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Life with Junior -- Archives : Life

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    When Draw Groups Have Babies

    My best friends from my freshman dorm (okay, it's girls from that dorm plus a couple others we picked up along the way) have had a group email list since we graduated 12 years ago. Some weeks it's silent, and other weeks it's a flurry of nine-sided conversation. We're turning 34, and we're still a draw group, living the ups and downs of life together. One of the big "ups" (or downs, depending on the day) is parenthood.

    Recently we gathered, virtually, in a hospital waiting room, emailing furiously as we waited for the sixth member of the group to announce the birth of her first child. As we jabbered back and forth about how long our friend had been in labor, when we'd get the announcement, if everything was okay, I had the most wonderful feeling: These are my people. Most of us met in 1995. And if you could have shown us then the emails we send today reminiscing about pre-labor cankles and sleepless infants, we'd have fallen over and died right there...

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    Posted by Ms. Summer Moore Batte on Jun 9 2011 3:15PM | 0 comments

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    Job Prospects 2011? Challenging!

    I've got a graduating senior this year ('11). What a difference from my last child graduating four years ago! Actually, two of our kids graduated in '06 and '07 and both were able to land jobs soon after graduation. This go 'round, fingers are crossed! According to the front page of the New York Times today, " many with new college degree find the job market humbling."

    Here are the similarities in the job hunt with our kids: All used the resources offered on their respective campuses at their Career Placement and Planning Offices. Truth be known, some of these offices were better than others regarding resume writing assistance, job interview preparation, alumni networking, guidance or counseling services. No surprise. All were not shy in asking for our (the parents) help and assistance in their networking efforts, resume writing, cover letter writing, etc. But we've been out of the ma...

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    Posted by Mrs. Beppie Weintz Cerf on May 17 2011 1:38PM | 0 comments

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    Wedding Season: How'd you meet?

    The Royal Wedding was a fairy tale come true! Truly wonderful!

    I've got weddings on my mind! My eldest and only daughter got engaged this winter! It's our first marriage and what a fun ride this engagement has been (and I'm not even the bride!) You can read an engagement blog post I wrote as a guest of another blog here: Love and Lobster

    The young man was her high school sweetheart, they attended the junior and senior prom together. They broke up fall of sophomore year in college, did their own things, dated others, lived life and a year ago (they're now 27) they reconnected! A nice story. That's what seems to resonnate with so many people when they hear it. People like hearing the story of marrying your "first love."

    Princeton University boasts the most inter-alumni marriages of any college. Why? Well some say it's their "

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    Posted by Mrs. Beppie Weintz Cerf on Apr 29 2011 7:37AM | 0 comments

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    On protests, and a mother's aversion to risk

    I think about my father’s past as I hear news from a distant continent about the Egyptian protests. At six, my father fled his native land for good, when the Communists took over all of China. He lived through a time of terror, the Japanese barrage of bombs from the east, the civil war between a growing Communist party that incited angry peasants to revolt and a corrupt Nationalist government desperately holding on to power. An all too familiar story for our times.

    Ensconced in my life as mother, writer, and educator, I’m shielded from the gunfire, the shouts for justice, medicine, and mercy in Tahrir Square. Yet something keeps my gaze on these events. I’m not just a voyeur at the scene of a terrible accident.

    In 1989, the protests in Tienanmen Square riveted my attention as an undergraduate at Stanford who had been divorced from political cares – until the trifecta of events that took place that year. We joined sympathizers in marching th...

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    Posted by Ms. Li Miao Lovett on Feb 7 2011 12:02PM | 0 comments

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    The Penny Walk

    For the last 30 years or so, Wes Gardiner GSB '54, takes his morning constitutional on the Stanford Campus.  What's unique about this walk?  He leaves pennies all along the way.  Think Hansel and Gretel and the crumbs. That's right! 

    I've taken this walk with him and his daughter, Pam Gardiner Wellin '79 and I have to tell you, it's like an Easter Egg Hunt!
    Here's how it works: Wes carries a roll of pennies in his pocket and starts along his route. As you're walking and talking, at a nice quick clip, he's glancing over your shoulder or looking above his head, periodically running his hand along a ledge or over the curves of a sculpture (are you figuring out some of his route?)...and the only time he stops is if his fingers don't brush a penny that he'd placed there some time ago! He says that some of his pennies have been there for 20+ years! When he comes across one of his penny's resting spots and it's empty, he'll stop, reach into his p...

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    Posted by Mrs. Beppie Weintz Cerf on Feb 23 2010 11:08AM | 0 comments

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    They've Gone Back!

