Springtime Comes to the Cumberlands

Let's rewind some... First off, with all the WorkFest tidbits in the March update a crucial piece of information was overlooked. Mt. Vernon's new stoplight was finally activated on March 8th! We now have five stoplights (that I know of). It's been such a help. Traffic gets "crazy" (a relative term) at the intersection of Richmond Road and School Street since the hospital, elementary school, and post office are all in that area.

Now more recent news: Two weekends ago I drove to the Sandy Valley region, better known in CAP world as "the east side," to see my friend Jessica. She lives at the Johnson House in Hagerhill. She's leaving for home (New Jersey) at the end of the month, so I wanted to visit her now because I was afraid I wouldn't have any other chances to see her between now and May. It's so weird to me that she's leaving because I remember when she got here! We met at Carter Caves (location of the annual volunteer gathering in late August), but I didn't really get to know her until our week-long orientation at Camp Shawnee in late September. She's totally awesome and I love her so much. Originally she and Jennifer (another Johnson House member) were going to take me to some parks in the area but it stormed all weekend. Still, it was great to see her, and that was the real reason for the visit. I left after going to St. Clare's fish fry in Berea with my housemates, so I didn't get to Johnson 'til about 9pm. The first part of the trip was lovely, with the late sun warming everything up and the Hal Roger's Parkway literally lined with redbuds. I got to see my friend Maggie as well as Jane and Amy (all Floyd House members) when I got there. They'd made a special trip to see me. Aww! The whole weekend just consisted of low-key hanging out: sitting on the porch swing and listening to the rain barrels filling up, learning to play Dutch Blitz, and going to Pig in a Poke (bar and BBQ place).

Last weekend I went to Keeneland with some friends. It was my first time and I actually won three times! I messed up my very first bet - I said the wrong number at the window, so I went back and bet on the horse I originally wanted to bet on, but also had that other bet. They both ended up showing and I won a profit of $1.20! Might not sound impressive but it was my first time betting and it was the highest profit of the day amongst my friends. Of course I didn't come out ahead at the end of the day but it was very fun.

And something else I found out that weekend: One of my participants (well, technically the husband of one of my participants, because I deal much more with her than him) was arrested.

From the Mount Vernon Signal:

Father Charged with Abuse of Son
          A Livingston man has been charged with 2nd degree criminal abuse after striking his son in the head with a baseball bat.
          Jesse Vanwinkle, 34, is in the Rockcastle County Detention Center under a $25,000 cash bond after being arrested at his home.
          Kentucky State Police and the Rockcastle Sheriff's Department responded to a call Sunday afternoon at a residence on Sand Hill Road. Upon arrival, the officers learned that a nine-year-old male juvenile had been struck in the head with a baseball bat.
         Vanwinkle's nine-year-old son Larry was flown from the scene to the University of Kentucky Medical Center in Lexington in critical condition. According to Larry's mother, Susan Vanwinkle, her son underwent brain surgery on Monday and had a metal plate attached to his skull, where it had been fractured.
          Larry came through surgery and is recovering at the medical center.
         According to Susan Vanwinkle, the couple's children were in one room of the house, and started misbehaving. Before she could get to them to see what was going on, the couple's father told her that he had hit the child with a baseball bat.
          After police investigated the circumstances surrounding the assault, they arrested Vanwinkle.
         The couple's three other children are currently staying with their grandparents. KSP Detective Donald Wilson is in charge of the investigation and was assisted by Trooper Jason Vanhook, the Rockcastle Sheriff's Department and the Kentucky Department for Community Based Services / Child Protective Services.
          Larry was reportedly released Wednesday from the University of Kentucky Children's Hospital.

And just thinking of all the things I've done this year that I never got a chance to write about... Things I'm sorry I never blogged about:
- Chainsaw Training / my week as a vagabound out east
- the huge, creepy, furry dreamcatcher I found in my room
- the "Is this the place where you give out free money?" guy
- Floyd House Olympics
- Ben Sollee Concert
- Christmas Basket distribution crazy-ness
and probably tons more...

March in a Nutshell; Welcome to Redbud Month!

THIS is why I need to blog more regularly. I'm going to attempt to relay some of what I did this month... in bulleted form so as to hopefully help keep things somewhat organized.

WorkFest - The majority of my time during March was spent helping with WorkFest (CAP's alt spring break program for college students - http://christianapp.org/vol/alternative-spring-break/workfest/). Amy asked me to head up the Donut Crew and create the slide show. WorkFest is three weeks long, and every Wednesday four of us long-term volunteers drove to the Manchester Bakery in Clay County (owned by a group of Mennonites) and delivered donuts and joy to the eight job sites throughout Jackson, Clay, and Owsley counties. We split up into two teams of two, each visiting four sites - week one I was with Seth, week two I was with Annie, and week three I was with Annie again but Jane and her visiting sister Beth joined us. It was a lot of fun! We also took pictures for the slide show. Then I sifted through the tons and tons of photos and created some awesome slide shows with kick ass music. I also had to print out group photos and organize them and some other materials for the packets. Might not sound like much, but my week was jam-packed Wednesday through Friday with WorkFest stuff. I spent the night at camp several nights a week and missed house dinners quite a bit. It was awesome but it was definitely a totally different schedule for me.

