Trying not to hover.

Got a call from someone at LSU yesterday trying to get in touch with DD#3 who is on campus now at orientation.

(girl) : "Is A. there?"
(me): "No, she is on campus. Did you try calling her cell phone?"
(girl): "Yes, but she didn't answer".
(me): "Ok, I'll try calling her and let her know you are trying to get in touch with her".

(I said this knowing that she probably isn't going to answer me either).

I call - her cell goes directly to voice mail. I tried again, several times over the next 6 hours (by now, it's evening). No response.

This, I realized, is a frustrating feeling when your child is somewhere in your small slice of suburbia. It's kind of frightening when she's on a college campus 8 hours away and you realize that if you really, reeeeeally needed to get in touch with her, there is not other number to call but her cell.

About 11 pm, she calls. "Sorry, they won't let us use our phones during orientation".

Hmmm. That never stopped them from using it during class in high school!

Persepolis

I did finish this book. It's required summer reading for the incoming class at LSU, so I borrowed it from DD #3 who is heading there in a matter of days (!).

It's the first graphic novel I've read, and you can read some of it yourself here:

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

It seems that many of the events that took place in the late 70s, maybe even the entire Carter presidency, are just mysteries to my kids. The Iran hostage crisis, Vietnamese boat people, Jonestown... One of them asked the other day, "Who was Anwar Sadat?". Never heard of the guy...

Its hot.

107 degrees. I just got nothing. Nothing to say. Too hot to think or do much of anything except wait for it to cool off. blech.

School meetings this week are getting me kind of ready for classes -

TAPPS meeting Tuesday (UIL for private/parochial schools).

Educators Trainings Wednesday and Thursday. Trying to work my way through Creation Regained by Albert Wolters before Wednesday. I'm taking notes just to try to follow his train of thought. Mostly I've got two pages of memorable one liners, without much connection between them going on in my brain. It is 107 degrees, remember.

Orientations next week and an SAT Prep class that bills itself as "The No Brainer Way to SAT Success". I know the class will be full of good information (that's available in prep books published by at least 5 different companies), but when these companies make statements like these:

• The four recurring tricks hidden in the answer choices
• How not to have to read the answer choices

And use the word "trick", well it just makes me think about diet pills. At some point you are going to have to put some effort into it, you can put some effort into learning tricks or you can put some effort into reviewing things you already know and practice taking the darned thing a few times. I know, there are those kids who are shooting for that 99.999th percentile and they are motivated enough to master these strategies... Ok, enough on that soapbox...

Got some tutoring things to look into...

Finished getting the schoolroom set up for another year. Lots of red, white and blue... maps, history card board set up, some posters that J. and I picked out together. I think we will be most happy in here when the weather gets cold and dreary. I could use some cold and dreary right now. The temperature is 107. Did I mention that?