justice

Today I got a random-looking piece of mail that said "important legal matters" on the outside, which of course made me curious, and a bit afraid. The first thought that ran through my head was, shoot, someone is sueing me. (Its not uncomon for students in my school to tell their teachers they will sue. So far I haven't heard of anyone following through).

But then I realized that something like that would probably come in an important-looking envelope with fifteen last names in the return address. This was a glorified pamphlet with a "Claims Adjustor" in the return address, reminding me of the many credit card offers and "free" trips to the Bahamas that I win everyday. But on the off-chance that it actually was someone sueing me or someone offering me the big bucks, I opened it.

It turns out that there is a class-action lawsuit against Epson, the printer and ink-cartridge company. Having reading lots and lots of John Grisham novels I feel like I know something about class action lawsuits and what I know about them leaves a bad taste in my mouth (lots of lawyers getting rich on sketchy premises). However, Epson also leaves a bad taste in my mouth, so I felt it might be justified. The reason that Epson leaves a bad taste in my mouth is that first, my printer that I paid pretty good money for, stopped working after about two months. Second, the printer is really bad with ink conservation. After printing about 40 pages, the printer tells me the ink is all gone. When I shake the cartridge I can tell that there is still lots of ink in there, but the printer refused to print and you have to get a new cartridge. Apparently, lots of other people were having the same problem and decided to take the matter to court.

So now, I am the recipient of a $40 credit on Epson's online store, that or $20 in cash and a $25 credit for the online store. Not exactly the big bucks, but it does make me feel a little bit better. Epson made ink-guzzling printers to make us buy more and more cartridges and something is going done. Maybe justice is a strong word for something involving printers. Maybe not.

As always, I haven't posted for a while because the last few weeks have been a whirlwind. I had spring break two weeks ago, which was a much-welcomed chance to rest and recharge. I went to Iowa with Dave for an engagement party in his hometown and it was wonderful. Dave comes from a small town, or at least what I would consider a small town. There are 30,000 people, the population of the neighborhood I grew up in, and the kind of place where his dad still hangs out with his best friend from first grade (isn't that awesome?). Apparently its one of the five largest cities in Iowa. Semantics aside, its small, and cute, and the kind of place where everyone knows everyone, or at least a lot of everyones. I got to meet neighbors, golf buddies, former teachers, former neighbors, hair stylists, and buddies from various community organizations.

I also got to see pictures and read old Christmas letters. And both are amazingly precious. You see, Dave's mom wrote the letter for many years, and then somewhere in his high school years, she decided that she had written the letters long enough and someone else needed to step up to the plate. So Dave volunteered. And when he did, the letters took on a new twist. In addition to family vacations and individuals achievements, letter recipients learned of the passing of Kurt Cobain. They got a top five list of the best movies of the year and a recommendation for albums they should buy. They were asked to send their spare pennies to the "Dave Sandell college fund" and did. And probably the most amazing thing to me is that his parents read the letters in all their unconventionality and sent them. I have a lot of respect for that. Giving your kids creative freedom like that takes a lot of guts, and a lot of love. Similar to the courage my own parents must have had when they sent me to school wearing three different types of plaid because I dressed myself and I insisted that it matched.

Those are a few of the teachable moments from the past few weeks. More to come.