2010 Annual Letter

Herein find the dreaded annual letter. Enter at your own peril...
2009 ended with me submitting my M Ed thesis for publication. I had defended it Nov. 1, 2009, and it was accepted as written (but with a few minor edits). However, this was immediately followed by the gruelling process of preparing an application for the Vice-Principals pool for the Toronto District School Board. It was due and submitted January 15, the day before Jan's 65th birthday.
This meant that, while I managed to contact and gather together a wonderful roster of family and dear friends, because he chose to celebrate at home, the cake was a rather garish Costco creation – with thick colourful icing balloons on top. The weather cooperated so the sun porch was open to accommodate the crowd. No dinner – drinks & snacks & birthday cake. A good time was had by all.
The interview in March went well, and I made it into the VP pool. However, the school year ended without an appointment. Jan taught in May and June, so both of us were able to take the entire summer off, a rarity.
We had a great trip to England in perfect weather in July, while Ontario baked in heat waves. Although it was one week in London and one B&Bing the South West, full of cultural adventures, we still had some lovely visits with family and friends. Highlights included our trip to Salisbury to visit our cousin Sheila, her brother Brian and his wife Brenda. We toured and visited with Sheila during the day. Then off she went to prepare for the evening. Brian and Brenda visited while they fed us tea – our first taste of scones with strawberry preserves and clotted cream – yum! We ended the visit at a concert given by Sheila’s choir in a Wren designed country church. Sheila brought us to the train and we were off to London again.
We had a lovely evening with Erin’s friend Jamie & saw him again at the fantastic play, Money, presented by the theatre company he assists. We also shared a pint or two with our cousin Yvonne in the impressive neighbourhood where she works – looked like embassy row! We set off to B&B in a rented car and did not too badly with Jan driving and me navigating. After our first night in a (real!) castle, our travels included Tintagel. There we spent a delightful dinner at an old mill where we met up with nieces Joanne, Sandra, Kathy and Joanne’s dear friend Trish. Many adventures later, we arrived for our last afternoon in Oxford. There we visited Joanne at her home and met her cute dog, Ledaq(sp?).
Once back on this side of the pond, we spent a week at a cottage on a tiny lake in the Muskoka district which turned out to be a real treat. Jack came up, as did Meghan, Mike, Sophia and Karl. The weather was fantastic once again & the water fine. Jack taught Sophia to fish and she caught a BIG big-mouth bass. Truly grand.
We also had time to pop out to BC and surprise our friend Gloria for her 70th birthday party. We stayed with Zac, Cara and Fiona for those few nights, which gave us another memorable moment – a glorious day trip to Salt Spring Island market by ferry. We red-eyed back to get to Mom’s 97th birthday party.
Erin was working all summer so our visits with her were here and there. All good, her work led to a job offer this fall at Proctor& Gamble. A great new full-time job! And we did meet her new beau, Spencer.
The big surprise for me was an unexpected appointment to a VPship on Sept 7 – and I really haven’t come up for air yet. City Adult Learning Centre houses 2 high schools, the Adult one for 1800+ over 21 year-olds (new Canadians, upgrades, etc) and CALC Secondary Ed-Vance program for 600+ highly ‘at risk’ 18-21 year-olds. I am the new VP for Ed-Vance. It’s been a slice – every one of the students have had huge obstacles to overcome to get their 30 high school credits such as crushing poverty, legal issues, single parenthood, chronic truancy and every heartbreaking story imaginable. It is proving a powerful and rewarding challenge.
This fall Jan taught 3 days per week of very large classes of Psychology as usual. He is well and ticks along looking after the house, yard, car and books, leaving me to commute happily by GO and TTC. One nice thing about the new job at CALC is that there are no night events. However, I do have to stay to catch up for one night most weeks.
Well, that’s about it for this year. The snow came and stayed, so we had a bit of white for Christmas. And according to the walnut harvest and activity level of birds and squirrels scavenging in our back yard, it promises to be a snowy winter. And here we stay in our little house. So you always know where to find us.