We spent three days this week shopping for Teen B. On Wednesday we went to Target, Thursday Walmart, and Friday Best Buy. He now has new sheets, a new throw (that he uses as a blanket/comforter), and a wedge pillow, a laundry backpack, a shower caddy, a lot of hangers, a small first aid kit, extra toothpaste, wipes, and a new laptop, which is proving problematic and will probably have to be exchanged.
This coming week, in addition to dealing with the laptop, I figure we can buy some miscellaneous stuff, like shampoo and school supplies (notebooks, pens), plus he might want his own shaver (right now he and Teen A both use Rocket Boy's). He also wants me to help him map out where his classes are on campus. Teen A also needs help with that, maybe, and he wants me to make him a schedule (maybe a Google Doc) of his classes.
(Why does anyone think 18-year-old boys are ready to go to college? Maybe other people's 18-year-old boys.)
So he handed me his phone and I read his MSU email and discovered that the bill for his first semester of college (about $8000, very reasonable) is supposed to be paid by next Friday. OK, good to know. We clicked on "how to pay" and there was a section on paying with a 529 college plan. Unfortunately, although it listed lots of 529 plans, ours ("CollegeAmerica") was not there. I tried to put it in manually -- the form wouldn't let me. Hmm. What do we do now? I probably should have called Metro, but instead I called our financial advisor (the one who set us up with this 529 plan back in 2008) and left a message for his assistant. She's supposed to get back to me tomorrow. I'm sure we'll figure this out -- there must be a way to use those funds. (If not, we're in trouble!)
There was another interesting email in his unread list, from the head of the aviation program, telling him about this mandatory orientation meeting on the 14th. So I RSVP-ed him to that (with Teen A's permission), and then read the email in more detail. It explained that he needs to sign up with a flight school (we've already done that) and then arrange for 3-4 flights PER WEEK as soon as the semester starts. He was supposed to be flying all summer, but for some mysterious reason he stopped wanting to fly, and hasn't flown since we got back from vacation. Maybe he doesn't want to be a pilot anymore? That would be fine, but of course he isn't going to tell us. The mysteries of Teen A.
There are other options within the aviation program, such as becoming an air traffic controller or a drone pilot. Both of those sound like they might be good choices for him, and they wouldn't require all these flights, maybe no flights at all.
I'll just wait and see what he decides to do. It drives Rocket Boy absolutely crazy, but I try to be mellow about it. Sometimes I succeed.
Teen A seems jealous about all the things I'm buying for Teen B. I periodically offer to buy him things too, but then he wanders off and we don't do it. Maybe things will change, once Teen B moves out (assuming he stays moved out, which might be assuming a lot).
Edited to add: We are figuring out this money thing. Apparently we have to ask our 529 plan to send a paper CHECK to the schools. It will take 7-10 days, so we are already too late, which is annoying, but I will make this happen on Monday. There is a way to expedite the check, so we can do that (for a fee, I'm sure). I have plenty of time to pay Teen B's fees, which are not due for a few weeks, so I can do that tomorrow too. This is so complicated, but I'm sure once we get things started, it will get easier. I hope.
***
I came up with a tentative Mon-Fri schedule for myself, as follows:
- 7 am: Rocket Boy gets up, goes to work.
- 8 am: I get up, feed the cats, have breakfast, do the dishes, start a load of laundry, do an exercise video, etc.
- 9:30-10:30: read for an hour
- 10:30-12:30: work on writing projects
- 12:30-1:30: lunch break, put the laundry in the dryer, do other miscellaneous things
- 1:30-3:30: do genealogy
- 3:30-4:30: read for an hour
- 4:30-7:00: put away the laundry, do other household tasks, take a walk, make dinner
- 7:00-11:00: eat dinner with RB, spend a pleasant evening together, feed cats, bed
Doesn't that sound nice? SIX hours per day to do "me" things. I wonder if I will actually do this, or how close I will come. I don't know when I will go to the grocery store and all that. Well, I'll figure it out gradually.
I also started thinking about our Sunday morning Starbucks run. Am I actually going to keep doing that without Teen B? Maybe not. I'm certainly not going to go myself and get Teen A something, if he won't come with me. Hmph! Maybe, it occurred to me, I could resume going to church. I used to enjoy doing that on Sundays, and there is a church near us that I've wanted to try (a liberal Presbyterian church). We'll see.
***
By then, some of these peaches may have ripened enough for me to make a peach cobbler. I bought a case of peaches (42 in all) from the Fairview marching band fundraiser and now I have to figure out what to do with them! I'm going to bring some to book group tonight, and maybe our neighbors will want some.
Speaking of neighbors, we have some big changes ahead. The people to the west of us, who have lived in our rental house for exactly ten years, are buying a place up in Longmont and plan to be out by the end of the month. I'm so happy for them, that they'll have their own place, but at the same time, we'll really miss them. At the moment, their youngest child (who is 20) and that child's partner (I'm intentionally being vague about pronouns, because they're both kind of trans) are thinking they may want to take over the lease, but we'll see. That would be the easiest thing, because then we wouldn't have to go to all the work of cleaning up and fixing up the house again for a new tenant. But they're so young and they don't really know what they want to do with their lives. It would probably be a temporary situation, at best. We'll see what happens.
I no longer use any of the rent money to pay for our life, so we can afford to be kind of loose about this right now. I use the rent to pay for the water and trash pickup for that house, and of course the insurance and property taxes, but all that is paid up until 2027 and we have, hmm, $8,801.50 in that account right now (plus a check I haven't deposited yet, so actually $10,201.50), so we have time to let this work itself out.
I'll probably call MY orthopedic surgeon this coming week, tell his assistant to go ahead and set a date. Might as well get it over with, as soon as we get Teen B moved in.
I saw an interesting thing on the NewsHour this week. Apparently most cases of ovarian cancer begin in the Fallopian tubes, so the best way to prevent ovarian cancer is to remove the Fallopian tubes. The doctor from Johns Hopkins said you could have it done if you were having any other sort of abdominal surgery, LIKE A HERNIA REPAIR, and it would add about 8 minutes to the surgery and make you 80% less likely to get ovarian cancer (or something like that). OMG! I am going to talk to my doctor about this. I have a longstanding fear of getting ovarian cancer, probably because one of my grandmothers died of it and I also had a friend who died of it. How wonderful to think that I could get rid of the risk and the fear with 8 extra minutes of surgery.
Well, maybe this is a good place to stop. My book group is meeting tonight, and Rocket Boy is going to come too, since he read the book (Project Hail Mary). The rest of the book group is very excited about having him there (they like him a lot). So that will be fun, especially since Sally has air conditioning. And then we will come home and get ready to start the new week.
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