2004

If I were one of my less descriptive students I would simply say, “This year we did a lot of stuff.” And it’s true, we did. And, if you look at the picture, you can see the best thing we did all year. Baby Will as born Dec 14, a week later than anticipated, but right on time for Christmas. In addition to creating another William Norton (the sixth in a row, for those keeping count), we both quit our jobs, packed up our stuff (no point in going into what that was; suffice it to say it was a lot of stuff), and left Chicago for Denver. I am teaching in an Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound School, a public school that embraces the philosophies and practices of Outward Bound. Christine taught a graduate social work class at D.U. and works part time for a youth foundation.

I read the first draft of the letter to Christine, and she brought it to my attention that this letter is not chronological, nor does it have enough “feelings” in it. In an effort to change that, I will tell you that Christine and I had several significant milestones and wonderful trips:

January through April, we were deep into our search for jobs and homes. We visited N.Y. and L. A. to see my family, and came out to Denver in April to interview for jobs. The job hunt was successful, but we were not able to find our house until July.

In May, Christine visited the Salesmanship Club Youth Camp just before it shut its doors. Salesmanship is the place where she cut her teeth working with naughty youth; in fact, she nearly had several of her teeth knocked out while working there, but that is a story for another time. She was sad to see it close, but was able to reconnect with many wonderful old friends. Many tears were shed.

In June, she completed her fourth and final year at St Ignatius, and the freshmen she came in with graduated. There was a sense of fulfillment and completion, watching kids she had worked with so closely graduate from one of the top schools in the city.

In July, we both went up to Voyageur Outward Bound in Ely. We were a bit too pregnant to work any courses, at least Christine was. I participated in a Canoe Marathon to raise money for the school. More significantly, Christine completed her coursework and comprehensive exams for her doctorate in social work and is now “all but dissertation.” We also found a house, which was fortunate, because we were planning on moving August 1st with or without a house.

We left Chicago in August, not without some challenge. As we were packing our 25 ft. truck, we realized we had about 35 feet of stuff to pack. We managed to hunt down a truck in Indiana, and were able to escape Chicago leaving only a “Hokey Pokey Elmo” doll. We don’t miss the jobs much, or the soot from Elston Street, or even the Elmo doll (sorry Deb), but we miss our friends and the comfort of living in a city we knew inside and out. We also traded Stanley’s, our local market, for a Wal-Mart, hardly an upgrade. Fortunately, Pat, or Gadie as she is known to Mahalia, moved with us. We all live together and Pat and Christine take turns with the kids. We don’t know what we’d do without her.

We are still getting to know our way around Denver. We haven’t spent much time in the mountains yet, but we’re glad to know they’re there. We bought a house with a yard; the bunnies, coyotes, and prairie dogs we’ve seen are a pleasant change from the rats we shared our old alley with. Yes, we live on a cul de sac, yes we now own a lawn mower, and yes, I even mowed the lawn once. We are happy with our new home. Mahalia is enamored with her new pink room, and she and I have done a lot of exploring at the state park near the house. We have also tried looking around for a church where we could feel at home. We went to three churches in three weeks, ending with the Unitarian Universalist church, where Mahalia puked in the day care room; needless to say, we are still searching. As we do so, the days get longer and we continue to feel blessed in every aspect of our lives. We wish the same for all of you.

Merry Christmas.