Back to School - college edition

We brought Diana back to school tonight. She didn't have quite as much to move in this year, since it's still the same room as last year. We only had to move back in the stuff she'd brought home for the summer. She's already set up to do the same job she had last year & she's starting with 17 credits this term.

While Diana got her disbursement check & her books, Lee & I dropped the stuff off in her room. Then we headed out to get some dinner & do some grocery shopping.

Ugh. Too much traffic! I'm not used to it anymore!! And waiting in restaurants?! We don't do that anymore either! The first place we tried had a 45 minute wait. Forget that. We looked at a pizza place, but as Diana's a little lactose-intolerant, that's not the best choice for her anyway. We wound up at a Mexican restaurant, which is typically not Diana's favorite. However, upon checking the menu, they had more vegetarian dishes than we'd ever seen in a Mexican restaurant (with tofu, yet!) so we gave it a try. We all ate our fill & Diana took a couple of boxes home for 'linner' tomorrow (she'll probably sleep in).

Then we took her grocery shopping. She got a cart full for $98, saving $60something from 'regular prices.' That's enough food for the month for her - and she gets an allowance with her funding for about $300/month (I know - that's a LOT of money for one person). Diana will also get a case of Top Ramen for $5 at Winco Foods next time her friend Raidy goes there to shop. She doesn't just make Top Ramen the regular way - she has recipes for Pad Thai Top Ramen and all kinds of other stuff :P Frugal!!!

She had already been teary all afternoon - she was weepy when she said good-bye to Connor after he got home from school, & she was misty-eyed at the restaurant when we discussed setting up her schedule to balance schoolwork & fun stuff, etc. In fact, the only time she wasn't upset was when she said good-bye to Trevor. He was trying to comfort her by putting his arm around her - from three feet away. LOL. That's the Asperger's shining through - you know you're supposed to do something physical to be comforting, you just can't bring yourself to get close to do it :P

I just called Diana when we got home - she was already all gung-ho for going to Raidy's house to play Beatles Rock Band. Her friend, Nori, was there with her, and she was excited to be going out. This is a lot better than last year, when she basically spent the first weekend alone and a rather scared about going to college :) This time around she already has people she knows, she has the church youth group, and she is the 'old hand' at the apartment. One of her new roomies is a friend of Nori's since 2nd grade, and another is a girl from China, only here for 12 days so far. We haven't heard about the 4th roomie yet. Good stuff. I think she'll settle in a lot faster this time :)

Trevor is attending our local community college again - he's working toward his AA with an engineering focus. He gets to finally take a CAD class again, which should help his GPA. He had not yet gotten his financial aid letter, so Lee went with him today to figure out what was up with that - Trevor is not the only one. The college has implemented a new computer system, and most kids still don't have their award letters. Lee also had Trevor go to talk to the Special Needs counselor. They set up regular tutoring and note-taking for Trevor, and the woman encouraged him to join the engineering club & apply for student government.

There are also some jobs still available for work-study, which would be great for Trevor. When they went to talk to one of the guys offering work, he described it as "working outdoors, sometimes in bad weather & wearing a poncho, doing planting, landscaping, etc. Would you be okay with that?" Trevor's response, "Well, I'm already doing that stuff and NOT getting paid!" (because we are slave driver parents - muahahahah!). The guy took that as a good thing though, so if Trevor gets back to him as soon as the award letter comes, he might have a work study job! Yay!

During the summer, neither of the two had jobs - Diana worked her butt off last year during school & did very well, so we figured she deserved a break - she still did the Girl Scout Day Camp and helped around the house. Trevor had a couple of interviews, but didn't manage to land any jobs - however, he has been doing some work for Donna & Jim's company with redline corrections on the computer & I guess he's doing fine with that. He can still continue that and do school & the work study. If he doesn't land a work study job, he'll be going back to volunteering - most likely at the Boys & Girls Club again.

Both kids also did some lessons on the online program I'll be using at my job. Diana has been doing the Algebra, while Trevor's been going through the Life Skills lessons. I wanted them to let me know of any problems they encountered so I'd be better prepared to work with my students. Diana is taking Algebra this term, so she was happy to have a stress-free way to practise. I just wanted Trevor to be working on something productive. :)

So there's the update on the college kids. I'll post on Connor's stuff next time :)