December 2002

 

Happy Holiday Greetings Dear Friends and Family,

Life has its rough spots here at Gilligan-Kline World Headquarters. Our dog Hercules suffers multiple difficulties following his expensive back surgery two years ago. Currently he hops on three legs with blown-out knee ligaments. He also wears diapers and often has to take valium before we have company. But he tap dances with joy when we come home and takes immense interest in the backyard squirrels and neighbors on their decks, now visible through bare trees.


Stephany continues to travel a bumpy road. She has major mental health issues along with her fetal alcohol exposure and prenatal brain damage. It’s amazing she is as nice as she is, often so generous, artistic, and thoughtful. But she has little or no control over certain aspects of her life, and the world is not set up to accommodate her. She will be eighteen in January and is hoping for more freedom soon.

Judy recently found out she is a best-selling author, according to the Shar Music Catalog. Her book is Violin Verses, a book of lyrics for Suzuki violin pieces, which she wrote when the kids were taking their early violin lessons in Davis. This critical acclaim is giving her confidence to write about the Stephany saga and possibly seven or eight novels. Mostly, she spends her time teaching English as a Second Language and Literacy at Whittier School, the oldest continuously operating school in Colorado, less than ten minutes from home by car. She has a busy time of it with Latino family nights, the Families and School Together Program, and her perennial pursuit of Spanish. This summer she spent a month at a language school in Cuernavaca, Mexico, living with a host family. She did not have to cook or do housework for the entire time! Claudia, an AFS friend of Caitlin’s, arrived last week from Paraguay for a few months of language exchange and to fill up our empty basement.

Caitlin will be home for the holidays from Stanford where she is a sophomore. We get ecstatic emails from her about the square dance club she set up, the other dance group and the singing group she belongs to, $100 a night babysitting jobs, and her boyfriend. She seems to be going for a major in Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity with a possible double major in psychology and minor in dance. She still enjoys violin lessons, too. This summer she worked as a tour guide at Celestial Seasonings Tea Company here in Boulder and got us a life supply of tea in squashed boxes from the free bin. When she is here for quarter break, we will be sewing fringe shirts for the boys on the square dance team. Pictures are on her website, www.stanford.edu/~ckline, as well as on the Cardinal Whirlwind’s website, www.stanford.edu/~mgkumar.

Zack, the working musician, is performing and teaching in the Twin Cities. He recently appeared as a guest with the up-and-coming bluegrass/jamgrass Yonder Mountain String Band, whom we've known since they formed in Colorado a few years ago. He also appeared in a recent children's theater production of "Bridge to Terrabithia," in which he devised music to underscore the dialogue and for the entr'actes. His main gig is teaching violin at East Metro Music Academy and assistant teaching group violin classes in several private schools. Last summer Zack bought a white, new-style VW beetle, which he named "Alan Ginsbug." He is happy with his own apartment and wonderful girlfriend Liz. Check his website for photos and projects at

http://members.tcq.net/bobdylan/index.html.

Caitlin and Zack are not the only performers in the family. David plays guitar in a bluegrass band, the Table Mountain Boys, with local shows at work, parties, and the American Legion. His work continues to focus on "technology transfer" projects to promote the use of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies as part of sustainable development partnerships with developing countries. This year he began working in West Africa, particularly Ghana, which he really enjoys. He has made friends and colleagues there and brought home some current Ghanaian Afro-pop. We have also met several Ghanaian expatriates living in and around Boulder, many of whom are musicians. David has also been to Nigeria, almost right next door but seemingly a different world—a much more difficult place to get anything done. David maintains a web site at http://www.well.com/~kline – but he stole most of the pictures from Caitlin.

 We've all had a good year, all in all. A collage of pictures of us (100k) can be found here

Wishing you all a very lovely holiday season and fulfilling new year.

 

David, Judy, Zack, Caitlin, and Stephany

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