I stopped for gas yesterday. A full tank now costs me almost rm120 and it sometimes lasts me less than a week. Mom’s taxi is becoming very costly.

Even with Steev taking the college bus one-way, I still have to pick him up at the end of class every day and his college is like 20km away.

Sometimes I wonder if we should switch him to an online university degree program instead. If nothing else, it will definitely save us a bundle on transportation alone. So I foresee online degrees will gain popularity simply because of this.

But I wouldn’t want Steev to forgo the social aspect of going to college which he won’t get to enjoy if he does his degree online at this stage.

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Well, next month is already here and today is Steev’s first morning taking the college bus. Whew, no more carpooling and worrying day after day about him being a car driven by reckless noobs who give no thought to their road safety.

His friend charges the same amount per month as the college bus. We found out that although he says it’s for gas money, Steev is the only one he collects from.

He doesn’t charge his other ‘good’ friends and as far as we know, his parents are still forking out the gas money. This can only mean he’s pocketing the exorbitant sum without his parents’ knowledge. What a crooked kid!

At any rate, enough is enough! I’d rather be paying for peace of mind here. It costs me the same price anyhow. The college bus looks good. It’s air-conditioned. It’s convenient and there’s lots of other kids taking it. So I’m happy .

When I read about Linda Hogan dating a 19-year-old guy who went to school with her kids, I was like whaa-at? I’m sure mothers everywhere are thinking the same thing.

In this video that I came across on CNN, it’s a hot topic and I guess people are trying to make some sense of it all.

Granted this older woman-younger man thing is not entirely uncommon especially in the celeb world, but the question that begs to be answered is what does a 19-year-old see in a 48-year-old woman who is old enough to be his mother?

Well, according to relationship experts, young men that age are often attracted to the confidence older women exude, especially those who look good, have great bodies and aren’t afraid to be themselves.

Wow? Really? Now it so happens a couple of guys from Raine’s class seem to think I’m hot. Hot? Well now, that’s hardly the word I’d expect a 15-year-old to use on me! Since when did kids that age start checking us out? Tsk, tsk.

But hey, if a kid can say that of me, what more someone like Linda Hogan, huh? Geez, is this world going topsy-turvy or what? *rolls eyes*

You know what the hardest part about being a mom is? You have to take your kids to the movies on the weekend. Haha, gotcha!

Just kidding. I love movies and quite frankly, it’s hip to be hanging out at the movies with your three teens. And we’ve been at the movies for the past three weekends.

We watched Kungfu Panda, The Incredible Hulk, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls, The Forbidden Kingdom and Iron Man! Wheee!

Steev’s carpooling dilemma continues, just when I thought our headaches were over. There are four kids in the carpool. Steev and the other guy in the carpool aren’t old enough to drive yet.

The guy who took over the driving when he got his driver’s license three months ago has decided to charge 100 bucks a month for gas money now that he’s got his own car.

Just last month, one of the girls got her driver’s license and her own car. So they will be alternating the driving between them.

First off, 100 bucks gas money is ridiculous for a one-way ride to school in a tin can of a car with very low fuel consumption.

Secondly, that girl is a Hell Driver! She’s barely out of driving school and already she’s overtaking 3 trucks in a row on the fast lane. Not with my son in the car, she doesn’t!!

So Steev is going to take the bus. There’s only half a month left of June but the college bus operator wants to charge me a full month. So I’m going to stick it out with driving Steev for the rest of June and he takes the bus next month.

We’re out at the mall or at dinner. The kids start getting edgy. They want to go home. Wha-at? Why, what’s the rush?

CSI starts in a half hour, comes the faux meek voice accompanied by a sheepish grin. Yeah, right! We’re in the middle of dinner and we have to rush home for CSI?

I guess doctors aren’t fuddy-duddy anymore, not with their PDAs and palm software and access to free online drug reference tool for medical websites just a click away.

And all our high-tech kids can relate to that. In fact, I’ve had kids (not mine) tell me they’re so inspired by medical movies that they’re taking up forensic science in college.

Yes, with all this geekery, the medical profession just got more attractive.

This announcement was paid for by Epocrates.

The cousins have left. It was really fun while it lasted. The kids had a great time as we were practically out shopping and eating out all day every day.

They invited us to drive up to the mountains but I just wasn’t up to it. While it’s fun moving around in hordes, it can be pretty taxing too.

Now I’m back to cooking lunch and the kids are feeling a little sad. There’s this sudden whoosh, a loss of momentum after their cousins leave and all is quiet again.

We might go to the movies tonight though just to keep the momentum going for a couple more days.

One of Raine’s friends from school spent Mother’s Day. alone. at home. while her parents were out on a date to celebrate Mother’s Day. That’s like a bit of a surprise to Raine since we’ve always celebrated Mother’s Day and other occasions together as a family, no matter how busy we are.

When Raine told me this, she said she feels sorry for her friend whose parents seem to use money as a replacement for parental love. But what’s the point of her parents giving her money, money, money to buy anything she wants but they’re never there to do things with her?

Yes, it’s a sad fact these days, isn’t it? Even my 15-year-old thinks so. Came lunch time on Mother’s Day, her friend found herself home alone (her elder brother had gone out) with nothing to eat. So she called her parents. They bluntly told her to just go find something to eat and not to disturb their day out!

Her father is planning to take up a job overseas. She asks what’s wrong with the job he has right now and why can’t he stay? His reply, he’ll be making even more money if he goes. But she doesn’t want him to.

She’s trying to reach out to her parents. What she needs is love, Raine tells me, not money, but her parents just don’t get it! What good is money if they don’t care about her or how she’s doing in school or that she just wants to be a family?

Steev’s been riding his friend’s car to school every day for a couple of weeks now. I don’t know. I can only say it’s against my better judgement but DH seems to think it’s okay.

I seriously need a good helping of anxiety relief every morning when he leaves for college. After I wave him off, I rush back into the house to light some incense and pray to the Buddha to keep him safe.

I don’t trust new drivers, not the ones they churn out these days anyways. So hopefully prayers and a cup of java will help keep the mommy blues away, eh?

Steev’s college uses the computer a lot as a means of communicating with their students. Schedules, assignments and announcements are all accessible through the accounts of students and faculty.

Even parents have been encouraged to obtain an account on the system to keep track of their children’s progress at college.

Though the number of workstations they have in the computer lab is not nearly enough to cater to the increasing number of students, I guess the school is still the best they can by installing tools and unix security software for better functionality and protection.

Steev’s biggest complaint is that students tend to hog the workstation at the lab by leaving their account logged in and then disappearing on their lunch break, meaning no one else can use the computer during that time.