Created 4/10/96 by Alan K. Thompson & Sarah C. Wayland (twacks@his.com) Last modified Sat, Mar 20, 1999.

1995

What do you mean, "This is the tenth one"???

Well, here it is, our tenth annual newsletter! Which means, of course that we have been married nearly TEN (10) (or as the Greeks would say, deka) YEARS! We aren't old enough to have been married that long. Come to think of it, our parents aren't old enough to have children who have been married that long! But here it is, and the passing of time is undeniable-- we both have more wrinkles, and our perspective on the world is surely different than it was ten years ago. As you will read below, this year has been one of mixed blessings. We have had many wonderful experiences, but there have been some hard times as well.

HARD TIMES

The year started off badly with the precipitous decline and death of Alan's mother on February 1st. We both learned so much from her over the years, and her death was a tremendous loss. We cannot say enough about her positive attitude throughout her illness and indeed, throughout her life. One of her most impressive qualities was her keen interest in discussing issues of all kinds, from political to scientific, at any time. She was an incredible woman, and the world is a sadder place without her. We will miss her immeasurably.

WONDERFUL TIMES

Although the loss of Carol May has had a tremendous impact on us both, we have had a number of wonderful things happen too. The cycle of life was reaffirmed for us when we welcomed our niece Charlotte into the world on February 6th-- she was born to Alan's brother Kelvin and his wife Susan. Because we were still in Austin, we were actually in the hallway outside the hospital room when she was born! It was very exciting! We are bummed that we live so far from her, but we hope to see more of her and her parents as she grows up.

At the beginning of April, we flew to Athens to visit our friends Doug and Joanna who were there for the year. While there, we traveled to Delphi ( a must see for anyone who goes!) and the island of Santorini. The ferry trip to Santorini was a good reminder for Alan as to why Sarah likes to take Dramamine before travelling. My word, she was VIOLENTLY sick! Everyone else on the boat was sick just from watching her. Or maybe they were sick because the seas were rough.... We were very glad we'd brought along a lot of ZipLoc bags, but would like to find a source of opaque ones. The other thing we really must say about Greece in early April is that it is cold! Before we left, we read all these guide books that were saying how blasted hot it is in Greece, and how you should dress to be cool. Then we would get e-mail from our friends in Athens who were trying to brace us for just how cold it was.... we now appreciate things about American showers like our LARGE and EXPANSIVE hot water heaters (bet you never thought about how great it is to be able to take a 20 minute shower with hot water the whole time!)

Well despite the cold, Greece was wonderful, and we would go there again in a second. The language (and alphabet) are difficult at best, but the people are so friendly and the general attitude so mellow that it was a perfectly delightful vacation. In addition to being surprised by the cold, Sarah was also surprised by the mountains! She had no idea that Greece had such spectacular mountains! (Alan knew because he is Mr. Cosmopolitan Traveler Man.) Indeed, our favorite spots in Greece were hidden in scenic spots in the glorious mountain ranges, where you happen upon the ancient ruins of some historical place about which you have only read. It was magical, and beautiful!

Shortly after our return from Greece, we were adopted by a kitten who had been left behind when her evil owners moved out of the house across the street. Her name is Isabelle, and she is a grey tabby with white belly and paws. Rusty doesn't mind her a bit, and Stilgar and she are the best buddies ever! Finally Stilgar has a friend who WANTS to romp up and down the stairs and dash across the bed at 3am with him. Despite this minor pitfall, we are very glad she came along.

Alan got to go back to Santorini in September for a conference (it is all part of being Mr. Cosmopolitan Traveler Man), but Sarah was not bitter about this. No sirree. She liked being holed up in her home office writing a grant and thinking about that food and those beautiful mountains that Alan got to experience first-hand for a second time in one year!

As in past years, we had a great number of visitors to keep us entertained. Our friend Barry lived with us two weeks per month for the first six months of the year-- he is a professor of American Studies who was using the Smithsonian archives to do some research on one of his projects. Barry was a lot of fun, as he enjoyed mocking our taste in music and luring Alan into long discussions about almost anything imagineable. Although we were glad for Barry when his time at the Smithsonian was over (at the end of the six months, he got to return to his wife and daughter full time) we were really sad to see him go-- we both really enjoy living in a communal house and had forgotten how much we missed having roommates. It helped that Barry was the most considerate guest imagineable. If he ever wants to stay with you, we recommend it highly!

Various friends and family members stayed with us throughout the year, so we have been neither bored nor lonely. The final bash of the year came at Christmas when both of our extended families converged on our house for the Christmas celebration of the decade! All brothers, sisters, sibling spouses, the occasional niece, and parental units were able to join us, and it was a lot of fun to have everyone here. Our house handled the multitudes gracefully despite its modest size. Of course it helped that many of our guests stayed in a nearby hotel-- our hot water heater is wonderful, but we thought eleven people on one shower might be a bit much ....

IRRITATING TIMES

Work has been interesting for both of us (as per the Chinese curse "May you live in interesting times.") Sarah dropped to four days of work so she could spend more time working on some of the projects she left behind when we moved from Boston. The cutback has made a huge difference in her mental health, and things are slowly getting done (more slowly than she would like, but that's always how it is). As mentioned above, she submitted a grant that (if funded) would pay her salary and allow her to continue her research with aphasic patients. The frustrating part is that her current funding ends March 31st of this year, and because of the government budget impasse, the grant probably will not get reviewed in the timely manner needed to insure continuous funding. Fortunately, her boss submitted a grant that will almost certainly be funded. Right now we are waiting to see the budget so we will know whether NIH cut the funding for Sarah's position.... Alan too has been suffering in this irritating government showdown-- he was forbidden to work for nearly three weeks! This meant that he was able to do some work, but because he was waiting for the machine shop to make equipment for him, he is now far behind. So, although we both really love our jobs and our work, we have been experiencing some frustrations... We have found the posturing and the lacking sense of the common good in the political arena to be particularly irritating this year. We hope you all to vote in the next election, and vote intelligently. Make sure you know how your Representatives and Senators voted on the issues you care about, and vote accordingly! If you are curious about particular issues, and have web access, we highly recommend the Vote Smart site. If you don't have web access, call them at 1-800-622-7627.

RANDOM TIMES

There is so much more to tell, but we will just have to leave you with a taste of it. Our days have been filled with mad dashes to the country to see the stars, drives to Thurmont, Maryland to help our friend Anne fix up her parents' farm, compost pile tending and gardening, and one notable episode in which Sarah discoverd a cross-dressed cardboard cutout of Mr. Spock in her closet. There was a gross misperception of the burro species (Sarah had not seen a burro in a long time, and upon seeing one in Greece leaned over to Alan and whispered "That is one sorry looking horse!"), and last but not least, Alan learned that the actual vows Sarah agreed to 3329 days ago were to "Love, honor, and confuse until death do you part." She is, of course, doing her best to live up to her vows.

As we enter the new year, we wish you joy and happiness in plentiful abundance. And should you ever be in the area (DC or Baltimore), please call, or better yet, stay with us in our well-christened guest room! Our contact information is above-- Make sure your address book is up to date! And don't ask about the e-mail address (ok, you can ask: "twacks" is a combination of our initials [Thompson-Wayland-Alan-Catherine-Keith-Sarah], and "his" stands for Heller Information Services.)