college life

I just talked to Andrew this morning to catch up with his life at college.Which is good, since last semester he told me no news is bad news.  Seems he is feeling the pressure of the last 3 weeks of school-I'm sure everyone remembers those days.  I was living with a restaurant employee when I attended college, was working part time and attending school full time.  Life with a restaurant person doesn't work well when u are in school..she often arrived home late, with a slew of men, wine, left over lobster (and that's like gold when u r in college) and well....what paper? what test?  I do have to hand it to her though, when times got tough, we would put on our best outfits, wander down to Tio Pepe-an upscale restaurant in Baltimore, sit at the bar, and wait. Sure enough, within 30 minutes, we had an invite for dinner at the Brass Elephant, sans prices-paid with their expense accounts.  Those occasional dinners got us through days of tomato soup. Tricky part was to dismiss them when dinner was over. "Could we come to your apartment for drinks? "Sorry, no alcohol in our apt."  "Coffee?" "No coffee either."  "Can we get your phone number?"  "No phone..."  But we are very grateful for dinner.
I did finally wise up and realize I couldn't accomplish what I needed to and moved on to another room mate-much more sane and grounded.  I think my son is coming to this realization as his current room mate offers other distractions-mostly her own agenda. Time to be autonomous and take life by the horns. Or in Andrew's case, by the spinning wheel.  Which I think he is well on his way to do this. Its life's most difficult lesson.  I am so proud of you.