Some Highlights from WorkFest - overcoming my nerves and climbing onto several roofs; lying in a ditch with Seth during a tornado drill; being an "indie DJ" as Annie called me; being stuck on a country road for like 20 minutes and singing "Country Roads" for the linemen; blasting Jock Jams Say-Anything-style; and so many more! It was great to see all the energy that the students brought, and the short term crew leaders were all so awesome.

March Madness - How 'bout them Cats?? Final Four for the first time in, what, 11 years? I didn't hold out hope that we'd get past Ohio State. Then I doubted we'd beat North Carolina. What a birthday treat it was that they made it so far! And last year on my birthday I remember they lost to West Virginia. I was unable to watch them play UConn as I was at the movies (more on that later), but I was updated via text. I wanted to cry when I got the news!

My 23rd Birthday (Week) - I share my birthday with another long-term volunteer, Ben, who lives at Jackson and works in Housing. Ben's a year older though so really I have to thank him for sharing it with me! On the Friday of our b-day weekend a group of us went out to a bar that we "frequent" (as in maybe once a month) in Richmond. McCreary Megan's boyfriend Chris was visiting from the east side and his birthday is the day after mine and Ben's. We joked that we were triplets. Our awesome friends got us a cake, but not just any old birthday cake. No, it was a cake with multicultural girls made out of vanilla wafers and icing cuddling under a blanket and "SLEEPOVER" written large. Apparently they were out of birthday cakes at Kroger. On Saturday I got together with Chris, a friend from Brescia who transferred to EKU in Richmond. On my actual birthday I just went to Mass at St Pauls, met Ben's parents who were visiting, and watched the UK game at the Jackson House. The week following my birthday Jenny made the office lunch one day in my honor and we went out to Mexican another day and Robyn had them let me wear the sombrero and the whole nine yards. What a week of celebrations!

Totally Random - I finally got a Madison County library card. (Rockcastle residents can get one for free which is soooo lucky for me because the Rockcastle library is horridly understocked. Really, it's appalling.) I'd been getting over 40 hours a week (one week I had 52 hours) because of WorkFest, so most Fridays this month I only worked a couple hours. One sunny Friday afternoon I went to the Berea branch, got my card, checked out East of Eden, and sat on Berea College's lovely campus and read. I pretended I was in college again and it was beautiful.

March was a crazy month full of stress and confusion about the future. But lately I've decided just to hold off on worrying and try to enjoy the present moment as much as possible.

Now we're in April which is Redbud Month in southeastern Kentucky! Last Friday we had a county-wide health day with a walking trail around Renfro Valley and free goodies like a free Subway sandwich, Victoria Secret spray, and a redbud seedling. I think I'm going to plant mine here so that a piece of me will always remain looking over the hills. The trees are starting to bud, the grass is greener than ever, and the wind is wild. Some days are warm, some are chilly - Redbud winter is here, but it's warming up slowly.

Lastly, Mission: Recapture Jane - during the last week of WorkFest, Jane told me that she'd be going to Selma with her home church from Wisconsin for a week to do some volunteer work down there. They were going to drop her off in Elizabethtown on their way back to Sheboygan Falls. She asked if Annie and I would pick her up around midnight on Saturday night / Sunday morning. Annie and I left Berea around 2:30pm and spent the afternoon / evening hanging out in Louisville. We walked around downtown a lot (and got parking for free - unintentionally!), went to going-out-of-business sale at Borders (mostly picked over stuff, but found a book I really wanted and got it for 70% off!), and tried to go see an IMAX at the Science Center (but it was closed for renovations!). I was open for whatever adventures presented themselves, but it was a pretty low-key day. We decided after dinner that we would like to go to the movies, so we used the GPS to find one. We ended up at an empty lot! We finally found a movie theatre in St. Matthews; it was one of those theatres that only shows movies that are about to come out on DVD. I wanted to see Harry Potter because I STILL haven't gotten to see the new one, but by that time it was 10 pm and the only movie playing was True Grit. I'm not a huge fan of the Coen bros; the movie was ok though. Afterwards we drove to Etown to meet Jane, but she had called and said they wouldn't be there til 2 or 3 am. So Annie and I had deep conversations in the car and slept a little. Oh, and accidentally waved to a creeper in a van. Anyway, eventually our lovely Jane came back to us and we began the 2 1/2 hour drive home. I finally got to bed at 5:30am!

What a month! What a life!