Christmas Letter to Friends & Family
For those of you who we don't have a snail mail address, I am posting our annual Christmas missive onto our blog for posterity's sake. So here goes...2006 summed up in a nutshell.
"December 2006
With Warm Holiday Greetings to Our Family & Friends!
We write this note having made it through our first year of marriage and over six years as a couple. 2006 was certainly an eventful year, and we hope that for many of you who our contact with is infrequent are well and that you’ll let us know how you are doing!
For us, 2006 began rather quietly and predictably. After finishing classes in December 2005, Alyssa graduated on January 25 with her M.Ed. in Policy, Planning, and Administration from Boston University’s School of Education. Life was pretty much “business as usual”, with Alyssa keeping an eye out and applying for more appropriate (and hopefully better paying) professional opportunities given her experience level and newly attained masters degree. It goes without saying that given the stressful atmosphere working with so many over-anxious, hyper-involved parents that she was ready for a change.
Unfortunately, with the spring came a completely unpredictable event. Our home was burglarized on May 10 and gone with it was nearly all of Alyssa’s jewelry (including her wedding jewelry, class rings, and heirlooms passed down to her from her great-grandmother, grandmother, and mother). This certainly dampened Alyssa’s graduation (she walked in Commencement ceremonies May 14) and made for a very anxious spring/early summer. This event was the catalyst for nearly all of the remaining highlights of the year.
For starters, after a tussle with our landlord, we were able to reasonably secure our residence, break our renewal of our lease, and then we had to find a new, more secure, apartment (no easy feat in late June/early July, when much of the apartment inventory has already been commandeered by students). This was even more difficult as Keith’s status as an employee was still on a consultant-basis (the result of much bureaucratic wrangling) and Alyssa was seeking a new job—so we didn’t know what would be the best combination of security, convenience, and cost. We snatched up the first place that seemed to fit the bill, still in the Allston area, as it was an area we were familiar with and the best combination of safety and price for staying within the city since we enjoy an urban lifestyle.
At the same time, Alyssa, frustrated with a lack of support helping her find a transfer within BU, decided to go ahead and give notice July 7 to assist with the move and work more on finding a better job. Her last day was July 28, and she parted on amicable terms—expressing that it was simply time for something new. August was filled with packing, scraping, painting, unpacking, arranging furniture—in addition to traveling to Alyssa’s hometown to throw a bridal shower for her best friend. September came with retrieving furniture Labor Day weekend (a far cry than what we had done the year before) and more unpacking. After applying for a few positions, in mid-September, Alyssa was pleased to receive offers to interview at several local universities, most of the offers coming from Harvard University (her first choice). After weeks of interviewing, Alyssa was hired on October 19 to work at Harvard Business School as a faculty assistant within the Division of Research and Faculty Support beginning October 23. To date, things are going very well at HBS and Alyssa is psyched to be able to take advantage of all of Harvard’s extensive classes, workshops, and benefits as well as the nice pay raise and less stressful environment.
As of September 1, when Keith’s arrangements for permanent employment were continuing to be delayed, he decided to post his resume and other portfolio details online on Monster.com. For the next month, Keith was called almost on a daily basis by recruiters interested in his skill set and experience. On October 25, only two days after Alyssa started her job, Keith was offered employment at P3I, a government contractor, working at the Volpe Center in Kendall Square, Cambridge. So now we are both working on the other side of the river, but our move to 65 Ashford has proved very convenient for Alyssa’s commute, and not bad for Keith either.
Looking ahead to 2007, we are looking forward to settling into 65 Ashford Street, and we will likely stay here (if possible) until September 2008. It goes without saying that we both hate moving and are not up to another relocation at least for another 2 years. After that, we hope to be able to purchase a condo within the city or a single-family home outside of Boston, relatively convenient to our places of work. Luckily for us, Harvard has extensive workshops for would-be homeowners, and even its own real estate office, so we will be taking advantage of those opportunities. Also on the agenda for Summer 2007, we hope to be able to travel (as we were completely unable to this summer). Alyssa, as many of you know, spent a considerable amount of time in Sweden in her youth and is eager to return to see the sights and those she still keeps in contact with. Thanks to us both having nice paid vacation packages this is now possible!
We wish you all the very best this upcoming year and hope that you will drop a line—especially if we haven’t heard from you recently!!!
