Happy Holidays. I hope you had a fantastic year and that the next is even better!

1997 was a comfortable year: no great highs; no great lows.

Work: I'm still a Marketing Manager for New Hope Communications. For a while, my future there was shaky. But, we hired a very creative Marketing Director and the pressures of last year have subsided - I think we make a really good team. I'm not sure I'll ever feel secure there, it's the nature of the company. But I'm not sweating it.

I've turned into quite the nerd, building my own personal Web site. The site's not done yet, but I'm having fun with it. I put on lots of pictures, from my recent and not so recent past. Many of you are on there (don't worry, I don't use last names.) I've also put my last seven years of holiday letters/diaries on there for anyone who has time to kill. So, go surfing and check it out.

Vacations: I spent last Christmas with my friend, Barbara, and her family in Salt Lake. It was really nice and family oriented. Barb's dad was out, and we had dinner with her neighbors too. I didn't ski; it was cold, windy and sleeting (so I'm a wimp).

In mid-March, I went to Santa Fe with a new friend, Melanie, from Ontario. We actually met in a bar in Colorado Springs. She was here on business for a few months, so I invited her up to Boulder then we ended up going to Santa Fe. We're still in e-mail contact and I hope to visit her in Ontario someday.

Again, I went to the two trade shows my company produces. Anaheim in March and Baltimore in September, where I spent an extra day with my friend, Georgina, roaming around the city playing tourist.

In April, I went to the coast of Washington State, but you'll read more about that later.

This year was the best year yet for Ray's Raft Trip and gourmet camping weekend on the Colorado River 4th of July weekend. We had a huge group of more than 50 people and had tons of fun.

We celebrated Ray's birthday, did the annual traditions (can't tell you in case you come someday), ate great food and, yes did some rafting.We rafted Friday then went to Carbondale for fireworks. We hiked up to Hanging Lake on Saturday - that was gorgeous. It looked like a Costa Rican waterfall and blue pool stuck in the middle of Colorado. After that we hung out in some hot springs.

On the way home Sunday, my friend, Lisa, and I took a wrong turn and ended up in Crested Butte just in time for the wildflower festival. It was so beautiful! Endless fields of flowers like you see in photos. On the drive home, we passed a farm with a white buffalo. I remembered a media blitz about a sacred white buffalo named Miracle being born several years before - a very important, and rare, moment for native Americans. So we stopped for photos. It was pretty spiritual. It wasn't Miracle, but that was OK.

A few moments later we had a really close call. A truck coming toward us lost its back wheel, which came rolling right toward my car. We were both going about 65mph. I still don't know how it missed us or how I steered out of it, but we figured it was the luck of the white buffalo.

Lisa, Mozelle and I drove to New Mexico for Labor Day weekend. We stayed with my friends Linda and Norm in Taos, shopped our fannys off in Taos and Santa Fe, spent a day at Ojo Caliente (one of the oldest hot spring resorts in the US) and an afternoon in another hot spring on the banks of the Rio Grande.

I did a couple mini-adventures including a silly one to the eastern plains on Memorial Day weekend. On Saturday, Lisa and I decided to go somewhere we'd never been and do odd things. First we went to the Loveland sculpture garden. Then we bought some flowers, went to a graveyard, and put them on peoples graves we didn't know for Memorial Day. I found a woman with a name much like my grandmother's. She found a baby that only lived a few days. It was weird, but felt good all the same. Then we drove east into the flatlands - yup, there's nothing out there. On Memorial Day, I went jeeping in the mountains with a friend.

Went to Pueblo for the State Fair one weekend in August. Pueblo isn't my idea of a holiday spot, but the fair was a good time. I saw my first tractor pull...it was kind of fun.

Upcoming vacation plans: I'm going back east to visit my family this Christmas - NYC and Eastern CT. Can't wait, as I missed them last year.

I decided that I want to be somewhere I've always wanted to go on New Year's Eve for the turn of the century. No local bar or house party for me...it's a once-in-a-lifetime event. So, I'm planning a trip to Africa to go on safari; probably Zimbabwe or Kenya. I'm gathering information now and can't wait! At least I have a few years to save the cash.

Visitors: I only had a couple visitors this year. My Mom came out in June and Lisa and her kids came out from PA in September. What are you waiting for?

Concerts: I didn't go to many concerts this year, but a special thing happened to make up for that. After years of searching for CDs by Michael Tomlinson, who's music I love, I finally found one. I read on the jacket how he had bought his music back from the record company. He was promoting himself through CD order forms, on the Web, and through word of mouth. I ordered a few more CDs and checked off the boxes to get on his concert mailing list and learn about his "Gathering of Friends" retreat on coast of Washington. I also e-mailed him about my music business contacts in Boulder to see if I could help him book a concert here. To make a long story short, I ended up going to the retreat in Port Townsend, WA in April, having a fantastic time listening to Michael play and meeting some pretty great people.

