Friday, June 29, 2012

Story of the Day 6/4/2012 Addendum




After paying a second time for classes, my son is registered and has successfully started classes at Ivy Tech.

A second time meaning that the classes have now cost us double, until such time as the original payment is refunded to us.

This brings several things to mind:

Gratitude.
I am grateful that our charge card can handle this additional payment.
I realize that many other students and families' plans would have been sunk by this glitch.

Pessimism.
I am not optimistic that the refund will come anytime soon. And probably not without us making several calls to the school over the summer.

False advertising.
Yes, false advertising.
Remember Aaron's video- Charlie Goes to College?

Well, the theme for the Ivy Tech competition was " Making College More Affordable."

The last thing is "relief".
Okay, that is the next to last thing.
The last thing is this nagging worry...I mean, tomorrow can't be any worse.
Can it?



Monday, June 25, 2012

Story of the day 6/ 4/ 2012




I kicked my son out of the house, this morning.
Not quite literally.
My feet remained rooted on the floor, but I yelped and hollered and raised Cain, even though his name is Aaron, and told him to get his ass out.

It was 9:45 AM.
He didn't' have class, today.

If he did, it would be at 11:00 AM. At Ivy Tech, home of the video competition where Charlie Goes to College.

Last week, he had classes.
Those classes started today.

He had registered for them, two of them, and last week, my husband paid, on-line.

Yesterday , for some unknown reason, my son logged in to his Ivy Tech account.
Perhaps he had forgotten which classes he had registered for, where they met, what times. I do not know, but any and all of those are possibilities.

He is, after all, my son.
Any air headed genes he has are from me. I would say they are mine, but I still have those ones in my possession.

At any rate, he let me know, and I let my husband know, that something was wrong.
The something being that he was no longer registered for any classes.
The classes had not been paid for.
Even though, my husband clearly remembers paying for them, about a week ago.
And he hasnt been doing any mind altering drugs since then.
That I know of.

My husband logged into his computer and checked.
He had paid early last week, and the account showed that the payment was made on May 30th.
May 30th being day before Ivy Tech dropped him from his class.

Of course, yesterday, when we found this out, was Sunday.
And the college's offices were closed.

So my son was told by me that he had to deal with it, this morning, so he could be at his first class( for which he was no longer registered , ) at 11 AM.
At 9:25, he said something about maybe he should head down to IVY Tech a little early (before his 11 AM class - or the one that had been his 11 AM class).

I looked at him and my eyes widened in horror....." You will get out of here now!"
Somehow, the idea that it would take him half an hour to drive there, and some time to park, and that he would have to wait his turn to speak to someone, who would need time to resolve this, and then he would have to hike on over to his class seemed, to him, to mean that eh should leave our house at about 10:30, or so.
Oddly, I did not agree with his math.
"Get moving!" I yelped.

Then I rethought it and told him to call them.

Five minutes later, he was on hold.
Ten minutes later , he was still on hold.
" Go!"
"Wait until I see how far back in line I am."

Well, he was right, that was the smart thing to do.
He was number 2 in line.
Then it was his turn.
The lady explained that he could log in and re-register for the classes and pay, or he could go downtown to their office and do it.
Pay?
Again?
Well, if they later showed he had overpaid, they would reimburse him.
Thank God for charge cards. But i really feel for the kids who can't just stick a double payment for college classes on their Visa.

He tried on-line.
It wasn't cooperating. It would not let him register for the class he wanted.
The classes he had been registered for and had paid for in a previous life that was ....less than a week ago.

So he grabbed a package of pretzels and one of nuts and started to head out the door.

"Do you have a notebook and a pen and pencil."
"No."
Get them!"

I can tell how excited he is at the prospect of starting class.

I offer him a new notebook.
He turns it down. He is taking the one he writes his jokes in. And, I hope , a pen, but I am doubtful.

I grab a pen and a pencil and shove them at him.
" I have a pen".
"Take them!"

He didn't' like my tone of voice.
But, as I said, I kept both feet planted on the floor.
Probably my most amazing accomplishment for the day.

Friday, June 22, 2012

Story of the Day 5 / 6 / 2012





It wasn't a shower cap.


Ely received a pair of shoes in the mail.

They just happened to look like a shower cap.
And fit like a shower cap.
And weigh less than an ounce.

But they were shoes.

