All around awesome Alex day:)

That's a Quad A day! I am so proud of Alex right now. We spent a good bit of time this week shopping for some new clothes for him. He is so tall and thin that he can wear virtually everything. His favorite is a royal blue blazer with an awesome turquoise shirt and killer paisley tie. It really is a bitchin' outfit.

My amazing friend and hair dresser did his hair and off we went for a 90 minute photo shoot for his senior pictures. It was a surreal experience for me. To look across the studio at this incredibly handsome young man posing as if he's on the cover of GQ magazine. I tried to just stay in the background and keep my tears from welling up. I cry so easily when I think about how far he's come and how soon he will be leaving me.

We got to do some fun shots as well with some of his 'history' memorabilia. He even took some shots with a Teddy Roosevelt meets Stanley Livingston theme.

When we got home I checked the website for his SAT scores and he raised them by 90 points!! Well done , son! He should be feeling quite a boost in his self esteem after a great day like today.

Kudos to you , Alex. You are amazing!!

Video blog of Rome coming up!!

I'm very excited about doing a video blog of our upcoming vacation in Rome with side trips to Florence and Venice. I've been obsessively ( imagine that) researching websites and you tube videos so that I'll have a lay of the land when we get there. It's been so long since I was there that my memory just isn't going to hack it as reference.

So I thought it would be awesome to do some video blogging and share with other travelers. I hope it turns out well. I've got a handy HD digital video camera so I'm hopeful that it will work.

Google maps with the street view has been a god-send. I've been doing a virtual walking tour of the neighborhoods in Rome this past week. I've already scoped out the tabacconist, the wine bar, the greek restaurant and the bank just around the corner from our apartment in Trastevere.

Another great website is the Rome Bus/metro ATAC website. You can enter the start and end of the daily jaunts you want to take and it will tell you the best route including the number of the bus/tram/metro and maps of the stops. Considering I'm planning on hitting about 12-13 sites each day, and considering my feet have been giving me fits, I plan on making liberal use of the buses!

Ciao!

Heading to Rome

 It's been 28 years since I've been in Rome. Hell, most Caesars didn't rule that long.  I wasn't exactly walking the streets in a toga, but they were still using Lire back then. Those were the days when I could get 1500 lire to the dollar. Pizza cost less than $1 a slice. Dinners were about $4 and a leather jacket was $10. Not any more. The Euro is at about $1.40 to one euro. So I'm curious to see just how weak my dollars are.

We are renting an apartment in Trastevere. It sounds wonderful and I think we'll have a much more memorable stay than in a hotel. We've used this service VRBO three times before and we've always been very happy with it.

We are taking a few trains around for day trips. We are  going to Firenze, Venezia and Napoli. Man, when I think back to my train trips in 1983, I cringe to think about how we traveled. It was a very fine art back then, and one that I must say that I was the master in. I would find out  on what track the train was pulling in . I would leave the luggage with my traveling companions on the platform and I would jump on the still moving, arriving train and push my way into an emptying compartment. Then I would disrobe the 5-6 layers of clothes that I had put on and throw them in the seats to make them look occupado.  I'd open the window, wave to my friends , who would hand the luggage up to me through the open window and then they would shove their way to the compartment. Voila! I had a seat for every ride in Europe!!
   Now this time around we are traveling first class with reservations. It will be a completely new experience for me. I just hope it is as much fun:)

Do we need more space?

Is it just me or am I suddenly living in a house full of really big people? The house we've lived in for 12 years has always seemed adequate. Most outsiders would think I am being silly to feel cramped in my beautiful two story tudor house. I'm sure I would here the usual comment like " generations of people have raised much bigger families in much smaller houses than you" ahem. But it is really making me feel claustrophobic. We have about 2400 sq. ft. which seems ok, but all three bedrooms open onto the same landing about 6 feet from each other. Even though my son is about to go off to college next year, he will still be home for xmas and summers. For the first time he asked if we could get a place with more space. He has always been my ever faithful kid who never asks for much, so if he's feeling like it's time to move then I think that maybe it is.

A fixer-upper is on the market and I am sorely tempted to buy it. It is much bigger with a much bigger lot. It is one story and it is a mid-century modern. I really, really like it. But here's the dilemma......if I want to move out to CA in 3 years when Betsy graduates then I should stay put in my current house. Should I be so fixated on moving to what I consider 'paradise"? Should I be more realistic and stay here in Ft Worth with all the friends we've made? How much do you chase your dreams before you realize that you have wasted the treasures that you have? I feel like an Aesop fable character. My mom's philosophy is bloom where you are planted. I've never really liked that saying. I've spent most of my life having to live where my dad's job or my husband's job took me. Which of course, you sort of have to do when you depend on your job, duh.

