The "My bumpy transition into adulthood" MMP - and how was yours?

I’ve grown up?

Well, yeah, probably. I think it was our first year of marriage that did it. We got married, both got laid off within three months, and the cat got very expensive surgery just before the jobs went kaput.
We survived, we’re doing okay, and we have a damn good marriage.

It still feels really weird to be someone’s mother. And I quite often still feel like I’m eighteen and ignorant, only creakier.

Poopypoopypoopy.

Hope I can say that in here…

Fever is back. Darn it, I’m not all that sick! I just keep running a darn fever - I mostly have what feels like a headcold. Lungs clear, guts fine… and if I don’t get better I’m going to run out of PTO. That kills the OT money I’ve been making…

taxi - I’m voting for spiral - I’ve seen the other two quite a few times, it seems like.

Hmmm, I think I was a bit of an early grown-up, too. My mom got sick when I was in 7th grade and I had to start doing all the cooking and cleaning and washing for all of us (well, I’m sure my brother helped with part of it, at least, but I’m older and more of a take-charge personality). Mom is now incredibly healthy, but we had a few kind of shaky years there.

I didn’t really feel grown up till lots later, though. Not really sure when it hit. A few times when I had to write large checks (for a car, for rent, etc.) and definitely when I finally bought a house, a bit over 10 years ago. Also, when I started traveling on my own, driving fairly long distances by myself (from here to Ithaca, NY; from here to a conference outside Minneapolis) or flying to Germany.

But, like others, there are lots of times when I still feel like a kid (I really have no need to be a complete grown-up, tyvm).

Hope all of you sickies are getting better quickly. That meeting sounds like no fun, Haze.

So, today is 20 years since the border between the 2 Germanies opened up. I’ve been watching one of the German newscasts where they’ve been showing the festivities at the Brandenburg Gate, showing film of people starting to cross 20 years ago, and interviewing the Chancellor. I didn’t realize that the bridge that apparently had the most traffic that night was the one that was around the corner from the house where I lived in '86 and '87. It’s amazing what a difference it makes to have access to online media. I remember sitting in my living room in Columbus 20 years ago watching the news, but they didn’t carry nearly as much as I would have liked. I feel like I’m just now catching up. Weird.

I’ve been cleaning a bunch (both kitchen and bathroom) because little brother is spending the night (he’s got an early flight out of Columbus tomorrow). Either that or he’s throwing a surprise birthday party for me in the morning. (Highly unlikely.)

Guess I’ll figure out what I’m doing tomorrow. Oh, and I need to get some work done…

Back later, maybe.

GT

Everyone has been sharing some really great tales about their own transitions, whatever they may be. And I’m enjoying reading about them, so please continue to share. Oh and taxi, here’s another vote for the greek ring! :slight_smile:

There’s nothing quite like being thrown into the deep end of the pool, where it’s either sink or swim. I found out nearly immediately that swimming was -way- better than sinking! I did wish that I had friends or family nearby but I did the best I could and made friends at work.

This is going to be an unusual week, with Veteran’s Day coming in the middle - but I think I can definitely like it. :slight_smile:

That would describe about 50% of the meetings I attend, much to my dismay.

Welcome to adulthood. :smiley: From here on in, the meetings will just get longer and more boring, at least until you’re old enough to retire.

Fetch, you can most definitely say poopy here. Actually, you can probably go ahead and use stronger words if you like… can’t speak for the other Mumpers, but I’m awful hard to offend and often take advantage of my ability swear like a trucker in both of Canada’s official languages. :slight_smile:

It’s past my bedtime and still no sign of The Boy, which means he’s probably going to be stuck at work until some ungodly hour. :frowning: I guess I’ll crawl into bed and hope he makes it home at some point before dawn.

I knew what I wanted from college! For starters, I wanted to get away from my parents. That was urgent. I went from the frying pan into the fire, but in retrospect the two options were jumping into the fire or staying in the pan…

That said, I love the idea of a gap year and believe that more people should take one. Before college, after college or midway through, but there’s times in your life when the best thing you can do is put things on hold.

No party, rosie, unfortunately. I suppose I should be grateful that it lasted 3 hours instead of 4.

And if attending meetings = adulthood I don’t want any part of it. :stuck_out_tongue:

My boyfriend’s mother was hilarious in her reaction to my having the stomach flu. She expressed sympathy and hoped I got better soon, and then warned my boyfriend to do nothing more than “shake hands” with me until I was well.

Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffienatin’. It’s back to work for me today.

This has been some fun readin’ so far. I hope more of us share our “grow up” stories.

Ok, tummy is demandin’ to be fed and it’s definite time to caffienate more.

