Ever heard of the Molly Maguires, and Campus living

October 14, 2011: today for dinner i had potato soup cuz I really wanted soup but then I remembered how we made it at paul bunyan with the scallions, bacon, cheese, croutons and salt and pepper so added that stuff from the baked potato bar and salad bar and my friend was like omg that looks soo good and she made the same thing and then walking to our table some kids were like omg what is that!? so I told them how to make it and then they got some too haha so we kids like it even if the judges at paul bunyan didn't

On Mon, Oct 17, 2011 Hey,

It was good seeing you yesterday. My poor baby is sick, awww.

I know, this week is brutal, the midterms, homecoming, cold, but after this it should get better, right?

I am glad you like your roommate and suitemates, I hope it’s a lot better for you than last year.

Last night I practiced my informative speech on Dad and Max, both were sitting on the living room couch (speech is about the Molly Maguires) and when I started shouting when I got to the part with Alexander Campbell’s handprint, Max got up and left the room. I will probably crack up during my speech in class when I get to that part, haha.

Just think how horrible the Mollies and their children had it back then.

I send well wishes and Bussis your way. All my love always, Mom

yeah it will get better once homecoming is over and on sunday at 330 is a nighmare before christmas and then tim burtons corpse bride my two favorite movies so i will be looking forward to that lol

and good luck on ur speech dont yell too loud or youll scare everyone

it was good seeing u too!  

2011/10/19 Hey, Am doing my speech about the Mollies tonight.  Are you feeling better? Mom

yeah i'm feeling a lot better and I went to bed mad early last night so i wasnt SO tired when I woke up this morning

Wow, the things we learn in college… look at this learning process. (I’m referring to the early to bed, so you’re not so tired the next morning, and figuring that out all on your own). That’s why I encourage campus living, because you learn just as much outside the classroom as inside.

Can you believe that other than the professor, nobody else had heard about the Mollies? I did a really great speech, but then I stumbled because one of my friends gave me a hand signal, and it totally threw me off. She meant well, I’m not mad, she wanted me to also address the other side of the room, b/c that was one of the critiques on my first speech, that I kept concentrating on only one side of the room, so she tried to remind me to look at the others too. Anyway, I picked up fairly quick and continued, and it was really a great speech.

Michael gave me his email address for you and cell phone number, and I gave him yours, just in case he contacts you. Just start with a small hello and see if it leads anywhere.

One of the ladies is buying my book, so I’ll bring that to class next week, and Rachel who works at the xxx library, brought one to her director for review, to see if they want to include it in their collection. So little baby steps toward success I hope.

What’s mad early, like before 1AM? Are you done with your paper? What do you have left to do for finals? Are you watching the movies here or there?

Always in my prayers, my love, Take good care of yourself,

Ttys, Mom

yeah i'm gonna watch on campus i dont think im coming home until halloween weekend

That’s fine, I’m so glad you like being on campus, you sound much better than last year. I’m busy anyway with getting the first draft of my new book ready. Hey, my Social Media trainer recommended the Mac Airbook, it’s fantastic, but expensive. Dad is researching, but no promise yet. We’ll see.

Her answer: Mac Airbook is really thin which is good but it's so thin that I feel like it would break easily.... I want to go with daddy to the applestore to look

Meeting her new roommate

Monday, January 17, 2011: The second semester is underway. Alexandra is back on campus since yesterday and the house feels empty and sad. We got used to having her home again for one month, and she was great. She actually spent time with us. We watched movies together, she hung out with us, not just her high school friends, and she was really nice and helpful around the house. Since the time she was a teenager, this is the first time that I feel like I’m having my “little girl” back. Let’s hope the new semester is less dramatic. Here we go…

Hey Alex,

how was your first day and night?

What did you discuss at the floor meeting? How are your other floor mates?

Please try to find as many used books and maybe art supplies as you can. Maybe you meet kids who had some of your courses last semester and you can get it cheap from them? Also announce your books and the recorder for sale or trade or whatever.

How is Frannie? Does she snore? Is she bossy? Did you figure out where to put the TV?

How loud is it at night, did you get any sleep?

Just tell me what your general feeling is about your new roommate. If she asks you if it bothers you when she brings in her girlfriend overnight, don't say ‘it's okay’ right away, tell her you don't know yet and will have to see how that works out.