I feel disloyal to my current house. It has been a great place to raise our kids. But the other house seems like such a great opportunity. My friend, a realtor , is going to show me the house on Thurs. In the mean time I'll keep getting things fixed up here and try to neutralize the paint pallet just in case I want to sell....

tick tick tick....ding!

Whew, I feel like I am running out of time to teach my son all the things that I dreamed of teaching him. You'd think that 18 years worth of interaction would be sufficient, but somehow I feel like I've been on auto pilot since about 4th grade. I can barely remember the passage of all those school days. I must have been conscious,  but it beats me what wisdom I have imparted to him. Have I taught him how to handle himself when he gets stopped by the police for speeding? How do I teach about how to handle a broken heart without allowing him to go out there and get it broken? How do I convince him that the heartbreak is worth it once he finds the love of his life? How do I teach him to be passionate about his beliefs but at the same time be able to keep the lid on his tone of voice when having a disagreement with someone? Basically, how do I teach him about real life without him having experienced much of it yet? How did I learn about it myself?
   It's so hard to believe that my baby is going to be a senior in high school- an 18 year old man.  It sort of reminds me of when I'm packing for a trip and I have a nagging feeling that I have forgotten something really important. Socks ( check) underwear (check) toothbrush (check)....

You're taking what in high school?

My 15 year old daughter who is a freshman in high school just received an award for Pre-Calc. I didn't take that class until I was a senior in high school! And yet, I probably had an easier time of getting into some of the top colleges in the country than she will. How is that possible that my children are both taking a bunch of courses and learning things, I guarantee I did not learn until college. Chemistry? Are you kidding me? My chemistry class consisted of making prom decorations, and yet I aced the science portion of the ACT. Will my children do that well even though the classes they are taking are far more advanced than what I took? I can hear you readers thinking that perhaps the ACT test in my day was far easier, huh? Well, that may very well be but I doubt it. The mismatch of class content and achievement is puzzling.  "I'm vexed, terribly vexed."

I can not believe just how much times have changed from the days when applying to a state school was a shoe-in. UT and A&M were a breeze. Today, in 2011, unless you graduate in the top 8 -10% of your class you almost can't get into these schools. And yet, close to 25% of the students fail out their freshman year. In some classes over 50% of the freshmen are taking remedial classes. Are you kidding? If they qualify for college then how can they need remedial classes.?Sounds like a good way for the universities to make more money. "sure we'll take an extra 15-24 hours worth of remedial tuition from you before you begin your 120 credit hour degree" So the schools benefit monetarily, the students that are 'automatically' admitted but need remediation really just end up paying too much for their degree. They would have been better off taking their remediation at a junior college and then transferring to UT. The students who are just below the threshold for the top 10% but yet do not need remediation end up going north to OU and getting their degrees out of state. I'm sure they'd have liked to get those seats instead of those who graduated at the top of a mediocre school and are stuck taking remediation.

So if my kids took the same line-up of classes that I took they'd have no chance of even getting into UT or A&M. The class rankings in my day were simply on a 4 pt scale. There were no honors credits or AP classes that gave you a 5 point A. GPA's were never over a 4.0.  Today, if your child doesn't max out on the 5 point classes their straight  4.0 A's may put them below the top 10%. In fact over 25% of the graduating class at my daughter's school graduates with a GPA over 4.0. If you don't have a 4.8 or above you probably won't get into UT. The games we have to play to pick the proper classes based on 'points' is ludicrous.

But since times have changed I have to get with the program. So, I have my children signed up to take all these AP classes. They definitely have more knowledge than I did when I graduated but I wonder if they will have more wisdom.

Top paying degrees?

Twice this week someone has posted to either facebook or twitter the results of a study that show that the two top paying degrees to get in college are engineering and math/computer science. What they don't tell you is that a math degree on its own gets you no where. I don't know of a single friend ( me included) who got a degree in math that is not teaching. That puts us in the education category which was at the bottom of this pay scale list.
   I almost think that it is unfair advertising not to insist that the students who are good and interested in math take classes that augment math such as engineering, computer science or finance. At the same time, quit glorifying the engineers as if they are the second coming. Seriously, all the 'skills' that engineers bring to the table they learned in a math class. All the problem solving and critical thinking that the studies are touting, started in a math class. So how about some love? Where's the praise for math? Engineering without math is voc ed. It's metal shop or auto hobby or wood shop.
  It's time to redesign the majors in college so that you don't spit out really bright mathematicians who are only qualified to teach other mathematicians, etc...... How much more productive can we be if we offer these math majors some classes that will translate into jobs after graduation?

So here's fair warning : MAMAS, DON"T LET YOUR BABIES GROW UP TO BE MATH MAJORS!!!