Dear Friends,
Time again for the Annual Cory
Letter. This year has been one of tragedy and adventure. Let’s reflect
on the tragedy of September 11th and share our adventures.
Earl’s contract at Marin
General Hospital continues at three days a week. The other two days he
works from his office in the downstairs apartment on websites and other
little projects Chris thinks up.
Chris’ company continues…
(That’s much more than a lot of other dot-com’ers can say). She
continues to travel. One week in Memphis took her to Graceland (home of
Elvis), Old Man River (Mississippi), Beale Street (Birth of the Blues),
and the Lorraine Motel (Home of the National Civil Rights Museum). She
worked at DreamWorks for six months, where she bought DVDs and Shrek
toys at the company store.
Vibeké is still attending Santa
Rosa College and worked this year in the College day-care center. After
finishing the nursing program, she plans to become a surgical nurse. She
is working very hard to obtain her goal. In September, she reached a
milestone birthday (5*6 = 3*10 = the big 3 Oh). She and Chris celebrated
by going to the Madonna Concert in Lost Wages.
A Heavenly Christmas (Earl, Chris, Vibeke & Pablo)
For Christmas 2000, the four of
us (Earl, Chris, Vibeke, and Pablo) skied Heavenly Valley, South Lake
Tahoe. This was the first time that any of us had ever spent the
Christmas holiday in a Hotel with HBO. Pablo and Vibeke scoured the town
for tamales, avocados, chilis and chips to surprise us with a “traditional”
dinner.
This year we saw great plays with
Marie Gregor at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. Vibeke joined us
for Glimmer starring Charlene Woodward. In March, it was off to Las Vegas for a weekend with Anne
Lowry and Lois Leynse. In one evening, we took in "O" by
Cirque du Soleil, Blue Man Group and of course “The Tables”. Later
in the month, the six of us (Earl, Chris, Bob Walden, Adele Schmitz, and
Ed and Marie Gregor) headed to the Mark Taper Forum to see Alan Alda
playing Richard Feynman (Nobel Physicist, teacher, storyteller, and
bongo player) in QED.
St. Patrick's Day found us eating
our traditional Green Meal with 30 “Irish-For-A-Day” friends.
April was a busy month. We saw
George Shearing (yes he’s still alive) and his trio at Yoshi’s Jazz
Club with Margie and Richard.
Victoria and John
Our Camarillo neighbor and Vibeke’s
childhood playmate Vicky (who latter became a real Playboy Playmate) and
John were married in Big Sur. What a privilege to get invited to such an
event. Pablo, really liked it, all the bridesmaids were bunnies (ask him
about the pool party). The following weekend, we were off to Los Angeles
for our niece, Reva Alexander, and Michael Hawk's Wedding at La Casa de
Los Cinco Baños.
Reva and Mike
Pablo finished his baseball
career at Laney College in late May. He returned to Mexico in time to
celebrate his brother’s, Aldofo, birthday. A month later, his mother,
Cristina, joined us on our Alaskan Adventure.
That’s number 18 on the mound
Chris plays tennis every chance
she has. Every Saturday she plays in a tournament (and any other day she
can get away). She continues taking lessons from Anne Lowry while in
Oakland; in LA, she spends her evenings taking lessons from Kevin
Pollock (he looks like Rafter!).
Christina, Cristina, Earl, Adele Xochitl, Eduard,
Marie, Robert aboard the Carnival Spirit
In July, it was off to Vancouver,
Canada where we boarded the Carnival Sprit for a weeklong cruise along
the Inland Passage to Alaska. We visited small towns, soared with the
eagles, trekked upon glaciers and ate.
Highlight of the year: Trekking on a glacier
After disembarking at Seward, we
split up. The four in our group, Earl, Chris, Cristy and Xochitl (Chris’
Aunt),
traveled by train and plane
through the Alaskan interior, visiting Anchorage, Talkeetna, Denali
National Park and Fairbanks. Among other things, we saw a grizzly bear
and Mt. McKinley. We even hopped on a plane and stopped above the Artic
Circle in Kotzebue to walk on the tundra and then dashed to Nome for a
little gold panning and mushing.We sipped into June with the
Third Annual Cory Tequila Tasting. About 50 people managed to taste over
30 different tequilas. Don Rose once again supplied suitably engraved
glasses for the occasion and Chris cooked Mole and other Mexican goodies
for the crowd.
Chris continues to work in our
small front yard, planting flowers. This year we replaced the wall,
window, and door in the downstairs bedroom. While we were at it, we had
the house bolted to the foundation. Now the entire house can slide down
the hill as a unit during the next “Big One”.
The new wall, fence, and garden
Well that is a summary of our
life in 2001. We look forward to hearing from you. We accept letters,
phone calls, visits, e-mail, faxes, etc. If you are ever out our way,
let us know so we can get together. Sunday, waffles anyone?