Happy Tuesday Y’all!

I want to know who in his sane mind thinks that it’s a good idea to set people’s classes at lunchtime…

Taxi, I vote for the leaves because I don’t like the other two designs!

I was thinking about the whole transition to adult thing yesterday, I think the point where I finally decided I was an adult was when I moved out of my mum’s house. I’d stayed with her for a long time after my father died because I didn’t want to leave her on her own - she’d been very depressed after his death and I know she found it very hard to rebuild a life for herself as a widow. Eventually we got to the point where we were arguing about all sorts of things and I knew it was time to move out. She was very supportive and has been ever since, but that day I made the decision to go, I knew I’d changed forever.

Swampy, are you having a little memorial service for your washing machine? I keep looking at mine and wondering how much longer it will last because it’s already over 10 years old but I am not looking forward to having to change it as it’s in a corner of the kitchen that will make moving it very awkward. I think I’ll get a man in.

Muppet, **Haze **-- if it’s over 1 hour long, it’s no longer a meeting. It may be a “presentation”; or a “Brain-storming session”; or – and this is the usual case :rolleyes: – it may be “a waste of time.”
Luckily, as a programmer working with other programmers, none of us have the ability to stay on-topic (or for that matter, seated in the same place) for over an hour at a time. ADHD city! :smiley: :eek:

In general, I think some people are ready for college when they’re 18 and some aren’t. In that respect, the Israeli Way (of going from high school to military service) is actually a wonderful way of making grown-ups out of most of the little kids. At 20 or 21 years old (or 22, 23… 27 if you became an officer and signed on longer) people are a lot more independent (the army tends to do that to you…) and far more capable of knowing what they want to do with the rest of their lives.)

**Haze **-- your BF’s mother seems to have at least a handle on the idea of what the Real World of reltionships is like… :slight_smile:

**Nava **-- people in their right mind? Where? You’ve found one? Oh… you’ve found another one who isn’t. ::yawn::… :stuck_out_tongue:

Happy Birthday, GT!!!

Ok, wake me up again when it’s actually time to start working. :o

Happy birthday GT!

Hippo Birdies to gardentraveler

Happy birthday, GT! You’re 29?
:wink:

Happy Birthday gardentraveler!!!

And good morning! Up and only partially caffeinated this morning. I’m very late, but woke up late, so that explains that. LOL Happy Tuesday!

Many happies, GT!

Happy Birthday, gardentraveler!!!

I had to make a call to the helpdesk because my primary software isn’t working. Damn. The other things I have to do are very boring - like read all of some particular standards. We have to do it every year. Blech.

Blurf, too.

But I just had cold homemade pizza for breakfast! There’s always a silver lining! :wink:

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happy birthday, gardentraveler![/center]

I have to go shopping for a winter hat. I’ve never been much of a hat wearer, but I figured I really ought to get one this winter. My problem with shopping for winter hats (or toques for us Canucks) is that there doesn’t appear to be any such thing as “hat fashion” that doesn’t require you to embrace your inner dork. I’m a geek, not a dork; there’s a fundamental difference. Winter hats all seem to be some variant of dorky-looking. Not that I’m anything remotely close to a fashionista or anything, but I do have some dignity, even if, in the bitter cold through the dead of winter, everyone looks like a dork in them and knows it.

I suppose it could be worse. Once upon a time I had a friend whose winter hat could only be described a as a jester’s hat. It was alternating quadrants of purple and black, had three 2-foot-long, tapered protrusions emanating from the crown that flopped jauntily down the back and terminated in bells. Bells! I guess he figured if you’re going to embrace your inner dork, you might as well not do it in half measures.

I’d considered one of those fleece-lined leather hunter’s hats with the ear flaps on the strength of sheer warmth, but that might make me feel like I’ve gone full retard. But at least I’d be a warm retard.

Mahna[sup]2[/sup] - I can swear in both languages, but I can’t do it in French without feeling like I’m being ironic, which kind of defeats the purpose of swearing like a trucker in the first place. Va te faire foutre, trouduc! just doesn’t seem to have the same sting coming from a born-and-bred anglo.

Alright, back to finish caffeinatin’ and gettin’ to work.

HIPPO BIRDIE TWO EWES, GT!!

RIP swampy’s washer! We just had ours repaired for about the third time. I love the look of the front loading models but do they really work as well as the top loaders?

taxi, I like the spiral one.

Mork, aren’t these the least dorkie?

Yesterday the big mucky-mucks of the company had a long meeting. The bad “L” word has been bandied around. Things aren’t going well on the advertising side. I am worried.

That is all.

Tupug