Elizabeth continues her quest to fight injustice and improve the lives of those who suffer through little or no fault of their own. For example, she bought 150 chapsticks and attached labels with information on human trafficking survivor resources. The chapsticks are placed in hotels, motels, and other areas heavily traveled by victims of human trafficking in the hopes the victims will find them and seek help in order to leave the industry. We joined the Lexington Women's March in January. She wrote emails to our council members expressing her support for a proposed Fairness Ordinance, which would make discrimination based on one's sexual orientation illegal. She recently attended the college's Take Back the Night program and is waiting on Stop the Violence wristbands to distribute at her high school. We are so proud of her awareness of human frailty and suffering and her strong desire to actually do something about it, in whatever small way she can.
And she got a job! She submitted her resume to Raising Cane's one night. Received a call from the manager the next day. Was interviewed the following day. And hired as soon as her background check was returned. If only most people's hiring process were so easy! Because the restaurant was still under construction when she was interviewed, she met the manager at a hotel conference center - and on her way out of the interview, the hotel manager asked her if she would be interested in working for the hotel! Elizabeth absolutely loves her job. She picks up extra shifts, stays late to close, forgets to take her scheduled breaks (isn't that illegal?), and is eagerly awaiting her first paycheck. The manager is so complimentary about her and she loves (almost) all of her colleagues. We are so proud to see her in this new role of employee, so responsible and competent and energized.
One of Michael's recent English assignments was to write an original poem and perform it in front of his class. The performance had to be at least 2 minutes long and include a variety of literary devices, like alliteration, hyperbole, onomatopoeia, simile, etc. He decided to write about the different personalities of the three dogs: The Wise One, the Depressed One, and the Crazy One. Can you guess which is which? We had fun as a family watching Michael practice and practice, acting out the words and imitating the dogs. He was proud to tell us his poem and performance were selected by his peers as one of the top three in his class, which allowed him to perform it again the next week.
Michael continues his basketball amazingness (not a word, but it should be). He astounds me with all his points and his moves and his ball playing abilities. I never grow tired of watching him play. I never mind reading in my car until the next game begins! He is on the select team Prodigy. Another select team recruited him hard and he played with them two weekends he didn't have Prodigy commitments - they won 2nd place with Michael on their team; lost by about 60 each game the next weekend without him. Michael pretty much outscores everyone and never loses those nerves of steel. If you ever want to see a few hundred clips of his feats, let me know. I leave them on my phone, just in case someone asks.
I saw GC alum Katie Columbus a couple of weeks ago. She and her girlfriend Erin were moving Erin from NYC to Denver, where Katie lives. They swung through Kentucky so I could see them both. Oh how E and M loved Katie when they were younger - every time Katie was in Ky she would come over and play with them. This happened multiple times each year for at least 10 years. What joy she has brought our family.
My sabbatical is going well. The three sisters have collected our data from the US and the Germany students. Mary hired Elizabeth to be our research assistant and help us with data scoring and coding. We will know our results soon. Last month, Lisa Eddy and I presented at a teaching conference and loved our distraction-free time together. Meanwhile, I have read many academic books this semester, yet most days I still find time for some quality Dateline or Forensic Files episodes. Keep your doors locked.
Steven continues to devote most of his free time to his family. Specifically, he mentors Michael in basketball ... and conditioning. They go to the college gym and work out. Sometimes they practice on our back yard court. Steven spends hours each week researching colleges that emphasize social justice and diversity. Then he and Elizabeth talk about the benefits of each and continue narrowing down her college choices. As always, Steven is constantly improving our home. This week he constructed shoe racks for Michael, painted the laundry room shelves, and designed a fence for the backyard. I love his creativity and conscientiousness. And our evening walks with the three dogs. Sometimes he's even drawn into those Dateline episodes. :)
So that's life in a nut shell. Hope you are all well. We love you.
Dress shopping with Elizabeth was awesome. She is very decisive ("no way would I ever wear that") and knew just what she wanted.