I don't know how we could have been so confused.
And they were a very good price for a pair of shoes.
Only $27.
Of course, that would be a bit high for a shower cap.

I know this because I received this email from Ely:


madre -

remember that shower cap? turns out it was "a pair of shoes," that i had ordered weeks ago from someone with an entirely different name. i wonder if it was intentional fraud or not... but fortunately i had the tracking number to prove that i did receive an item, but it was "grossly not as described."

e


And Ely put in a claim/dispute with ebay.

Ebay was kind enough to tell him that it should take less than 30 days to resolve the complaint.


Unless it is complicated.
I mean, complicated in a different way.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Story of the Day 5/ 8/ 2012 #3



A day with three Stories of the Day is a busy day. Either that or it is creepy.

Of course, if you read the first Story of the Day ( and this is, in effect, an addendum to that one) , you know that I am the kind of mother who teaches her children to fart in order to get a seat to themselves on a bus.

As it turns out, my advice wasn't necessary.
At least, not this morning.

Sarah went outside at the normal time and waited.
Usually, the wait is 3-10 minutes.
Today, it wasn't.
It was 25 minutes.
Sarah stood and waited, and waited, and waited.
Fortunately, the weather was mild.

Finally, a bus came.
Only, it wasn't her bus.
It was a different bus, the one that Kate drives.
And when the doors opened right in front of Sarah, Kate who was driving the bus, waved Sarah to get on.
Sarah got on and saw a girl from her English class. A girl that doesn't ride Sarah's bus.
At least, not normally.
And the girl gave a big, and I mean BIG wave.

And Sarah went a bit further back, and found a seat. To herself.
After sitting down, a large kid turned and waved at her.
The kid was sitting in a dark spot on the bus.
That early in the morning, our solar lights are still glowing and unless you sit in one of the "lit" seats, you can get away without makeup, brushing your hair, or even wearing clothes, at least until you get to school.

Okay, you can't really get away without wearing any clothes, but the rest of it would be quite unnoticeable in the dim light.

But the kid seemed big and unfamiliar. Sarah stared at him a moment, and then realized she was being rude and that she ought to wave back, so she gave him a sort of half hearted Queen-of-England little wave.
And as he turned away to face forward, she realized that he wasn't a student, but a staff member, who types for her in one of her classes.
He was riding to assist a student.
Who is also not on the bus that sarah normally rides.

Sarah had a weird sense of "where am I?" and "where is this bus going?", but, of course, scene those people all spend the day at the high school, she figured it would at least get her to the right place.

Then, this afternoon, when it was time to catch the bus home...again, it was the wrong bus. With a driver who is not her usual driver.
But who is also not Kate.
But, a different wrong bus.
With different students that Sarah doesn't usually ride with.
But it was parked in the spot that her bus parks in.

So Sarah got on the bus.
She recognized number of the students as being Burmese, like the kids she ate lunch with, last year. And who live north of us and not on her bus route.
But, again, she got lucky and found a seat to herself.

Until Catherine, a girl Sarah knows from one of her classes, came over and gestured to ask Sarah to move over to the seat next to the window.
Sarah looked at Catherine

You see, Sarah didn't want to move over.
Even though Catherine weighs substantially less than 300 lbs, which seems to be a somewhat normal weight for many of the students who ride the bus that Sarah normally rides...which is why she is not so keen to share a seat ad which is why
Sarah gave her a sheepish look, and then Sarah moved over.
And the girl sat down.
And the girl looked at Sarah, who seemed to have grown by several inches.
Fortunately, the bus' ceiling is rather high, otherwise, Sarah's head might have hit it.
Since Sarah, who is 5'10" was now sitting.......on a child's booster seat, which is why she was so reluctant to move over, in the first place.
And fortunately, Sarah weighs less than her 5'4" mother. I think she might weigh about 130 lbs when she is wearing her jacket and shoes.
So, her butt fit into the seat.
Sarah felt rather odd, riding home in her elevated booster seat.
But, as she told me, it was soft, and actually rather comfortable.

Of course, who knows what tomorrow will bring.

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Story of the Day 5/ 8/ 2012 #2




My son needs to get registered for a writing class. It starts in a month.
So far, I 've had to find out when it was offered.
Somehow, my brilliant 21 year old son who was raised with computers wasn't abel to figure out where the websiet hid that information.

