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It’s an exciting time for Samantha. Now that she has her Ph. D safely in hand it’s time to embark on the next step in her journey: actual employment.
As with her graduate studies she has a tricky road to navigate. She has to find a way of impressing people, but without giving too much away about the extent of her abilities.  In that respect, reviving the extinct dodo species struck just the right balance. Nobody had done it before, yet it didn’t rely on any of her skills that would be dangerous in the hands of others. (Unless, that is, some moron wants to go all “Jurassic Park” on us.)
So now she has her pick of some of the most prestigious schools in country…Oh, yeah, and Havens, too.
Meanwhile, her mother finds herself in the middle of a primary fight for her party’s nomination for Governor. Ordinarily, being the Lt. Governor and the hand-picked successor of the current Governor would guarantee victory, but this is no ordinary year. All of those attributes suddenly become liabilities.
At least she’s used to unpredictable events like that.

Luis and Jenny live in what was formerly a bachelor pad shared by Dave, Luis and Thomas.  Then Thomas married Remora and Dave left for Italy, so Jenny moved in after she and Luis had their Vegas wedding. Now they’re raising little Candide there, and it’s filling up again.
At every opportunity they visit Ming and Don in the spacious house that Don bought with his lucrative rookie NBA contract. Actually, with the money Jenny earned by representing Bambi last year she can afford something bigger, but she’s plowing all that into her agency, The Jenny Group.
When they all get together the demeanor of the two infants changes. In close proximity they become agitated in a way that suggests that they’re reacting to each other. Jenny and Ming report that they seem to be completing in some way, but their husbands don’t believe it.
At some point Thomas and Remora need to bring Marlon to town so the three youngsters can bond. Safe Havens…The Next Generation.

Havens University has its own Facebook page! Yeah, this would have been cool news back in 2007 but better late than never. Check it out here.
Meanwhile, Samantha arranged for Jenny to give a seminar to the dorm’s freshmen on the topic of student loans. Many of them have just blown through their college funds in two semesters with six (or more) to go, so they’re prime targets for companies offering those instruments.  So, who better to warn against underhanded business practices than Jenny?  Obviously a lot of these students are going to need some assistance, but not loans that will ultimately warp their decision of which career path to take.
The other issue here was lab security after last week’s break-in.  Rosalind’s suggestion to rotate in shifts as Dobermans was briefly considered but rejected when the subject of payment arose: kibble.

The rescue of Rupert and Rosalind was successful, but not without some scary moments. If Samantha hadn’t bought some time for them, but kidnappers might very well have killed them before they were able to change back into humans.
When Samantha arrived at the recording studio she instantly guesses what the abductors were after: the mating call that the original dodos sang on Bambi’s CD.  Since Rupert and Rosalind didn’t know how the tune went (since their dodo instincts hadn’t kicked in yet) Samantha’s only choice was to transform herself into a dodo and sing via Rupert’s hidden cell phone. That gave them the time they needed for the DNA to wear off.
They dashed out of the building and piled into Samantha’s waiting car. Rosalind peeled out, and once they’d reached safety they put on the lab coats Samantha had thoughtfully brought along.
Back at the lab Samantha was able to experience life as a dodo for a few hours before her own human DNA reasserted itself.  Topic for next week: security at the genetics lab!

I don’t have all of the details right now, as Samantha is pursuit of some kidnappers who have abducted her friends Rupert and Rosalind.
Of course, the kidnappers don’t know that they have two genetics doctoral students in their clutches. That’s because the pair transformed themselves into dodos during Samantha’s doctoral defense when her committee began to doubt her accomplishments. Of course, Samantha’s actual knowledge of genetics is so advanced that (as stated previously) she’s worried that it would be misused if it got out.  The good news is that Samantha passed her defense, so she’ll get her Ph.D.
After Rupert and Rosalind presented themselves as dodos they exited into an adjacent room where the kidnappers were laying in wait. They were gone before Samantha and the real dodos could stop them.
Fortunately Rupert has his cell phone and he immediately called Samantha, who was then able to track them to a building ten miles away. That’s all I’ve got for now!

