As we are sure every Holiday Letter will start: “Wow/Ugh! What a Year!”
It really started very well. A family trip to Hilton Head, SC, staying at an absurdly fancy rental home. Golf, kayaking, dinners, a side trip to Savanah, GA, a stop in Tarboro on the way. It was relaxing and a wonderful way to have some quality moments with the kids.
Then in February and March, a long planned trip to Sydney, Australia, accompanied for the first two weeks by Judie’s sister, Kathy, and her husband Jim. We stayed at a wonderful apartment overlooking Manly Beach and visited many of our old friends. It really was pretty idyllic until the pandemic showed up. For whatever reason, it arrived later in Oz that in most of the rest of the world and, as we now know, was never as virulent as it was in the US. However, by the time we left Sydney on March 24th (our planned trip to Singapore cancelled), the country was in lock down and our flight was the only one from Sydney to the US that day, as opposed to the usual dozen or more. Nick did some blogging about our Sydney adventures and the approach of COVID, which you can read in his long-standing nickinshoreditch.com account.
After that, like most everyone else, we were largely stuck in place. Because our place in the Catskills has nine bedrooms and four bathrooms, we were able to escape up there often during the summer and had small numbers of visitors, which allowed us to retain most of our sanity. We also took a “trip” to NYC on the weekend after the election to go to museums, etc. We happened to be there when Biden’s victory was announced, which made the whole thing more fun. We had Alex and Lucy and our grand-puppy, Tony, along with James and Kayli for a small Thanksgiving. Hannah and Mike are driving to Montclair from Olympia, Washington starting around December 15th and will be home for the holidays for three weeks or so. (Yes, we are testing, planning, socially distancing, etc. as much as we can.)
Which bring this note to news about the kids:
Alex is still living in Philadelphia (West Philly) and working in public radio and audio production. His major project has been a two-hour radio documentary on the Haitian diaspora and how it impacted New Orleans jazz (to be broadcast in February). The pandemic has made it difficult, as it has made the planned trips to Haiti and New Orleans impossible. He has tons of work and actually has to turn down jobs, so he and an NPR colleague have started their own audio production company, Rowhome Productions, and have their first couple clients. He has recently been mostly unable to play soccer on his two teams or play in the three musical groups he is in thanks to COVID. Alex’s partner, Lucy, is still teaching fourth grade at a school in Philadelphia’s Chinatown, but now is doing it virtually. She also plays the cello and makes art, including the whimsical drawings you see if you click Row Home Productions, above. In February, they adopted Tony, a labradoodle puppy, who is already quite large. Trapped at home with their puppy, Tony, as a result is incredibly well trained and isa delightful, smart and bouncy young dog.
James left his job at Exhibitology in late 2019, planning to concentrate on art projects. He and Kayli lived with us for much of 2020, moving out to a nice apartment in Pine Brook (about 20 minutes away) around Labor Day. It was wonderful having James here and it was incredibly useful to have him around. (This is especially so since Nick’s now-68 year old body seems to break down when he try to do what used to be normal tasks. For example, he recently sprained his elbow badly putting up our Christmas Tree!) By the time James decided he really needed to find work, we were in the middle of the pandemic recession and jobs were scarce. He did eventually get a job working at a fancy country club in Mendham, NJ, the wealthiest town in the State. With winter arriving, he was recently laid off and is thinking of taking some classes. His partner, Kayli, has been working as a librarian in Hawthorne and recently moved to a new job in Rozelle Park (a promotion). They seem even happier together now that they have their own place.
Hannah is still living in Olympia and working on an organic farm. It was her second year at Rising River Farm and she had more of a supervisory role this year and learned even more about how a farm is run. It seems possible that she will more on to something new soon, but who knows? Maybe the pandemic will keep her there a bit longer. Olympia, as the capital of a very divided State is a little frighteningly crazy, with armed right-wingers milling around the Capital and downtown. (Thankfully, no guns are allowed in the Farmer’s Market, where Hannah often works on weekends.) Mike has been working on his art and spending some time in the art scene in Portland, while working in a place that produces marijuana edibles. His mother died recently (and all too quickly) from cancer, so we have seen him her in Montclair a few times in the past couple of months. It will be good to see them both. (December 21 Update: they arrived at 2:15 AM after four day son the road.)
Nick: I have kept myself busy with art, which you can see elsewhere on this site (assuming I finish up that section) or on Facebook or Instagram. A big summer project was the construction of a gazebo by the pool in the Catskills. (Note from Judie: which is when he hurt his shoulder!) I am on the Board of the UU Congregation at Montclair and am busy on the task force trying to determine when and how to reopen. And I’m still involved with UU FaithAction and was more involved than intended this Spring when the Executive Director came down with COVID and the President had to quit to handle having two young sons at home all the time, leaving Nick running the show for a while. We did accomplish some good things, but I’m reaching FaithAction burnout level.
I’m going to leave out the traditional political rant this year. Trump is a nightmare which, almost impossibly, has gotten worse since the election. I’m not sure that we are going to be truly rid of him any time soon, but I can’t wait for January 20th, even if he does something ugly to try to spoil the Inauguration. He’ll be out of power, but this country is still terribly screwed up and it’s hard to see things getting magically better any time soon. I hope I’m wrong and that Biden has some special sauce that will everything wonderful….
Greetings from Judie – – I know we’re really sick and tired of this damn pandemic, but I also know I have a lot to be grateful for. I’m still busy at work, doing more emerging payments law (cryptocurrencies and even cannabis payments!). Yet working remotely in New Jersey has made me start to think a little wistfully about slowing down and having more fun. We’ll see what happens in 2021. I’m also glad that we’ve managed so far to keep our health and occasionally see kids and friends remotely, from a distance, with masks. I’m taking a meditation course, a class on writing screenplays, a “science of well-being” class, and Nick & I manage to work out with a trainer (via zoom of course) twice a week. So we’re not turning entirely into couch potatoes (but we do seem to watch a lot of TV.) My big news is that I got my Lithuanian Citizenship this year! Since my mom was born in Lithuania, this was something I’d been pondering doing for years, and my kids finally convinced me that it would be a good idea. Since Lithuania’s in the EU, it’s handy for traveling, and it’s kind of cool to be a citizen of the world…. See passport below! Also three other photos with good memories – our house at Halloween, the view from our Hotel Room in NYC on Saturday night Sept 7 after they called the election for Biden, and finally, Nick and me shortly before we walked across the George Washington bridge with a bunch of our UU friends…
Hope to see you all in 2021. – Judie
PS – (I really miss parties. I dream about them…)
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