a holiday letter

I never get around to doing these in time to mail them out. Plus, I always feel bad about killing trees to send holiday stuff out, so I'm limiting myself to the electronic version.

As most of you are aware (if you've read other parts of this blog), the year started out under a shadow with Gretchen and Frank's death in early December of last year. While that, fortunately, didn't set a tone for the rest of the year, their deaths impacted me in a variety of ways. Perhaps more than anything, I have made extra efforts to see and stay in touch with friends in a way I haven't previously. And it has been worth it.

The year started out with continued efforts to make our house more livable with a new furnace (the old one worked fine; it just used ridiculous amounts of gas), new flooring, new paint, a dishwasher, new hot water heater, false ceilings and the list goes on. The house has been a continuous trial this year. But, while it has been very slow going, we continue to make progress. This weekend was actually spent re-hanging and painting doors on the second bedroom to make it ready for a visit from friends next week. That particular activity has involved rebuilding oak doors that are splintering down the middle, trying to hang said doors (weighing approximately 50 lbs) on frames that are suffering from dry rot and stripping paint off of original hinges, door knobs and other hardware. Fun. But the doors are up and painted as I write. On to laying down quarter round...

January saw D off to Columbus, Georgia as part of the legal support team for the SOA Watch trials. Thanks to our wonderful criminal justice system that holds individuals accountable for peaceful civil disobedience but won't hold governments and armies accountable for systematic and deliberate violence against civilian populations, thirty-one Prisoners of Conscience were sentenced to federal prison.

In early February, I went off to Dallas to visit P&K and their three children. It was a fun, if too short, visit. We are both happy the P&K have moved back to the east coast, since visiting New Jersey is far more pleasant than visiting Texas.

We continued our ridiculous travel schedule through the rest of the year. In early March, I went to Seattle for a conference and got to taste the rather excellent beer there (what else would Ido in a new city?) and hang out with my colleagues for several days. D used an excess of frequent flyer miles to head to Australia for six weeks. He met up with his friend JH who was on a round-the-world trip at the time, toured wineries and wandered around many of the major Australian cities. D has since concluded that he prefers going places where not everyone speaks English. Traveling around Australia was just too easy.

While D was in Australia, I attended one of the rare anti-war protests in Salt Lake where I tried desperately to teach people that silent marches, unless they are specifically intended to be silent, are rather boring and that chanting is fun. I failed. Even the liberals here aren't so good at breaking the rules.

And on to more travel and trips to NY to see Aunt J and sister C, to Los Angeles to see friends and sister A, to Atlanta for yet another conference, to Atlanta (a second time) for a training and to Atlanta (yes a third time) for yet another training. The reason for the later two trips to Atlanta was preparing to head to India for the summer to work on polio eradication.

So after a rather difficult series of community meetings in southeastern Utah (more travel) on a cancer cluster I was investigating (see J's moment of fame here. And yet another trip to Seattle for another conference (D came along this time and we explored more Seattle beer). Late June saw me off to India for the summer...

While D dealt with 100+ degree heat in Salt Lake, I lived in a five star hotel in Bombay. It wasn't quite the rustic, wandering around the boonies of India I expected, but I worked with some wonderful people in India's polio surveillance program, made some lasting friendships, and, I think, actually had some impact of the program. (See J's India blog for more observations on India.)

September arrived and saw D and I both in the same city at the same time...for about a week before I flew to Colorado to see friends and family. About two days after coming back from that trip, the spinach hit the fan and I found myself in charge of the Utah investigation. Even thought both of us were in the same city at the same time, the 14 hours/day, 7 days/week work schedule made it feel like we were traveling.

As the spinach investigation calmed down, D flew off to Sacramento to celebrate his brother S's wedding. About a week after coming back, D was off to Austin for a National Lawyer's Guild conference. Then I was back to Atlanta for another training. And the following week, I flew to Boston for a conference. D followed shortly and we got to spend some wonderful time with numerous friends who have made Boston their home. It was a wonderful trip and I realized that she doesn't mind certain east coast cities, especially if two of her best friends are there.

The weekend prior to Thanksgiving, D flew back to Columbus for this year's vigil. Unfortunately, plane tickets were such that I was unable to attend with him. Thanksgiving was spent in San Francisco for D's sister's wedding (see the previous post 'trip to SFO'). December has been fairly light travel month, and I only went to West Virginia for a training and back to southeastern Utah for a community meeting.

The December holidays have been spent at home in Salt Lake. Given the cost and stress of traveling on the holidays, we elected to stay home and today, Christmas Day, is being spent working on the house. All in all, a relaxing way to spend the holiday.

It has been a busy year. We estimated that we have been in the same city at the same time for only a total of about six months this year. While this amount of travel can be stressful and we miss each other, we both admit that it is nice to get some alone time periodically.

The upcoming year promises more together travel, out east and to Europe (Belgium...more beer!) and multiple discussions about where we move to next (my job is only a two year position). It is with some sadness, but also a good amount of relief, that we prepare for the significant possibility that we will be leaving Salt Lake in about six months.

Happy Holidays