News Briefs.

There’s quite a bit of catching up to do, so here’s a quick round-up.

M and I have done some college visits! I know, right? She was finding the beginning of this whole process intimidating, so we decided to dip her toe in the water by just checking out a few colleges to see if we could get some general ideas about things that she likes or doesn’t like. It’s definitely been interesting, and I’ll tell you more about this soon. For those who haven’t been keeping score/don’t have high school or college kids at the moment, she will be a junior this year, which means she’ll be applying to colleges next fall.

J has been dabbling in childcare. She scored a help-the-camp-counselor gig with a friend of mine. Then, on Saturday, she had her first official babysitting job, and she was super-happy about it. Among the highlights was that we were wavering about how much she should ask for per hour, and she was trying to decide between a lower rate and a higher rate, which I thought seemed more appropriate, but of course was scarier to request. And then, instead of having to ask, her new employer just suggested the higher rate. In any case, J had a ton of fun and she followed my random advice (to please the parents, tidy up the kitchen and compliment their children), so hopefully it went well.  I guess we’ll know if it actually went well when/if the mom calls her for another job. Fingers crossed.

We spent a week at a lake house with my extended family last week. This was in place of our every-other-summer trip to North Carolina coast, and while we missed the ocean, a lake house in the Adirondacks is a much quicker drive. We were a little concerned with the super-rainy forecast, but we ended up enjoying many lovely days, and it was good to catch up with everyone. We just came home from that trip on Saturday.

M had a boyfriend, and now she no longer has that boyfriend. J was particularly thrilled about hearing about this romance, and he was a very nice boy. I think that she’s just more focused on other things, like sports and school and friends. But not a job, because after having to wait until she turned 16 to apply for jobs, she hasn’t scored one (not for lack of trying).

We are currently fostering a cat for a friend’s sister’s friend. It is a very shy cat and, honestly, I’m not sure if it’s going to work out. We might be a little too emotionally needy for a cat who hides from us at all times. But we’ll see if things evolve after some adjustment time.

M needs to get her wisdom teeth extracted. Since you’re supposed to go easy on the physical activity,  I’m hoping that we can slide this special event into November, between soccer and track seasons.

J’s been doing a ton of volleyball and liking it, still, very much. It feels crazy that it was only about a year ago that she was still doing tons of gymnastics and considering giving volleyball a try.

I’ve been taking a break from tutoring ESL students and helping with Michelle Ostrelich’s campaign for State Senate just to mix things up (along with WGGS, of course).

That’s what’s up.

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