What are you all doing today? I am home, so call or write anytime. Love, Mom

heyyy
last night was good i really like my new suitemates...Fran didnt sleep here last night idk where she was and shes still not here but she was here for a while last night and she seems nice so i have a pretty good feeling about this room. i had lunch with Meghann and now im going with Tina and Josy to target just to get notebooks and folders and they have some art supplies there for cheap so yay! my floor meeting got cancelled till today so ill let you know =]

I was just outside walking Max and then we played soccer in the snow and he looked like a snow puppy. He keeps lying by your bedroom door, waiting for you. I told him you're back in school and that's life, but I do take time to play with him in the snow and walk him across the fields.

I'm sooo glad to get a good report from you, I pray all the time that you will have the best college experience possible. Dorming, pledging, sorority, frat parties to some degree, not too wild I hope, getting good grades, meeting a bunch of new people, problem solving, all this will be part of your life experience and the person you become. Make the best of it, because when you look back many years later, it might very well have been the best time of your life.

Did you figure out on which side to hook up the TV?

I just created my account on CreateSpace, the self-publishing print-on-demand site through Amazon, now I need to wait for my manuscript to come back from the editor I hired in Wisconsin, make the corrections, format it, and change it into a pdf file. Kathy will help me with the cover on Adobe Photoshop.

ttyl, Mom

i put the tv on my desk for now
we went to target but couldnt find any art supplies but i got folders and note books, and some soup lol
i need magazines for my art class so save them please ill get them this weekend
i miss max soo much!
anyways im going to dinner soon and then watch greek so ttyl!

Fair of hair and blue of eye

Tue, 7 Dec 2010: How was your night? We finally put Tiger(cat, nocturnal) in the garage with a pile of pillows and blankets, so we could get some sleep. The night before he jumped into our bed five times and I went to work feeling like a zombie.
I forwarded you instructions on how to change roommates for next semester. You only have tomorrow to do this. Go to Z Hall during the day, ask for a single room or find a fit. Someone who doesn’t have friends over non-stop. Someone considerate. Mom

last night was good, Anya passed out at like 11:15 so i finished the movie we were all watching and went to sleep too.

Alex, Dad is trying to get in contact with his Army buddy, Van Zeeland. He responded on his facebook, but the guy is hardly ever on. Dad looked at Van Zeeland’s pictures last night, his whole family is posted. He has a cute son, one year older than you, goes to U of M. Why don’t you contact him and say your fathers were friends in Germany, haha. Include a picture of yourself, maybe you can hook up, wouldn’t that be a hoot. Hey, he’s fair of hair and blue of eye… Mom

umm never say hoot ever again unless ur impersonating an owl
ill look him up on facebook, but in M? and does that mean he has light hair and blue eyes? Alexandra

Yes, it means blond and blue eyed, according to Tituba. I’m reading the Salem Witch trials again. Mom

Text on Wednesday, Dec. 8: Got a new room. Still in same dorm, but 5^th floor. Alexandra

Good. With whom?

Frannie X, she seems nice, I found her on fb and my friend moved to the same floor so yay

okay so my new room is 514 and so i have to move everything out on the 19th and move everything into 514 on january 18th sooooo yeah
nd im done with some classes so i can return the books so do u wanna do that on friday when you pick me up because you paid with your debit card
so anyways thats the new news

Shootings and Prayers

Tuesday, September 28, 2010: Judy,

Did you drive Beth back to campus this morning or last night? What did you do with the rest of the weekend? They had a good time together, great that they stay in touch. 

Al argued with her father about history, she is learning stuff that he can’t keep up with, it’s funny to listen to. Our drop-off routine is pretty much the same every time: She watches a show on Sunday night at seven, then at eight either I, or Roy and I together, drive her back, help her carry stuff to her building, but do not go upstairs, b/c it’s such a hassle to sign us in, leave our drivers licenses, and remember to pick them up on the way out. So we just drop her off, sometimes we get a kiss, mostly not, only when the kid before us hugs his parents, then I can hug her, too. I always laugh because on Friday afternoon it’s like an exodus, everybody is leaving campus, and on Sunday night the opposite happens, the mommies and daddies are dropping their kids off with bags of groceries and laundry bags, bye-bye, see you Friday, just like an extended day care center.

I told her about the Seton Hall incident (shooting), but she knows everything and knows what she’s doing, so she just rolls her eyes, but I still preach to her every week. Later, Heather

LOL! Too funny - I love your analogy to an extended day care center! :-) 

Yup - the Seton Hall thing was really scary, and today there was a shooting at Texas U......what's going on with this world?   