It’s a big day for Samantha. In some ways it’s the culmination of her life thus far.  Everything she’s done since I’ve known her in preschool has pointed to this moment: her dissertation defense that will determine if she gets her doctorate.
As I write this she’s presenting her trio of dodos to her three-person dissertation committee who will ultimately decide her fate.  In a way, it’s a tricky role that she’s created for herself. She can’t yet reveal her incredible powers of genetic manipulation to the world as she doesn’t feel that humanity is ready for them yet. (And who can argue with her?) On the other hand, she has to perform a feat impressive enough to earn her Ph.D.
So, she used existing dodo DNA that has survived in museum samples to bring an extinct species back from the dead.  Of course, hundreds of thousands of people have already seen them on stage during Bambi’s concert tour last summer, but presumably the audience believed the dodos were animatronic. Now, the world will know otherwise.
….If she passes.

Later on I got all of the details of the eventful New Year’s Eve party. Jenny gave birth to a girl, Candide Fuerte. Ming delivered a boy, Clay Delft.  Both were healthy, and thankfully there were no complications. When the EMTs arrived they cut the cords, and then both sets of parents and the newborns piled into the ambulance where they were very carefully driven on the icy roads to the hospital. The staff there examined the mothers and babies, and all were given a big thumbs up.
Adding these two to Marlon Fontenalia-Volant (Remora and Thomas’s son) means that the next generation of “Safe Havens” children is well under way. The unmarried and childless now includes just Samantha, Dave, Bambi, Marcie and me. (Samantha reminded me to include her lab friends, Rupert and Rosalind, but although they’re important to her they’ve never been a part of our circle that formed before college.)
Marcie and I are in the WNBA off-season, so we have time to head east from our home in San Jose to visit and see the new arrivals.  We’ll miss saying hi to Dave, who has to head back to Italy where his team in the middle of its season. Life goes on.

I’m writing this moments after midnight on New Year’s of 2012, and I’ll tell you what I’ve got from everybody’s texts and tweets: both Ming and Jenny have successfully given birth. (One child each)  Things are chaotic at Samantha’s house right now, so I don’t have names or genders yet.
The evening began with Dave flying in from Florence, as his team has a few days off. He arrived just ahead of a ferocious winter storm that came in stronger than anticipated. Temperatures were supposed to stay above freezing, but they quickly plummeted and ice began forming everywhere.
There were about fifty people at the party, including Samantha, Dave, Jenny, Luis, Ming and Don.  This was the official due date for Ming and Jenny, but no one expected them to actually go into labor.  Of course, they did, around 11:00.
Neither realized what was happening until quarter ‘til midnight, and from that point on things moved quickly. Dave called 911, but it soon became apparent that even the EMTs wouldn’t be on time. Ming couldn’t reach her midwife, but fortunately Don ran out to their car to get their supplies, which were shared.
Samantha had the presence of mind to call the only midwife she knew, Ada Counter. She and her husband currently live in Washington DC, and she provided crucial guidance as the babies emerged. Fortunately there were no complications.
More details next week. Happy New Year!

Everyone’s celebrating the holidays, so all of us at “Safe Havens” wish you all the happiness of the season. See you next week for a report on Samantha’s New Year’s Eve party!

Samantha and her youngest sister Sophie had quite a discussion over the value of a college education. (Of course I can’t call Sophie her “little sister” anymore; she’s grown into quite a lithe and statuesque young woman.)
It wasn’t a fair debate since they were taking positions on completely different terrain.  Samantha encamped on the field upon which college is a delivery system of knowledge. One goes in requiring specific facts to obtain a goal, and they are provided under the guidance of those who’ve gone before.  When you’ve proven that you’ve obtained and retained the knowledge, you’re recognized and are (hopefully!) rewarded with employment. Of course, the greatest success goes to those who can take that knowledge and creatively lead it forward.  That certainly is the case with Samantha.
Sophie, on the other hand, occupies an entirely different ecosystem.  She knows she can do something incredibly well, although very few can turn it into a lifelong career. Nevertheless she made it the focus of her education, majoring in Dance.  In her case, what she took from college wasn’t a mental encyclopedia of facts but an inner development. She says that it set her on a path of maturity, teaching her responsibility and the focused work habits that will help in any profession that she ends up in.
Which is right?  They both are, depending on the individual. Samantha came into college with the necessary work habits already in hand; all she needed were the facts about advanced genetics and the opportunity to explore them in the lab.  Sophie needed more personal growth, and achieved it while doing what she loved.
Something tells me both will lead successful lives.