HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
12/8/90

GREETINGS! Please forgive this Christmas form letter, but it was the best way to be sure I could tell you all that's been happening this past year. I really wanted to send more than just greetings this year, thus the short dissertation. I just wish I could hear as much about your life too. But, It sure is hard to keep up to date and in regular contact anymore. Here's my attempt:

Well, 1990 has been quite a year! For me it was filled with ups and downs but luckily ended on a wonderfully high note.

Last November, I was laid off from my job as International Sales Administrator for a data communication company. I got a little cocky though and took a few months off for the holidays and to finish my MBA thesis. I figured, with a newly earned MBA, getting a job would be a piece of cake. Not so lucky. The Boulder job market was as soft as ever and still filled with massive amounts of overqualified people. I lived on Unemployment and worked on occasion at a friend's cafe as chief cook, bottle-washer & waitress. Actually, it was really fun. The closest experience I have had yet to running a restaurant, which always intrigued me.

Then I had a brief stint trying to sell pagers (beepers) door to door to businesses. Wrong Move! I hated it and quit within a few weeks. I also used this time to start working on my cookbook again. I am writing a cookbook, organized by spice and herb, to help the everyday cook learn to use herbs, spices and flavorings more creatively. It is taking forever, but it is a productive hobby that may someday pay off too.

In May, with 2 weeks of Unemployment left, I took a job with a small marketing firm that made stickers for little kids. The product was fun and many of the people were also. Unfortunately, I was doing mostly clerical tasks and working directly for a macho-Texas-male-chauvinist-pig. I won't go into it any further, needless to say I was over qualified, underpaid and very unhappy.

But, by the time you receive this letter, I will have started work at what may be my dream job. I have been hired as Service Marketing Coordinator at another data communications company. I will be doing service contract administration as well as using my graphic abilities to re-do the service offerings, brochures and contracts. I will also travel on occasion to present the service maintenance offerings to new customers, both domestically and internationally. I almost doubled my salary, am working within 1/2 mile from my house and for the "best manager in the company" (according to my friends who work there and helped me land the job). I'm really excited!

Another big change for me...a few weeks ago, for the first time in my life, I cut my hair short. I was the first chosen "victim" of a top Denver hair designer during a makeover event at a large hotel. I love it though and have never had so many compliments. It looks sort of 1920's flapperish...a just-below-the-ears curly bob.

I have also recently made a group of really nice new friends who are fun and wonderful. Several of the women are a lot like me, and we have a great time together. I think 1991 will be a very good year!

Some other highlights of 1990:

I re-discovered water-skiing last summer after 12 years of refusing to ski (I was so awful!). But I love it now and hope to do more next summer.

I spent most of the year dating a very nice man named Steve, but unfortunately, I knew he wasn't "the one" and hesitantly ended it in August. I am single again and having fun...as a matter of fact, I was somewhat dared into putting a romance ad in the paper. I did it without thinking much, and have gotten such an overwhelming response, that I am just now trying to weed through the letters and phone-mail messages and attempt to meet some of them. The whole thing is so weird, but quite an experience. I hope I at least make some new friends.

I've been to lots of concerts and events this year too. Eric Clapton, The Who, David Bowie, Little Feat, The Radiators, David Bromberg, Paul Winter, Jazz Festivals, Blues Festivals and I'm going to the Grateful Dead next week. I've also gone to many food and crafts festivals, art openings and of course the amusement park several times to ride the rollercoasters. I did a bit of hiking and mountain biking this summer and played volleyball most every Wednesday (really just an excuse to have a middle of the week barbecue in the mountains). And, of course, lots of dinner parties.

Very few vacations though due to the job situation...A weekend at Steamboat (great skiing!) a weekend in Aspen with my Mom this summer, a weekend camping in Wyoming and a weekend rafting down the Arkansas river. Oh, yeah, a weekend up at Grand Lake, in the mountains of CO, with 30 crazy friends for a weekend party (a yearly event where they rent cabins and go wild).

Well, enough is enough. I will close for now. Till next year (or sooner!):

Warmest Wishes and Best of Holidays,

Laura