2005: the first to move away . . .
Here's the annual update circulated around Christmas 2005,
with photos and captions added:
Greetings and best wishes for the
holiday season from Santa Cruz!
2005 marked the first time that our bustling household
actually reduced in size. During the summer, Nick moved out, into a shared house
near the Wharf (Pier in England) where he can walk to surf Steamer Lane.
Needless to say, he’s delighted, but ouch! It may be quieter, but this is the
beginning of a process that both of us parents would willingly delay.
On the right is a Boardwalk shot of the Log Ride, taken by the ride's own
camera. Nick had taken Alex
and Charlie for an evening's entertainment during the
summer of 2005, after he left home. Looks like they were all having fun! Unfortunately, we were
obliged to doctor this photo to remove an offensive gesture. This is the sort of
thing that makes us worry about the influence of the older children on the younger:
the offensive gesture was not Nick's!
Other photos of Nick with the little guys
can be found here.
Nick made the Dean’s List (which means he did very well at
his studies) his first semester at Cabrillo College, and found a summer job
programming that he held part-time for about a year. Cabrillo is the local
junior college, which hopefully prepares students for the University of
California or similar follow-on. Of course, his driver’s license was suspended,
but that’s another story, one that we will not go into here. . . . We know less
about what he’s doing these days, but did hear that he has been recording some
freestyle rapping with friends. He still visits us, in particular
Charlie and
Alex.
Daphné graduated High School a semester early, and is also
studying at Cabrillo. The photo was taken by her maman at her graduation from Harbor High
School. Even Alban smiled for the camera on that occasion!
She too works part-time, holding a few jobs this year, ranging
from a hostess in Chili’s, a Tex-Mex restaurant, to a cashier in the local
Halloween store. She’s now a customer service rep. at Gottschalk’s department
store for the holiday season. We liked the Chili’s job, because she seated us so
quickly! What does she intend to do with what she earns? Spend as much of the
winter as she can afford skiing with friends at the Heavenly resort in Lake
Tahoe. For her 18th birthday, she spent five days with friends in
Manhattan, yes that one, paid for herself. She loved the Met, Greenwich Village,
the night life, you name it. In short, she had a “blast!”
Alban (on your left in the photo) had a red letter year.
Not only did he turn 16, he also began gently applying himself to his studies.
With his great personal charm, it is hard to imagine him unable to make a
living, but we are very reassured by the improvement in his study habits. He’s
doing very well in his computer graphics class. His computer’s screen saver has
featured an attractive girl for a while now, but we know little about her or
about the rest of Alban’s active social life, which keeps him busy outside the
home most weekends. He skateboards all over town and visits Nick regularly.
Nick’s house has become a kind of second family home, parents excluded for some
unfathomable reason!
It’s Tom’s year in orthodontic braces, meaning that it is
hard to get him to smile for the camera. He too has marked turning 16 by making
more effort in his studying, but it is his guitar which has really preoccupied
him. This has its good side, his obvious enthusiasm and enjoyment of what he is
learning, as well as hearing him play tunes that we recognize and can identify.
And its bad side, hearing those same tunes 50 times with loud backing from his
stereo! More shots of Tom and his guitar are on the music
page. He played comp soccer for the first time this season, and proved to be a
big and strong defender: he’s almost as tall as his dad already, but built
solid! He spends more time in France than any of the other children.
Charlie (on a dune in Death
Valley in the photo below) is a ten-year
old pre-teen. One of the most visible qualities of our household is the
influence of the older (excluding for this purpose the parents) on their younger
admirers. So we now have three teens and one would-be teen in the house. Ouch!
He remains football crazy, and in the season just ended
his under-10 team came
first in one of the best under-10 leagues in Northern California. Needless to
say his coach, Paul Gooch, is English! Charlie is a right-wing midfielder,
scored a couple of times directly by bending in corner kicks, and has helped
make more goals than anyone else on his team. If only his father (completely
objective, of course) could calm down on the sidelines!
Alex is another soccer wizard. He eagerly awaits the day
when Charlie will have left Happy Valley School so that
Alex can be the best
player there. At seven, he was one of the youngest on his team, a competitive
under-9 team, but held his own very well and scored a couple of great goals.
The photo below right is the portrait taken for his team, the
Santa Cruz
Sharks.
He
can also be very moving on the violin, but we’re already running up against his
boyish feeling of not wanting to do something sissy. He’s our only real
remaining cuddle bunny (although Charlie can still give a good hug from time to
time), and does very well in all subjects at school.
What can we say about the parents? Except for
Marie-Hélène,
we’re one year older and avoid mirrors like the plague.
I hung out my own
shingle this summer, which is delightfully rejuvenating even if developing a
clientele does go so slowly.
Marie-Hélène has begun to sell to friends
the very
attractive greeting cards that she made as a hobby: if you received this by
mail, you’ve just opened one! If by email, it’s an attachment. If we can find
the energy, perhaps we’ll do more with them. But finding the time between taking
the boys to school, soccer practices and the like is obviously a real challenge
for us. Vacations have been few and far between this year, but who cares! We
live in a holiday town, four miles from the beach.
Speaking of which, it’s time for a breath of Pacific Ocean
air . . ..
“May your days be merry and bright
. . .”.
Here is is our carousel of time,
and here are other annual updates of life of this family:
1994, 1995,
1996,
1997, 1998,
1999,
2000,
2001, 2002,
2003,
2004,
2006,
2007
