I Had a Dream

Posted on by

I dreamt that CJ was home for an entire month, yet we only shared 3.9 hours of quality time:

- Vacation in Oahu (with three other families) – 33 minutes doing a jigsaw puzzle together in the early mornings.

- Screening of our old video montages after a cousins dinner – 18 minutes of togetherness on the couch.

- Shopping trip for hoodies – 23 minutes in the car and on the 3rd Street Promenade, broken up by marathon texting sessions and encounters with high school classmates.

- Orthodontist visit with adult braces guy.  Yes, CJ could have gotten there by himself, but I went along and read magazines in the waiting room, as if he were in middle school – 29 minutes.

- Dinner at Thai restaurant.  Conversation included analysis of Mr. NP's obsession with "Lost" and the origins of boba – 38 minutes.

- Packing for the two road trips he took (one to Mammoth, one to visit friends at Stanford) – 7 minutes

- Field trip to the Verizon store when his cell phone broke hours before he was due back at school – 43 minutes

- Ride to airport (does it count if he was sleeping?) 26 minutes

Since he might not come home for Spring Break, I'm looking forward to the summer when I should be able to clock 5-9 hours of quality time in four months.

A New Extracurricular

Posted on by

BH and I have stumbled upon a novel new extracurricular: We are attempting to screen 103 episodes of the television series "Lost" before the new season begins in early February.  This mission was inspired by my dear husband, Mr. NP. Thinking he was too addicted to "24," I had purchased the first season of "Lost" for Mr. NP as a holiday gift last December.  He finally got around to watching it this year, became hooked, and spent last 30 days viewing the entire series on on his laptop, even while our family vacationed in Oahu (yes, I'm aware that's where the show is filmed.)

When we celebrated our 20th anniversary on New Years Eve, Mr. NP let me know that if I wanted to have something to talk about with him, I would now need to watch "Lost" as well.  And for optimal marital communication, I would have to catch up in time to share the final broadcast season with him. Our younger son BH, a high school sophomore, volunteered to embark on the marathon screening experience with me.  Because we must see 3-4 episodes a day, he will have to give up video games, movies, parties, and perhaps even soccer and journalism.  But he is a trooper, and I know he can do it!  He has even said he would stay up past midnight, and if necessary, miss school.  If he perseveres, I suspect he has fallen into the ideal college essay topic…Unusual, global, contemporary.  No special talents or costly equipment needed.  And how many other kids have given up a month of their lives to save their parents' marriage by watching a sexy, violent mystical serial? 

Next up: Entourage.  I think we've only missed 78 episodes of that one.

iChat Etiquette for the ’10’s

Posted on by

Happy New Year!  The Neurotic Parent is pleased to report that it has been a pleasure having CJ home, even though when here, he is usually asleep.  In the spirit of forgiveness, we are so proud of his first-semester grades that we have excused him for
forgetting to stay in touch for the last five months.  That hasn’t stopped us from imposing firm restrictions for the new decade:  Henceforth, our son will be required to iChat with us for 3-5 minutes every Sunday night.  Apparently this is a common practice, adhered to by most college students.

But one mom, whose son attends a top New England liberal arts school, has warned us that iChats are not always as satisfying as one would think.  Yes, her son dutifully called home every week, but there on the bookshelf behind him during the most recent call, was a half-empty 2-liter bottle of vodka.

Breaking News on the Acappella Front (?)

Posted on by

To get my mind off certain deferrals and rejections of loved ones (plus stressful sophomore PSAT scores) I have two major announcements:

1- I received a call from the Proud Mother of a Future Congressman who let me know that the Tufts Beezelbubs have made it to the finals of "The Sing Off," an NBC reality show which features a capella groups competing, a la American Idol.  If you're so inclined you can go to the show's website and vote for the Bubs…or for Voices of Lee (Lee University, Ohio) or Nota (University of San Juan, PR).  I have just cast my vote for the Bubs, but have also listened to Voices and Nota, and they're all dynamite.

www.nbc.com/singoff

2 – In a super-coincidental development, just hours later I received an email from the Proud Mother of a Future US President inviting me to hear America's oldest underclassmen a cappella group, the Yale Spizzwinks(?) during their 2009-10 world tour, which includes Ecuador, Brazil, Paraguay, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Burma, Malaysia and Sherman Oaks, California, where I will have the pleasure of seeing them.  "In the past," the invitation stated, "the Spizzwinks(?) have received raving reviews for performances at the White House and Carnegie Hall." 

I did some research, and it turns out that the parentheses and question mark are cleverly(?) an official part of the Spizzwinks(?) name. The Neurotic Parent has volunteered to accompany them on their world tour to translate this essential punctuation into Malaysian and Portuguese.  And I could also clean up the usage in their brag sheet…Shouldn't it be "rave reviews," rather than "raving"?  Any Yale-educated grammarians out there who can help me out on this?

 

Breaking News on the Acappella Front (?)

Posted on by

To get my mind off certain deferrals and rejections of loved ones (plus stressful sophomore PSAT scores) I have two major announcements:

1- I received a call from the Proud Mother of a Future Congressman who let me know that the Tufts Beezelbubs has made it to the finals of "The Sing Off," an NBC reality show which features a capella groups competing a la American Idol.  If you're so inclined you can go to the show's website and vote for the Bubs…or for Voices of Lee (Lee University, Ohio) or Nota (University of San Juan, PR).  I have just cast my vote for the Bubs, but have also listened to Voices and Nota, and they're all dynamite.

www.nbc.com/singoff

2 – In a super-coincidental development, just hours later I received an email from the Proud Mother of a Future US President inviting me to hear America's oldest underclassmen a cappella group, the Yale Spizzwinks (?) during their 2009-10 world tour, which includes Ecuador, Brazil, Paraguay, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Burma, Malaysia and Sherman Oaks, California, where I will have the pleasure of seeing them.  "In the past," the invitation stated, "the Spizzwinks(?) have received raving reviews for performances at the White House and Carnegie Hall." 

I did some research, and it turns out that the parentheses and question mark are cleverly(?) an official part of the Spizzwinks(?) name. The Neurotic Parent has volunteered to accompany them on their world tour to translate this essential punctuation into Malaysian and Portuguese.  And I could also clean up the grammar in their brag sheet…Shouldn't it be "rave reviews," rather than "raving"?  Any Yale scholars out there who can help me out on this?