it on the web somewhere? D’s graduation ceremonies were.</p>
<p>14 more work days!!!</p>
<p>Thumper, I just finished for the year today. Three more left. I will be thinking of you on 6/17. Have a great time in Pittsburgh.</p>