MeSoFun Blog

Last night was TW's hooding ceremony in honor of her college graduation. For some reason, I was given a chance to speak on behalf of spouses and families. WIthout further introduction, here is what I told the PA Class of 2012. Me: Thank you very much, Chastity, it's an honor to speak here. Her: Charity. My name's Charity. Me: Right. Right. Charity. Not Chastity. Got it. For those of you that don't get that reference, most of the PAs here tonight can explain the joke. But the truth is, I am in fact terrible at remembering names.  I come by that honestly, thanks to my Mother, who's here tonight … uh … uh … it's on the tip of my tongue. Mom: Jackie. My name's Jackie. Me: There we go. I should probably know that. But I am terrible with names and terrible with introductions. It occurs to me that I should introduce *myself*, since I only know about 20 people here tonight. I am the only person who has been on stage or will be on stage with only a bachelor's deg...

I only had one beer at Fenway. No, seriously. Obviously, this will not be the last time that I write about Boston. But I feel like you, loyal blog reader, deserve a thorough breakdown of what's been going on the past few months. I've been vague. You probably haven't cared all that much. You probably won't care all that much in the future. In fact, my Mom might be the only person who reads this post. My parents are nothing if not loyal. Here is what I would like you to know about our impending move to Boston: This was not my idea, but it sort of was. There I go, being vague again. Two years ago, TW chastised me when I raised the possibility that we might end up in Boston. That was too much to consider at the time. She didn't even know if she liked Boston. We were moving to Portland for her to go to PA school and because we love New England. I was already doing the math two years ago: There aren't that many jobs in Maine and there are a lot of medical jobs in Bost...

I knew people in college who acted like Belushi's college student. They are now engineers. God help our infrastructure. My cousins and I are unusually tight. Part of the reason for that is I was a live-in nanny and babysitter for them when they were toddlers. Now, when they need some guidance, they give me a call. I'm honored and shocked that they would want to talk to a 34-year-old about anything. But they do. The one common theme among these teenage crises is college. Three of my five cousins are of college age (I don't know how that happened). All three cousins have called me for advice. All three have cried about going to college. It kills me because I can relate to all three of them. The details have been different for each of them, but it boils down to this: People lie to you about college. They don't mean to do it. They just say things that you hear over and over again. And that's why our phone calls spend a great deal of time debunking popular college theori...