Far too early
My co-worker, poor D, went home on Friday after throwing up three times at work. I asked him why he waited for three. He should've been gone after the first one. I knew it was coming because the school called him earlier in the week to pick up his sick daughter. She was very sick. Poor Dad has it now.
Needless to say, I am covering for this morning. Typically, I am not a morning person, but I was able to go to bed a little earlier last night (thanks to medication) so this morning wasn't too difficult to wedge my fat ass out of bed, clean it and walk it out the door. I took my new friend, Teddy, with me. That's right, a forty-something old woman is carrying a Teddy Bear. So what?
Life has been overwhelming. With the boy's acceptance to college comes getting him there. Not only getting him there, but getting him there with everything he needs. PLUS, we have to pay for it all somehow. Yes, the college has been wonderful in helping. I have spoke with the Financial Aid Counselor already (who sounded twelve, but knew her stuff). She gave me the name to the person in charge of Scholarships. While I know many people who made it through expensive colleges without financial help from their parents, I still worry in this economy if anyone will want to help a good, smart kid.
The new car needs a tune up. It has since we bought it. Actually, it probably doesn't. It's shifting a bit hard for an automatic. It makes me nervous. However, we just don't have the money. As fast as we can make money, we're spending it on bills and necessities. It leaves me sweating my son's reward.
At the beginning of the school year, the boy said he wanted to go to a convention with his online friends. I told him sure, since what he was proposing was a few years away. But, I said I would reserve two hotel rooms for MegaCon: one for hubby and I and one for the boy and his friends - if he brought home all As. He did. I reserved the rooms.
Luckily, since my older brother works in our childhood comic book shop, we were all able to receive free passes to MegaCon. That will pay for one room at least. I want to make sure he can have a great time running around with his Manga Club friends that are going. He's earned it his year. He took third place in his Exipermental Science Fair (since he ran through all the other Honors Science classes) for studying gravity in video games (did you know Sonic has the closest gravity to ours whereas Megaman has almost double?).
Now, he writes a two-dimensional video game for his Senior Project. I cannot believe the things he's accomplishing this year. I want this reward to be very good for him - he's earned it. It's the last before college and BIG LIFE. And I say BIG LIFE because he will be on his own all the way out there in Portland. Unlike the other students, he won't be able to run home to my protection easily if at all.
Yes, he needs to do it. Yes, I know he can do it. Part of me wants to be there to catch him should he fall even in the slightest. With the empty nest looming, it is harder to override those over-protection urges. I have worked hard to make sure he can cook and clean for himself; I've gently applied that tough love to prepare him as best as I can for life on his own, but I can't stand the idea of him being alone.
Work proves to be sliding from bad to worse on a super lubed slide. Management has cut my hours back (two hours a week) with the prospects of loosing more next month. Salary personnel lost four percent of their pay. Plus, we have possible mass lay-offs to look forward to in September (maybe August as well). Perfect. When I am supposed to be taking my son to his new college, I'm supposed to be on unemployment. Again, re-budging and tightening of the belt so we can save money to do this.
Have I mentioned we suck at saving money?
So, pay attention kiddies: when you were young and you thought your parents could do whatever they wanted and have as much fun as they wanted, they weren't. They were stressing and worrying and trying to save enough money to make sure you could do what you needed to do. Plus, they didn't have all the answers. They made it up as they went along.
And some of them carried Teddy Bears.
Needless to say, I am covering for this morning. Typically, I am not a morning person, but I was able to go to bed a little earlier last night (thanks to medication) so this morning wasn't too difficult to wedge my fat ass out of bed, clean it and walk it out the door. I took my new friend, Teddy, with me. That's right, a forty-something old woman is carrying a Teddy Bear. So what?
Life has been overwhelming. With the boy's acceptance to college comes getting him there. Not only getting him there, but getting him there with everything he needs. PLUS, we have to pay for it all somehow. Yes, the college has been wonderful in helping. I have spoke with the Financial Aid Counselor already (who sounded twelve, but knew her stuff). She gave me the name to the person in charge of Scholarships. While I know many people who made it through expensive colleges without financial help from their parents, I still worry in this economy if anyone will want to help a good, smart kid.
The new car needs a tune up. It has since we bought it. Actually, it probably doesn't. It's shifting a bit hard for an automatic. It makes me nervous. However, we just don't have the money. As fast as we can make money, we're spending it on bills and necessities. It leaves me sweating my son's reward.
At the beginning of the school year, the boy said he wanted to go to a convention with his online friends. I told him sure, since what he was proposing was a few years away. But, I said I would reserve two hotel rooms for MegaCon: one for hubby and I and one for the boy and his friends - if he brought home all As. He did. I reserved the rooms.
Luckily, since my older brother works in our childhood comic book shop, we were all able to receive free passes to MegaCon. That will pay for one room at least. I want to make sure he can have a great time running around with his Manga Club friends that are going. He's earned it his year. He took third place in his Exipermental Science Fair (since he ran through all the other Honors Science classes) for studying gravity in video games (did you know Sonic has the closest gravity to ours whereas Megaman has almost double?).
Now, he writes a two-dimensional video game for his Senior Project. I cannot believe the things he's accomplishing this year. I want this reward to be very good for him - he's earned it. It's the last before college and BIG LIFE. And I say BIG LIFE because he will be on his own all the way out there in Portland. Unlike the other students, he won't be able to run home to my protection easily if at all.
Yes, he needs to do it. Yes, I know he can do it. Part of me wants to be there to catch him should he fall even in the slightest. With the empty nest looming, it is harder to override those over-protection urges. I have worked hard to make sure he can cook and clean for himself; I've gently applied that tough love to prepare him as best as I can for life on his own, but I can't stand the idea of him being alone.
Work proves to be sliding from bad to worse on a super lubed slide. Management has cut my hours back (two hours a week) with the prospects of loosing more next month. Salary personnel lost four percent of their pay. Plus, we have possible mass lay-offs to look forward to in September (maybe August as well). Perfect. When I am supposed to be taking my son to his new college, I'm supposed to be on unemployment. Again, re-budging and tightening of the belt so we can save money to do this.
Have I mentioned we suck at saving money?
So, pay attention kiddies: when you were young and you thought your parents could do whatever they wanted and have as much fun as they wanted, they weren't. They were stressing and worrying and trying to save enough money to make sure you could do what you needed to do. Plus, they didn't have all the answers. They made it up as they went along.
And some of them carried Teddy Bears.