The other part of this special trip is that I combined it with a visit to a close high school friend who I'd lost track of many years ago, Katy. It was great to see her! She still looks the same - hasn't aged a bit. She lives in Olympia, WA with a great husband and two beautiful kids. I hope to see them again soon, here or there.

Other various concerts included the Denver Symphony, Michelle Shocked, the old band The Fairfield Four, Firefall, Peter Kater with Carlos Nakai, The Bobs, and the Winter Park Jazz Festival (Dotsero, Rippingtons, Michael Tomlinson and Stanley Jordon.) Michael played another event in Denver too.

Parties & Holidays: Once more, I went to the annual Spaghetti Bowl (a contest for the best spaghetti sauce and an excuse to watch the Super Bowl). Of course there was Michael's annual Black Tie party and a couple other parties including a 50th birthday party for my friend Susie. I made it back to the annual Kinetic Conveyance Race this year (wacky human-powered water/land/mud vehicles and thousands of spectators). It's always a good time, and this year we had really good weather for a change.

On the night of the big blizzard (you probably heard about it on the news), I had a wine tasting party. 19 of my friends braved the storm for a really great and memorable night. A few weeks later, I went to a wine tasting benefit.

I had a scrumptious Thanksgiving dinner at Lisa's house with her brother, John (the food editor of the local paper), his wife Betsy and a bunch of other folks. I did Passover, Rosh Hashana and Hanukkah with friends and there were various barbeques and birthday parties as well as a Halloween dance.

This weekend I celebrated the big 4-0 by getting the heck out of Dodge! Barbara flew me out to Salt Lake and took me to a restaurant in a yurt (a round Mongolian building) that you have to cross-country ski to. It was a blast: nine women, lots of wine and a five course gourmet meal. She's such a great friend - what a wonderful birthday gift!

A friend invited me to a fantastic dinner party at her farm put on by a group called Slow Food (and of course I joined). It's really hard to explain the group, but the movement started in Italy in response to a McDonalds opening. The purpose is to celebrate long leisurely dinners with good friends and good conversation.

Other Fun Events: Plays included a benefit Cabaret, Molier's The Would-be Gentleman and Romeo and Juliet, all performed by the local Shakespeare Festival I also saw Cirque du Solieil, which I thought was fantastic.

I spent a day at a Pow Wow in Nederland, another day on the rollercoasters at Elich Gardens and an evening at Indian Springs hot springs resort.

I got together several times with my old high school friends, Sue and Jim, who moved to Fort Collins last year. Among other things, she came down for Boulder's annual artist's gallery tour and I went up for her gallery opening (she's a great watercolor painter.)

Sports and stuff: Well, I didn't ski this year! This was the first season, since my first 22 years ago, that I didn't ski. It felt weird, but things change I guess. I suppose, after proving my post-surgery knee still worked in '96, I lost the enthusiasm in '97. I hope to go this year and don't plan to call it the end of an era.

I bought some snowshoes and have been several times. I really like it.

I took Tae Kwon Do for a while, but didn't keep it up. I was pretty excited to get back into it, having left college a green belt many years ago. I pulled a muscle in my thigh then sort of found other things to keep me busy after that. Maybe I'll try again sometime ... we'll see.

Volunteering: I'm still working on the Taste of the Nation Benefit to raise money for the hungry. I organize the restaurants that cook for the event and have enjoyed getting to know the local chefs.

This year I also got involved with the American Pie Festival. John, the food editor, runs the American Pie Council and puts on the festival. I'm getting more deeply involved in next year's event.

One day in June, I helped the parks department build a hiking trail. It was hard labor, but it was really fun too. Later in the Summer, I began to volunteer with Habitat for Humanities to help build houses. I hope to do it some more next spring.

I'm in the process of getting trained to be a Humane Society volunteer so I can walk the dogs. I want a dog really badly, but am not quite ready for the responsibility, so this sounded like a good way to get my doggie fix.

Etcetera: This summer I became fascinated with the Hale-Bopp comet. I saw it, over the mountains, every night - right from my window and porch. One night I drove out of town to photograph it. On March 23rd, the night of the eclipse, I went up to the CU observatory to see the comet, the eclipse, and the birth of a galaxy (an infant nebula). It was pretty cool!

The bald eagles that live near me kept me enthralled all winter. I saw at least one every week or two. In January, I spotted three eagles and five hawks all circling above the neighborhood hardware store. I had to alert everyone in the parking lot, as they were unaware of the show above. They left in April and returned again this November.

I was really bummed this summer. I've been obsessed with seeing a tornado all my life. There were two in Boulder (which NEVER happens) and I missed them both! I did see the rotating clouds though, after one dissipated, and that was pretty spooky.

It was Katy, in Olympia, who pointed out I had asthma. She heard me wheezing and let me use her inhaler. Amazing! I didn't know I could feel that good. I figured everyone felt this way, or that I was just more out of shape than everyone else. When I went to the doctor, he thought I could have had it most of my life.

My cat, Dustin, has had a few health problems this year. But he's 13 years old, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Right now he seems to be OK.

That's it for this year. I'd love to hear from you too. Keep in touch.

Warmest Wishes!