Blargh stupid contrast making me feel sick
So I'll distract myself telling you about my weekend, because after all, there's more to my life than drama!
Well...not that this is drama free...
ANYHOW! :) My family from Holland was here this past week, my mom's youngest brother, his wife and their daughter - they come every year around this time, but it was a short trip this year, so they were only here for one weekend. Because time is tight, invited them over for dinner Friday night, and they jumped to Salem first to get Kelsey and bring her home so she didn't have to take the train again. It was POURING that night - so she was waiting for them inside, and calling me to find out what sort of rental car they had - and she started to tell me of her plans to get "more jewelry", and how I better not give her crap for this because she wasn't in the mood. (OH REALLY?? LOL) Turns out "jewelry" = another piercing, this time under her lip. I flipped out on her - while at work - WITH my boss sitting in the room, giggling his ass off at me (he's really pretty funny, and very easy going - he also has no kids....and after listening to me for a while I think he rejoices in that). Told her NO. Told her that while it may be super cool for a "Marine Biologist" to express herself with multiple piercings, she was 4 years away from that, and in the meantime needed to continue to fit into society in order to hold down a job, and that if she continued to do these things to make herself as unapproachable as possible, that wouldn't happen. I was fuming, but told her we'd talk about it later (and of course we couldn't because everyone was coming over for dinner!).
They arrived, and it was a really nice night, saw pictures from my Aunt and Uncle's visit to Cuba, heard stories, had a great meal - they left late, and Kelsey went out, so I had to put off the conversation till the next morning. Early. Becuase Tyler and I were off to visit another possible college for him, and she had told me the day before she was planning on doing it Saturday - so I woke her up. 7am. And basically had a conversation based on some great advice I got - told her that she will NOT get any other piercings on her body, visible or not, while she is in college, and that if she does and I find out about it, I'm done supporting her. I didn't go so far as to say I'd stop paying for college, but right now she's pretty spoiled. I give her money for the train to get back and forth, I pay for her Charlie pass to get on the buses, I pay for snacks and food for the room, I refill her Clipper Card when needed, hell, I even fill the damn gas tank when she's home and using the car. Done. ALL DONE. One more piercing. She will live off of whatever meal plan she has, she will walk everywhere, she will DEAL - because it really struck me as sucky that she takes my money for everything but uses hers to put holes in her body, and doesn't think twice. "Mom I bought such and such for the room for $7, can you put it back in my account?" REALLY? Yeah. No more. I dare her to test it.
After that, Tyler & I headed to Becker College in Worcester - and he absolutely LOVED this place. It's such a beautiful campus, which is so weird for anyone reading this that knows what Worcester is like (NOT nice) - and even weirder when you consider that it's bang in the middle of the city. They have 6 square city blocks where they bought most, but not all, of the buildings, old beautiful homes that are now the classrooms and dorms - stained glass windows, sweeping dark wood stairways, REALLY high ceilings, kitchens, living rooms, fireplaces. GORGEOUS. And it's small - if accepted, he'd be one of 80 kids accepted in to the Interactive Media Game Design program. AND, it's the hub of new activity for the video game industry here in Mass, having founded MassDigi - basically an incubator for the gaming companies, the academic community and the government to get together and push this industry to the next level - and he'd be in the middle of it. There are 2 campuses, one in Worcester and one a bit more "rural" 10 mins away in Leicester - but it's gorgeous places like shown here:
Those are DORMS. And CLASSROOMS.
He got to meet a couple of the professors and they also have a totally different feel than a place like Worcester Polytech, where it's all super smart braniacs focsed on programming and such (which, don't get me wrong, I loved too, and he'd totally fit in...). Here they seemed more holistic in the approach, and the love of the industry and the tools and the concepts was clear.
I think this became choice #1 for him. he doesn't even want to go visit Champlain anymore - he'll apply and then if he decides he really is considering it, he said he'd ask to make a trip up, but otherwise it looks like we don't have to drive 4 hours to Burlington, VT in a couple of week....
Saturday night was another discussion with Kelsey about not wanting to stay at Salem. She seemed genuinely upset at the thought of staying there for another semester, says she hates her classes, the teachers, the campus, and she especially hates walking alone in the surrounding area - says she doesn't feel safe, which is strange to me, because I've always felt ok there. Granted, it's far more ethnic than anything she's ever been exposed to here in Westford... She wants to look into going to community college next semester and living at home while she applies to a new school for Fall 2012...and while I'm still against it, I told her to find out what she can, because it broke my heart to see her SO upset. We'll see.
Sunday was a day with the whole family at Eric's house, where the community was doing a 5K run, with a festival in the middle of town square - my nephew is a cross country runner, so we cheered him on, and everyone went down and hung around and listened to music for a bit. Kelsey started in with how she's going to get another ear piercing, which lead to a heated discussion where I told her I said ANY new hole in her body...and she disagrees that getting anything on her ears is a "piercing"....I reminded her I meant it and we'll see what comes of that as well. We went home fairly early for Ty to work on homework, and Kelsey to work, and the next morning I put her on the train in Lowell at 7am, and she headed back. So far it's quiet from her. =)
Meantime, work is CRAZY busy, in a very good way, it's like someone finally lowered a million walls that had been put in my way, and I'm FLYING through things I've wanted to implement for months - talk about feeling useful.
=) Yay for a real update huh?