While I was looking that up for him, and emailing it to him, I also checked which textbooks were required, and if they were available at a better price on the internet. I checked Amazon and Half price books and Half.com.
They were.
I sent him the link for that, as well.

That was last week.

Today, he was supposed to actually register for the class.

Things were going very well.
Until I came back from buying milk and toothpaste, this morning, and found he wasn't able to figure out how to register for it, on the website.

But I had students to teach, and to prepare for, so, instead of looking it for him, I told him to call the college.

Aaron is deaf. He can use a voice telephone if it has a good amplification system, and if he is actually wearing his hearing aids and paying close attention.
It isn't perfect, but it can be done.

He was on the phone for a while and I asked him if he was on hold.
He told me he thought so.
He handed me the headset.
I listened. My hearing is also not the greatest, but after about 35 seconds I decided that what I was hearing might be hold music.
Might be.
Who knows.

My son said,"I called so I could listen to the music."
Okay, it must be music.

One of the other joys that hearing aid wearers have is not being able to figure out what those automated voice things are saying.
At any rate, I walked away hoping that was in fact the hold music.

Otherwise, I will have to figure this out for him when class is over.

Mine, not the one that starts in June.

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Story of the Day 5/ 8/ 2012



Sarah wanted me to drive her to school, today.
This morning.
She hates the bus.
She gets bruises.
It is too crowded.
She gets bruises because it is too crowded.

When I was in high school, sometime the bus would be too crowded and we would have some kids sitting 3 to a seat. This was tough. The 3rd person would have to position themselves in such a way that they were not thrown out across the aisle every time the bus lurched. since I grew up in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains and the bus' route wound up and down and all around, and the paving was...chuck hole ridden, there was a lot of tossing.
If you were one of the unlucky third "henchmen" you earn quickly to sit facing the center, with your legs bracing you from being thrown.

Well, Sarah says that her bus is crowded.
There are no single seats left, by the time she is picked up.

Single seats.
Sarah is complaining that she has to share the seat with one other student?

"But," as she explained to me, "the kids are tall and solidly built!"
I thought a moment. I visualized the jumbo sized kids from next door, and behind us and down the block. Any one of which was twice the size of the kids I went to high school with.
At least.

But I still didn't want to struggle with the traffic at 6:30 AM, and waste the gas, and the time.

So I thought about it, and I made a suggestion.

"Sarah, fart a lot. When you get on the bus, fart. Wait ten seconds then do it again. By the time you do it a third time, you will have a seat to yourself. And if you do that two days in a row, I bet you can have your own seat for the rest of the month."
Which also happens to be the rest of this school year.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Story of the Day 5/ 7/ 2012




Sarah needed help understanding an Etymology term.
"Please, can you give me an example of a morbid joke?"

It is moments like this that I am grateful to God for making Google.
I googled " morbid jokes" and several examples popped up.
I related the top two to her.

"Oh."
She didn't laugh. Not even a bit.

"Exactly." I said to her.

Sarah now knows what a morbid joke is.

Aaron, who was watching this told me, "Mom, you need to learn some important things about the internet. There are certain sites that you should not go to. Where you got those jokes is one of them."

Monday, June 4, 2012

Story of the Day 5/ 4/ 2012


Sarah wanted to share with me what happened at lunchtime, today.
She said, "I didn't hear all of the conversation, but..."

"No," I interrupted her, "You didn't hear ANY of the conversation."

I am not sure how, but she had forgotten that she is deaf.

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Story of the Day 4/ 30/ 2012


It is important to have a good vocabulary.

I was helping Sarah study for her Etymology test. Helping means I hold up flashcards and she signs what the word means to me.
One of the words she has is " affectation".

I explained how it works, to her.

Today, a man called me to ask some questions. His new son had failed his infant hearing screening test. t
Twice.
He was concerned about what to do. He wanted to make sure he sounded intelligent about everything.
He was careful to refer to the next step, the test, by the correct name. The BSE ( Brain Stem evoke ) test- which actually has more than one name. And he was also very concerned , because , as he told me, they ( at the hospital) would have to " seduce " his kid for the test.

Sarah raised an eyebrow.

"He meant to say 'sedate'". I explained" But he would have come off as more intelligent if he had stuck to simpler vocabulary and used it correctly. You know, the word 'sleep'.