Facts of Life

Here's another cartoon from the 2002 edition of my Christmas funnies. It seems like only yesterday that I was giving my little facts of life speech. Stefanie (aka Big City girl) will be graduating this May.

I've always believed that college students learn much more (well, the important real-life stuff) outside of the classroom than in. Maybe one of these days I'll ask Big City girl if she agrees.

The first two years she lived in the dorm and ate in the dining hall, and took the usual core classes. But the third year she moved off campus and that's when the real education began. Old house. Two apartments. Girls upstairs, boys downstairs. All friends. "It'll be great, mom!"

She ends up with the closet-sized bedroom with the gimongus wasps nest in the window. Then the boys decide washing glasses....or any dishes for that matter.... is not their cup of tea, so they come upstairs to "borrow" girls' dishware. And their TV, which is bigger than theirs, for video games 24/7.

Winter comes and the meter for the oil tank is in the basement--where the spiders live. So meter-reading is a job for boys, but boys are not always prompt. Oil tank goes empty and pipes burst and they have no water for a few days. City trucks plow the snow off the street, but tenants are responsible to clear their own driveways. And it helps if your snow shovel is not in your car. As the end of the semester nears, people move out for internships or study abroad or whatever, and kinda forget about the utilities they've already used and haven't paid for. And where is everyone when moving day comes and there's this big mess to clean up?

We warned her about all of that during the same conversation with the washing machine instructions and a few words about keeping a bank balance. But she didn't listen to much of what we said, just like we didn't listen to our parents. We all made it though, and I'm sure she will to. And I'd like to think I'll still be around when the time comes for her to have the same conversation with her kids.

The embroidered cat is coming along nicely. I've added a few more flowers and I did get some small seed beads. I also have a scarf underway on the knitting needles. I'm using Bernat Soft Boucle in Richest Red. I cast on 20 stitches on size 10 needles and I'm doing a garter stitch (all knit stitches, no purl). Easy knitting for while I'm watching the Olympics.....or sitting out in the sun thinking about all of that snow I'm missing. I'm not even worried about where I left the shovel.....