coming soon...

So I started training for Project HOPE finally. I"m quite happy about that. I've been going to presentations at Kelly high school this week, and in two weeks, my art class is going to have HOPE presentations as well. I'm going to do the third one for them, so I do get to start with that pretty soon now.

the art classes are going well. We're at the hardest part of putting together a comic book, which is the writing phase. We have to decide as a group on characters, personalities, events, dialogue, break-down of the story, what each page and frame is going to look like... arg! They're doing pretty well with it, though. I think after we finish the book, we're going to have to take a break on the 2-D art for awhile. I'm going to talk to Sr. Angie about going ahead with the clay sculpture.

Tomorrow we (Bridget Swenson, Alberto... Ortega?, Sr. Angie, and myself) are going to meet about schedules and projections and goals for the kids we'll be working with to get into Dugan alternative high school. The scheduled start date is still December 8th, this coming Monday. I'm still trying not to hold my breath, just in case something goes wrong and puts it off further, but it's getting really hard now to not hold my breath about it. I've been talking with Alberto especially, but also Sr. Angie, about it all week, and I am so excited. We've been discussing outside reading, and different goals we have, and plans for class discussions and groups, etc. I'm excited, not only to have something to do where I can really feel like I"m helping people, but also to be working in my field again. Working with at-risk young adults is my passion, I do believe. Well, one of them, at any rate. Because I'm also passionate about writing, and I'm also passionate about social and political activism. If I could find a way to do all three, I'd be set for life.

I also had my first marimba lesson yesterday. I learned two things during that half-hour. 1) Playing marimba is really fun, and 2) I really suck at it. But I have at least 9 months to get to the point where I either suck less, or don't suck at all, so I'm feeling pretty good about that.

Let's see, what else? We had our Thanksgivings, and they all went well. It was fun going to the Provincial's, and eating and drinking with the priests, brothers, and novitiates from all over the world, and all over Chicago. And then our "family" meal at our house went very well. We had so much food. I ate so much Sunday afternoon that I wasn't hungry again until Monday evening. I've eaten leftovers every meal I've eaten at home since then, and haven't had the same meal twice. Daena made some soup last night when Fr. Ron came over (he's our group spritual advisor). But other than that, we're not cooking dinner this week. Too much food already. It's great. I realized it was my first contribution to a big Thanksgiving meal since I've been grown up, and as I ate and looked around at our happy guests, I must admit, I was rather proud of it. (And the salechi confused people, but everyone loved it. I got special compliments on the pecan pie ["all of these desserts are good except the pecan pie, which is REALLY good"], and the sweet potato casserole was quite good as well. So thanks for the recipes, Mom.)

And Michael had a good experience going to Fort Benning for the SOA protest. He wasn't sure he'd want to go back, because he's not much for travelling, but being there changed his mind. He's loving his job, where he does lots of research, writes informative articles, does progressive radio shows, and organizes and attends rallies for good causes.

Yup, we're loving it here.