Christmas card from 2004: Working at home

I am repurposing the Christmas card messages I've written since 2001. From old Christmas cards to new blog posts. One a day. Merry Christmas.

I have to admit, for about a day after Tom showed me his artwork for this card, I didn’t get the three wise men thing—about looking for babes. He said you’d be quicker on the uptake.

The first year of my free-lance writing and editing business has been great! I left my salaried job in January and became the sole proprietor of Wiseman Communications. I’ve had steady work (including writing two books) and have learned a lot about estimating project time, negotiating fees, and what to do when you didn’t realize your quarterly estimated taxes were due before the end of the quarter.

These are the best parts of my new gig:

• Working at home: I get to be with the kitties all day, and I can go to the grocery store in the mornings (which happens to be when the firemen are there, and I have a thing for firemen).
• Feeling totally free, independent, and in control. If I have a deadline and choose to play Free Cell or go to the dry cleaners, it’s up to me. I can work at 10 pm if I want (as if I would ever be up that late).
• Finishing a job and sending an invoice for it. There is a great sense of “finishing” and going on to something new.
• The worst part is being alone for long periods (defined as more than 20 minutes).

Tom’s latest project—the pond—just delights me. It has two levels (making a waterfall) and a fountain with seven flexible spouts. When the balcony door in my office is open, I am cheered by the sound of its gurgles and splashes. Looking ahead to summer pond activity, Tom bought the pet store’s last five goldfish, now in a tank in the living room. The cats are highly entertained.

And speaking of the cats, they’re lukewarm about the card design, but they did get the “babes” double meaning before I did.

Love to all.

Christmas card from 2003: Starting my business, high school reunion

I am repurposing the Christmas card messages I've written since 2001. From old Christmas cards to new blog posts. One a day. Merry Christmas.

  

My biggest news is that I’m quitting my day job at the end of 2003! I’m going into business for myself, which, as all of you who are already there will attest—is going from a day job to a day-and-night job.

My new writing and editing business is Wiseman Communications. My business-card slogan, “Clear, Concise, Correct.” (I’m demonstrating the concise part in this tiny corner of our “joint” card, but who’s measuring . . . )

In August I reunioned with my 1963 high-school class. As I continue to communicate with my old friends and “get acquainted” after 40 years, I am gaining valuable insights (at least as good as near-drowning epiphanies). Getting to know grown-ups whom you knew at age 8 and 13 and 18—what an opportunity to see how life works! The timid become self-assured; the confused see clearly; the awkward become graceful; the gauche stay that way and get a PhD; the witty (well, Roger and I, anyway) continue droll. Everyone gains wisdom and perspective (even the PhDs). The “reunion experience” is continuing for me, and I hope to write more about it—even before the next Christmas card!

Love to all.

Christmas card from 2002: Spain and Movies

I am repurposing the Christmas card messages I've written since 2001. From old Christmas cards to new blog posts. One a day. Merry Christmas.

    

I send my love to all of you, even those of you whom I haven’t met but are on my mailing list by marriage, if you know what I mean.

Having communicated love already, it seems superfluous now to report on the activities of 2002. Nevertheless, here is an abbreviated list of what’s been great for me:

•    Having house guests: In order of appearance: Carol-Mary-Andrea-Marianne, Hazelwoods, Goszczyckis, Louise, Andrew, Jane B.
•    The donkeys and the elephants: While taking pictures of all of Washington’s 200 donkey and elephant sculptures, I discovered new parts of town and had a great feeling of owning the city.
•    Acupuncture: I became a believer after a month of treatments last March eliminated chronic pain I had had for two years.
•    New closet in our bedroom: Who knew a closet could be life-changing? The closet is just one of Tom’s fantastic accomplishments in house remodeling, repair, and upgrades.
•    Two weeks in Spain: Cathedrals, gardens, bullet train, palaces, tapas, cerveza. Madrid, Sevilla, Córdoba, Granada, Toledo. It was fabulous.
•    First annual potluck Sunday-Before-Labor-Day Brunch: We were a small group, but I’m sure the word will spread. Hope you will join us in 2003!
•    Rachel living in New York City: How cool is that?
•    Thursday-night-movie-night tradition: I meet Tom’s train at Union Station, and we take the Metro to a 7-ish movie. Seeing some movies before they are videos has increased my ability to hold pop-culture conversations immensely!

Love to all

Christmas card from 2001: Bought a house

I am repurposing the Christmas card messages I've written since 2001. From old Christmas cards to new blog posts. One a day. Merry Christmas.

We bought a 100-year-old house, we went to Paris, I broke my ankle, Rachel got a master’s degree, we have the same jobs, Tom painted a mural over the fireplace, our two kittens turned into cats. That’s our year, though not in that exact order.

As owners of “this old house” we have a long list of projects—from the mundane (put coat hooks in closets) to the sublime (build addition on back that will have a screened deck overlooking a garden with a little waterfall cascading into a stream with a little bridge). Tom loves doing the projects, otherwise known as playing with his tools, and it usually seems to me that these tasks are very much like “men's work.” So, in a postfeminist twist that some would call ironic, it all works out: I say “do this, do that” and don’t even have to feel guilty. 

Love to all

PS. The cover art for the 2001 card is a photo of the mural Tom painted over our fireplace.