Still feel like crap from the damn contrast. Headache and my stomach is very churny. /sigh
Well...not that this is drama free...
ANYHOW! :) My family from Holland was here this past week, my mom's youngest brother, his wife and their daughter - they come every year around this time, but it was a short trip this year, so they were only here for one weekend. Because time is tight, invited them over for dinner Friday night, and they jumped to Salem first to get Kelsey and bring her home so she didn't have to take the train again. It was POURING that night - so she was waiting for them inside, and calling me to find out what sort of rental car they had - and she started to tell me of her plans to get "more jewelry", and how I better not give her crap for this because she wasn't in the mood. (OH REALLY?? LOL) Turns out "jewelry" = another piercing, this time under her lip. I flipped out on her - while at work - WITH my boss sitting in the room, giggling his ass off at me (he's really pretty funny, and very easy going - he also has no kids....and after listening to me for a while I think he rejoices in that). Told her NO. Told her that while it may be super cool for a "Marine Biologist" to express herself with multiple piercings, she was 4 years away from that, and in the meantime needed to continue to fit into society in order to hold down a job, and that if she continued to do these things to make herself as unapproachable as possible, that wouldn't happen. I was fuming, but told her we'd talk about it later (and of course we couldn't because everyone was coming over for dinner!).
They arrived, and it was a really nice night, saw pictures from my Aunt and Uncle's visit to Cuba, heard stories, had a great meal - they left late, and Kelsey went out, so I had to put off the conversation till the next morning. Early. Becuase Tyler and I were off to visit another possible college for him, and she had told me the day before she was planning on doing it Saturday - so I woke her up. 7am. And basically had a conversation based on some great advice I got - told her that she will NOT get any other piercings on her body, visible or not, while she is in college, and that if she does and I find out about it, I'm done supporting her. I didn't go so far as to say I'd stop paying for college, but right now she's pretty spoiled. I give her money for the train to get back and forth, I pay for her Charlie pass to get on the buses, I pay for snacks and food for the room, I refill her Clipper Card when needed, hell, I even fill the damn gas tank when she's home and using the car. Done. ALL DONE. One more piercing. She will live off of whatever meal plan she has, she will walk everywhere, she will DEAL - because it really struck me as sucky that she takes my money for everything but uses hers to put holes in her body, and doesn't think twice. "Mom I bought such and such for the room for $7, can you put it back in my account?" REALLY? Yeah. No more. I dare her to test it.
After that, Tyler & I headed to Becker College in Worcester - and he absolutely LOVED this place. It's such a beautiful campus, which is so weird for anyone reading this that knows what Worcester is like (NOT nice) - and even weirder when you consider that it's bang in the middle of the city. They have 6 square city blocks where they bought most, but not all, of the buildings, old beautiful homes that are now the classrooms and dorms - stained glass windows, sweeping dark wood stairways, REALLY high ceilings, kitchens, living rooms, fireplaces. GORGEOUS. And it's small - if accepted, he'd be one of 80 kids accepted in to the Interactive Media Game Design program. AND, it's the hub of new activity for the video game industry here in Mass, having founded MassDigi - basically an incubator for the gaming companies, the academic community and the government to get together and push this industry to the next level - and he'd be in the middle of it. There are 2 campuses, one in Worcester and one a bit more "rural" 10 mins away in Leicester - but it's gorgeous places like shown here:
Those are DORMS. And CLASSROOMS.
He got to meet a couple of the professors and they also have a totally different feel than a place like Worcester Polytech, where it's all super smart braniacs focsed on programming and such (which, don't get me wrong, I loved too, and he'd totally fit in...). Here they seemed more holistic in the approach, and the love of the industry and the tools and the concepts was clear.
I think this became choice #1 for him. he doesn't even want to go visit Champlain anymore - he'll apply and then if he decides he really is considering it, he said he'd ask to make a trip up, but otherwise it looks like we don't have to drive 4 hours to Burlington, VT in a couple of week....
Saturday night was another discussion with Kelsey about not wanting to stay at Salem. She seemed genuinely upset at the thought of staying there for another semester, says she hates her classes, the teachers, the campus, and she especially hates walking alone in the surrounding area - says she doesn't feel safe, which is strange to me, because I've always felt ok there. Granted, it's far more ethnic than anything she's ever been exposed to here in Westford... She wants to look into going to community college next semester and living at home while she applies to a new school for Fall 2012...and while I'm still against it, I told her to find out what she can, because it broke my heart to see her SO upset. We'll see.
Sunday was a day with the whole family at Eric's house, where the community was doing a 5K run, with a festival in the middle of town square - my nephew is a cross country runner, so we cheered him on, and everyone went down and hung around and listened to music for a bit. Kelsey started in with how she's going to get another ear piercing, which lead to a heated discussion where I told her I said ANY new hole in her body...and she disagrees that getting anything on her ears is a "piercing"....I reminded her I meant it and we'll see what comes of that as well. We went home fairly early for Ty to work on homework, and Kelsey to work, and the next morning I put her on the train in Lowell at 7am, and she headed back. So far it's quiet from her. =)
Meantime, work is CRAZY busy, in a very good way, it's like someone finally lowered a million walls that had been put in my way, and I'm FLYING through things I've wanted to implement for months - talk about feeling useful.
=) Yay for a real update huh?
Still feel like crap from the damn contrast. Headache and my stomach is very churny. /sigh