The "partying" Alexandra and others do doesn't bother me that much, but the fact that the partying isn't on campus is a bit scary.....I mean....the parties are in downtown x.....off campus near other schools too....in not so good areas......that you're in that environment with a bunch of strangers whose character you don't know - that's scary to me...I would be much more comfortable if everything took place ON campus for some reason - although that's probably just a false sense of security at best.......hopefully though, she's thinking with her head.....I of course will continue to pray for her......Judy

Crazy weather and my class

Tue, 14 Sep 2010 Hey, today is Tuesday – October according to your way of thinking.

Did you find out anything about the sorority you want to join yet?

We had a thunderstorm last night around 7, I had to turn off the computer, but it didn’t last too long. How was it up there? Was it fun to watch in a safe house? Any of your roommates scared? The guys were probably hiding under their blankets…

I have class tonight, yippee. Later, Mom

it was crazy here during the storm....really windy and buckets of rain, a group of us was tryin to get to dinner in the caf. which is 2 ft away and we couldn’t even do that because we watched others come back in from the dining hall and got soaked in those 2 seconds of being outside,
thankfully it didnt take long for it to pass
one of our elevators is broken so now it takes even longer so now i have to take the stairs to make sure i get out and to class on time
yay its tuesday only 4 more full days till i get to come home and we can go to the Irish festival......and the dentist....yayyyyyyyyyyyy lol

Wed, 15 Sep 2010: I do hope though that you still enjoy being on campus and not just count the days until you come home. Do enjoy every day, like I said, you’ll never have it as good again: No bills, no cooking, no cleaning, and fifteen hours mean full-time. Homesickness will get better over time, believe me.

Last night at my math class a student of Asian descent got mad at a guy who made the remark: “This is like Chinese to me, or like Chinese surgery.” He felt offended, biased against Asians, and the professor had to step in and break up what could have escalated into an ugly fight. The other guy apologized, but it wasn’t good enough for the Asian who kept harping about how offended he felt. Crazy. There are lots of different races in my classroom. It’s an interesting mix and conflict can happen, but we learn a lot from each other, it’s great. I was surprised, not shocked, but amazed how quickly something can escalate. No wonder there are always wars in the world. I’m certainly learning a lot of math, but it is very hard and I need to practice every day for at least two hours and have our scientists here at work explain stuff to me. I will be so glad when it’s Christmas and I’m done with this semester. If only I make it through math, the rest should be a lot easier.

Have a great day, Love, Mom

PS: Did you go to class yesterday? You kept mailing at all hours of the day.

hmmm thats never really happened in any of my classes ever, I guess its because my generation is so used to having all different cultures in our classes.
today is meet the greeks yay!!!
yes i went to class yester, i only had from 9:30 to 10:45 so i was done and then i did all my homework and stuff. today i'll be in class for forever! till 7:15, I'm in my english class right but don't worry I already did all my work cuz i'm awesome like that
okay see ya later!xo Alexandra

9/9/2010: Wow, interesting stories. Yes, it’s hard, but doable if you do it asap, not let it pile up. Everyone there is going through the same thing.

The kids they arrested, were they students or did they come from the outside? Crazy. What a way to ruin your future. I hope you are strong enough to sneer at that kind of crap (drugs, alc…)

Yeah, might as well come home after the game on Sat night, then fill out mall applications. If that doesn’t work, try other places on campus. Just for a few hours for spending money.

If college seems hard, imaging how hard your working life would be with no education and the hardest work for the longest hours. Just pace yourself and take it serious. University Y is a lot harder, sweets. But you do have some fun, to make it doable, right? How is music class?

Now when you return the music book, just tell them that you got two copies but only got charged once, so there’s no money back. They will realize that this is a very honest thing to do, you will feel better, and it might open up doors for future jobs. Everything is always connected, you will see that throughout life.

Always strive to do the right thing, it will pay off, trust me. Mom

i only had 1 class so im doin the hw from yesterday cuz i did not have time since i was in class literally all day yesterday...and i was doing my math hw in the laundry before while i was waiting for my clothes to come out of the wash
and i have been printing out my hw in the computer lab cuz i found it its free to print out 500 pages per semester... hopefully i dont have to print out more than that! so dont worry i have been handing my hw in on time, ill be going over there after my wash is done.

I am so proud of you, first of all your writing has already improved and you sound very mature. I’m thrilled and you are on the way of becoming an even more awesome person.

I guess the weed sellers got weeded out, haha.