    They're back at Stanford!  I don't know about you, but the time flew by.  Our son arrived back east, duffle full and guess what?  No laundry!  I was truly surprised, I thought for sure he would have simply stuffed his duffle with dirty clothes and brought them home "for Mom to do."  (Like last year, freshman year.)  Nope.  He's figured out that rather than booking his flight home the day he finishes his last final, he adds a little cushion: so he can catch up on sleep, do a little laundry, maybe clean his room (?) haha, and who am I kidding? Socialize with the other kids that are still around!  I will tell you that he continued catching up on sleep for several days. OK, there's a three hour time difference from California, but it was days before he woke up before noon! I expected this, but even after four kids, it is amazing to me how much sleep these college kids need/do.


    The re-entry went pretty well.  No significant ...

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    Posted by Mrs. Beppie Weintz Cerf on Jan 7 2010 3:43PM | 0 comments

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    I Don't Know How She Does It...

    For those of you who've read Allison Pearson's 2002 comic novel, I Don't Know How She Does It, what follows in this blog will sound familiar.  Eerily familiar.  And, I might add, that's entirely coincidental and came as a huge surprise when most of it happened to me.

    For those of you who've not yet had the pleasure, Pearson's novel depicts the hectic life of Kate Reddy, a thirty-something hedge fund manager at one of London's biggest investment banks, who is desperately trying -- and failing -- to juggle a job requiring ridiculously long hours, a crumbling marriage, and act like a "proper" mummy to her two small children whilst facing down the disapproving stares of her nanny and the local stay-at-home mummy contingent, the "Muffia."  The opening scene finds Kate in her kitchen at 1:30 am, fresh off yet another job-related transatlantic flight, attempting to shake off the "toxic shimmer" of jet lag long enough to ...

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    Posted by Kaarin Leigh Michaelsen, Ph.D. on Oct 18 2009 7:14PM | 0 comments

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    More About the Ballet Lifestyle

    In my introductory blog entry that I wrote last week, I promised more on the whole ballet world - OK, not the whole ballet world, but at least the ballet world for a dad with a teenage son who is pretty good at it. Let's be honest here: Cameron's not some kind of ballet prodigy, but is more or less on par with the girls his age in the ballet school where he studies. I'm certainly incredibly impressed with what he can do, and, given the extreme shortage of men in the ballet world, it's something he can legitimately consider as a potential career option. He did get a full scholarship to the summer program he attended with Boston Ballet, and, yes, San Francisco Ballet School did call and invite him to join their school after his audition for their summer program. So he's no slouch, I guess. But what do I know?

    Part of my perspective is that I started out as a complete ignoramus with respect to ballet. I was involved in music for almost two decades, but didn...

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    Posted by Mr. Marty Beene on Oct 18 2009 3:15PM | 0 comments

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    Parenting.... It's Life Long!

    I'm the mom of four fabo kids, ranging in age from 19-25.  They call this generation, Gen Y.  Our eldest is a girl and then 3 boys!  I know, I know, four kids in 6 years?  What were we thinking?  Certainly not about college back then and having more than one kid in college at a time (currently 2 in, one @ Stanford, one @ Colo. College and 2 out, one from Princeton, one from CU Boulder)!


    One thing I'm learning about being a mom is, "once a mom, always a mom!" My mom used to say that to me, but I didn't really get it.  But now that she's gone, I totally get it.  I used to speak to her just about daily since I had our first child, and it continued all along the way:  toddling > nursery schools > high schools > colleges >  and now the 'real world.'  I was the kid, she was my mom.  I'm just sorry she's not around to consult with on kids getting married, grandchildren, inlaws....

    ...

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    Posted by Mrs. Beppie Weintz Cerf on Oct 9 2009 12:37PM | 0 comments

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    Dad and Ballet (and other stuff)

    Our son is a ballet dancer.

    That sentence is one that my wife and I have spoken often, and it always gets a reaction. Positive reactions so far, as people we tend to meet are sophisticated enough to know that dancing involves a lot of hard work combined with artistic expression - not an easy thing for a teenage boy (or girl!) to do.

    Oh, sure, Cameron does the usual teenage boy stuff, too, and would justifiably object to being pigeonholed as "only" a dancer. As I'm writing this, I'm looking ahead to his next high school cross country meet - he's a freshman on his high school's team. He will have to practice piano before we go, and might take along a book to catch up on some homework. He played soccer for eight or nine years in the local Class IV league, as well as youth baseball for six years. Blah, blah, blah.... Yes, all those years of youth sports give me fodder for future blog entries (both good and bad).

    This whole ballet thing has been interesting - n...

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    Posted by Mr. Marty Beene on Oct 9 2009 7:27AM | 0 comments