I didn’t mean to take a week off blogging, but here we are. I have been compulsively hitting refresh on news about the horrible floods in Texas. I donated to Give Directly, with their focus on giving people cash assistance, as cash can be used for whatever someone decides they need most. I know there are a lot of great non-profits doing disaster relief, but that struck me as definitely filling a need.
Fourth of July weekend went pretty well around here. Five of us went to the Phillies game on the 4th. The Phillies didn’t win (even after scoring 3 runs in the first inning!), but other than that, it was a fairly idyllic game. Sarah’s family was there too (sitting in the section right below us). Her father had booked our tickets — and put us in the shade. Since the temperatures were in the low/mid 80s, this felt perfect. We had a surprisingly good bird’s eye view of the game too, roughly over home plate. My 5-year-old was a little whiny in the heat walking to the game, but then he made it through all 9 innings (we let him play on my husband’s phone). The 10-year-old had zero electronics and watched every play!
In the evening we went to a friend’s house to watch some fireworks. The display was more elaborate than we anticipated so this was a highlight for all of us! Particularly the 10-year-old, who apparently likes pyrotechnics alongside baseball.
Then Saturday was what we referred to as our “government day.” We needed to renew two children’s passports, and I’d scored a Saturday appointment at a local post office (these must be booked 4 weeks ahead of time). There was some debate about when to do this, because the passports don’t expire until early next year. You need 6 months’ validity for a lot of travel. If we’d waited until after the 15-year-old’s birthday in late September (turning 16) he could have gotten a passport for 10 years, rather than the 5 years that kids get. But…we’d be tight on getting it turned around for Christmas travel. So we went with this, and I am apologizing to my son in 4.5 years when he will need to renew his passport as a 19- or 20-year-old.
The split was that I would handle the passport paperwork (though both parents have to go to the appointment) and then my husband would go to the DMV (technically the PennDOT but in my mind it is the DMV) with our 18-year-old to help him get a Real ID. In most cases, when PA issues a driver’s license these days, they automatically do a Real ID (now necessary to fly) but they do not do that for junior driver’s licenses, which is what my son got when he was 16. As he is now an adult, who has to fly with a Real ID, he would have to travel with his passport.
For a variety of reasons, I felt like this was not a great idea for him going back and forth between Boston and PHL next year. So my husband helped him pull together all the paperwork and went to the DMV with him for moral support and…oh my goodness, let’s just say I drew the right task.
They were there for 4 hours. At one point in there, my husband realized that the DMV was probably not going to accept the printed tax form from my son’s bank account as a proof of residency (in the weirdness of rules, it needed to be mailed. Bonus question — how do you prove residency for a kid who isn’t on a lease, doesn’t get a utility bill, and doesn’t have a job?). So my husband left him in line at the DMV, and drove to meet me mid-way while I brought…wait for it…junk mail with my son’s name on it. The DMV said they would accept that.
Anyway, they left shortly before 11 a.m. and were home at 3:45 p.m. With the Real ID! They pulled into the driveway at almost the exact same time as Sarah’s family, who came over to see us.
We hung out chatting for a little over an hour, and then Sarah and I recorded our “secret” episode for our Patreon community (you can get access by joining here – the episode is the second post down). We normally do a monthly Zoom meet-up with the community but July is always challenging for scheduling so we recorded a special episode instead. Meanwhile, our husbands took several of the kids in the pool.
Sunday was fairly chill but in late afternoon we made use of my son’s new Real ID — he and I went to the airport to go to Boston.
Northeastern has five different orientations you can choose from, and it worked out for us to go to the one that was July 7-8. We got to our hotel late Sunday and then bright and early Monday morning (7-7:45 a.m. registration!) we walked over to campus.
This was slightly surreal as campus is right next to the Boston Symphony Orchestra hall — which is where I’d been in January for the concert of Beethoven’s 8th and 9th symphonies. I didn’t know that Northeastern was right there then, or that it would become such a big part of my life.
I spent the day going to parent sessions, and doing parent activities like a campus tour, and then a walking tour of the Back Bay area. My son did the various student sessions. He stayed overnight in a dorm, so I was by myself in the hotel that night.
This all worked out well for timing because Tuesday I got to tape a really cool podcast in Boston — more about that soon! I met back up with my son late afternoon. We had dinner at Capital Grille to celebrate and got our non-dairy chocolate “ice cream” with Oreos at Cold Stone Creamery. Then Wednesday AM we were off to the airport. The flight was quick — 11:15 we were on the runway in Boston, and 1:15 we were basically in our driveway at home. Flying is great when it works. We even got a surprise upgrade, since it turns out business travelers don’t take the 11:04 a.m. flight. I booked that one so my teenager wouldn’t have to get up at the crack of dawn today. Anyway, it is good to be home.