Something very important to keep in mind to keep you going and why: There is a difference between a high school diploma and a college degree. In hs you were spoon-fed, had little homework (remember the years before hs, you had 4 hours of hw every day and you just did it, on top of Dance and Scouts). In hs students develop bad habits b/c little hw and as long as you show up it’s cool. Well, in college you have to challenge yourself, manage your time (i. e. if you have no time for gym b/c of study or hw, walk the stairs whenever you can and go hungry for a couple hours, because it sucks if the pants get too tight and you have no time to work out) stuff like that. But no college accepts students who they think cannot do the work, that’s why they want to see grades and tests over a period of time. Colleges want kids to succeed, not drop out b/c they’re overwhelmed. So University X is a good start for you, it’s doable once you get used to working more than in hs again. Here’s a secret: Six weeks is the magic point: by then you are so used to it that you’ve got it down, the homesickness has gone away, you’re part of the campus and will probably love it. Mark it in your calendar and see how you feel on October 10, but that’s Halloween month anyway, so it’s even better.

Have fun doing laundry, (now it’s my turn to laugh) just think of Jon’s brother in Garfield, what was his name? He loves to watch the socks go around in circles…Later, Mom

Tue, 7 Sep 2010: E-mail from daughter: We didn't really do much last night, just hung out and then went to bed lol we were all really tireddd! dad is crazy!!! haha have fun in math! i have to do some hw then laundry and then go to the gym lol
xoAlexandra

So everything or most things are still “All Good?"Great. I just hope the printer works out for you. Let me know if you can work with it or if we should bring our old one up. Hopefully it will connect, I guess asking a guy to help won’t hurt. You have to be able to hand your work in, that’s what’s important.

Well, sounds like you’re doing the right things. Yep, gym is good and walking and taking the steps instead of elevator sometimes, it’s the little things that count that keep you fit. Pets are fine, we are too, don’t worry, we are always there for you. Love, Mom

ummm its not connecting...i guess i need to get a USB or maybe a different printer altogether
ill go to the computer lab later to print out my hw so at least ill have that nd wont get points off
i miss the pets, i wish they could come visit but they're not allowed to but yes pretty much everything is still all good in the hood

How about getting a USB cord at the bookstore and hook it up together, hopefully that will help. Let me know as soon as you have the printer going.

if i get it going. i dont even know what kind of usb cord i need or where it even goes on the printer.. w/e ill figure it out. Alex

(After the weekend) Beth said that Maggie texted her - she said she was back at school by 3pm yesterday and she didn't do anything at home.........yeah, but you don't have to DO anything - just being "home" and seeing family is nice, no?   

Dad just called and he said there should only be one USB cable, not several different ones to choose from, I think they’re all the same, but check your manual or bring it to the bookstore with you. Then connect the printer to the computer with the USB cable and run the CD through again. Where it says “USB cable” click that instead of wifi, okay?

Hopefully it will work, ‘rents

lol okay

ummm never say rents ever again k thanks =]

Okay. Weird. (Mom)

Is the nest half full or half empty if they come home on the weekends?

Sunday, September 5^th, 2010: My husband Roy and I dropped our daughter Alexandra off at her dorm on campus, which is only 25 miles away. It was hard for us to say good-bye, but finally Al pushed us out the door. We drove home in silence.

When we got home the house felt empty and sad, even the pets couldn’t fill our emptiness. Roy called a friend who also just sent off his daughter to college, but the in-laws were there and it wasn’t possible for Roy to go over there to have someone to commiserate with. He stayed home and drank a few bottles of beer which he never does, only when we have visitors or go out. I tried to take a nap but couldn’t relax, so I texted Alexandra to find out what she was doing.

She texted back that it’s all good, that she and her roommates were hanging out at the Upper Classmen dorm and that they were having a blast. I asked, “Why are you at the Upper Classmen dorm? (Somebody knew someone there). One group of kids (boys) has an apartment so large or long that they use a scooter to wheel to the bathroom with. They also decorated the living room with inflatable dolls…oh, they’re so cool (Mom is rolling her eyes).

The next day I sent her an email: Hi Alex,

How is everything? Did you have the floor meeting last night? Did you know any kids from home? What else did you do?

We are fine, but your father took two anxiety pills, drank three beers, and passed out for four hours. Tom wasn’t available; otherwise Dad would have gone there to take his mind off things. Max slept by your bedroom door all night, Tiger only cares about his food bowl being full. Cats are like that; they don’t mope around like dogs. My class starts tomorrow, I’m excited even though it’s math and will surely kill me. Let me know what’s going on, Mom.