Cordially,
Alyssa & Keith"
"December 2006
With Warm Holiday Greetings to Our Family & Friends!
We write this note having made it through our first year of marriage and over six years as a couple. 2006 was certainly an eventful year, and we hope that for many of you who our contact with is infrequent are well and that you’ll let us know how you are doing!
For us, 2006 began rather quietly and predictably. After finishing classes in December 2005, Alyssa graduated on January 25 with her M.Ed. in Policy, Planning, and Administration from Boston University’s School of Education. Life was pretty much “business as usual”, with Alyssa keeping an eye out and applying for more appropriate (and hopefully better paying) professional opportunities given her experience level and newly attained masters degree. It goes without saying that given the stressful atmosphere working with so many over-anxious, hyper-involved parents that she was ready for a change.
Unfortunately, with the spring came a completely unpredictable event. Our home was burglarized on May 10 and gone with it was nearly all of Alyssa’s jewelry (including her wedding jewelry, class rings, and heirlooms passed down to her from her great-grandmother, grandmother, and mother). This certainly dampened Alyssa’s graduation (she walked in Commencement ceremonies May 14) and made for a very anxious spring/early summer. This event was the catalyst for nearly all of the remaining highlights of the year.
For starters, after a tussle with our landlord, we were able to reasonably secure our residence, break our renewal of our lease, and then we had to find a new, more secure, apartment (no easy feat in late June/early July, when much of the apartment inventory has already been commandeered by students). This was even more difficult as Keith’s status as an employee was still on a consultant-basis (the result of much bureaucratic wrangling) and Alyssa was seeking a new job—so we didn’t know what would be the best combination of security, convenience, and cost. We snatched up the first place that seemed to fit the bill, still in the Allston area, as it was an area we were familiar with and the best combination of safety and price for staying within the city since we enjoy an urban lifestyle.
At the same time, Alyssa, frustrated with a lack of support helping her find a transfer within BU, decided to go ahead and give notice July 7 to assist with the move and work more on finding a better job. Her last day was July 28, and she parted on amicable terms—expressing that it was simply time for something new. August was filled with packing, scraping, painting, unpacking, arranging furniture—in addition to traveling to Alyssa’s hometown to throw a bridal shower for her best friend. September came with retrieving furniture Labor Day weekend (a far cry than what we had done the year before) and more unpacking. After applying for a few positions, in mid-September, Alyssa was pleased to receive offers to interview at several local universities, most of the offers coming from Harvard University (her first choice). After weeks of interviewing, Alyssa was hired on October 19 to work at Harvard Business School as a faculty assistant within the Division of Research and Faculty Support beginning October 23. To date, things are going very well at HBS and Alyssa is psyched to be able to take advantage of all of Harvard’s extensive classes, workshops, and benefits as well as the nice pay raise and less stressful environment.
As of September 1, when Keith’s arrangements for permanent employment were continuing to be delayed, he decided to post his resume and other portfolio details online on Monster.com. For the next month, Keith was called almost on a daily basis by recruiters interested in his skill set and experience. On October 25, only two days after Alyssa started her job, Keith was offered employment at P3I, a government contractor, working at the Volpe Center in Kendall Square, Cambridge. So now we are both working on the other side of the river, but our move to 65 Ashford has proved very convenient for Alyssa’s commute, and not bad for Keith either.
Looking ahead to 2007, we are looking forward to settling into 65 Ashford Street, and we will likely stay here (if possible) until September 2008. It goes without saying that we both hate moving and are not up to another relocation at least for another 2 years. After that, we hope to be able to purchase a condo within the city or a single-family home outside of Boston, relatively convenient to our places of work. Luckily for us, Harvard has extensive workshops for would-be homeowners, and even its own real estate office, so we will be taking advantage of those opportunities. Also on the agenda for Summer 2007, we hope to be able to travel (as we were completely unable to this summer). Alyssa, as many of you know, spent a considerable amount of time in Sweden in her youth and is eager to return to see the sights and those she still keeps in contact with. Thanks to us both having nice paid vacation packages this is now possible!
We wish you all the very best this upcoming year and hope that you will drop a line—especially if we haven’t heard from you recently!!!
Cordially,
Alyssa & Keith"
posted by Alyssa at 7:44 PM
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