Us, November 24, 2018: Roy, Shadow, Leo, Ondine, John
Us, November 24, 2018: Roy, Shadow, Leo, Ondine, John
Yes, it's Old Year's Night and time for our annual Kuraoka family Year In Review. And 2018 was a busy, busy year. Highlights included a cruise to Alaska thanks to Barbara, a new car, and Roy heading off to college in Colorado Springs!
Roy's last year of high school at Patrick Henry was marked by his selection as Student of the Month. He also wrote and directed Madeline: The Musical, an original one-act musical, which ran for several nights on the Patrick Henry stage! He went to the Senior Prom with his leading lady Maddy, and graduated with a GPA of 4.33 and three Letters in Theatre. He also had a semi-professional gig running the spotlight for two separate runs of Bring It On at the Horton Grand Theatre downtown.
In the summer Roy moved to a dorm in Colorado Springs, where he attends the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, majoring in Business. His roommates are AJ, Alex, and Jake. So far, he has found college classes to be relatively easy, and he's definitely enjoying the cooler weather in Colorado! One adventure he had, was falling on an icy patch and injuring his wrist. Right before the semester ended, he and his roommates (mostly Alex) decorated their dorm door for a contest, which they easily won.
Leo is a junior at Patrick Henry high school. In 2018 he composed all original music for Madeline: The Musical, a real collaboration of sweat and musical skill. He also composed, for Patrick Henry, original theme music for the Patriot Report, a weekly broadcast. That was actually a paid gig, which led to a couple other paid gigs composing music for various projects. In 2018, Leo earned his blue belt in judo.
Ondine has been at Kaiser for 3 years! In 2018, she was awarded the Orange Frog, a recognition from her peers. She flew up to Berkeley for a multi-day workshop. And, at the end of the year, she went out on strike with her union; negotiations over staffing, patient access, pay, and retirement benefits are still ongoing.
John continued to swot up on literature and history, and in late 2018 submitted a FAFSA for himself with an eye towards a graduate program. As practice/warm-up, he enrolled in a college course for the first time since graduating; it's just a 100-level online course on filmed plays and it starts next Spring at City College.
Shadow's big achievement was catching and killing a squirrel in our back yard. The squirrels have been especially pesty this year, so Shadow's other project has been excavating chunks of our back yard beds in search of them.
Barbara invited us along on a fabulous Carnival cruise to Alaska this past summer! And, she adopted a dog from the animal shelter, a little golden chihuahua-like fellow she named Sparky. Sparky and Shadow have become dog friends.
Frances fell and broke her hip right before Easter. She got an emergency hip replacement at Kaiser, then was moved to Garden Crest Rehab Center for about a week. In April she moved to Vista Cove, a senior living community in Arcadia. It's likely she will continue to live there indefinitely, as the food and staff are excellent, and her room, a studio apartment on the ground floor, has a wonderful view of the inner courtyard garden. We moved some of her furniture in after Christmas, with an eye toward clearing her house on Crown Avenue. She remains active and independent, and in fact after her hip replacement traveled with us to Mammoth Lakes and San Diego, and participated in numerous outings arranged by Vista Cove.
Trips in 2018: Our 20th anniversary weekend at a Julian B&B. Two visits to Colorado Springs, first for Roy and John for registration and later for Roy and Ondine for move-in. The Ishida clan had a reunion weekend in Mammoth Lakes; we rented a very nice condo through VRBO in Snowcreek, and Frances stayed with us. On the way home we stopped at Manzanar. Finally, there was our spectacular summer cruise to Alaska on the Carnival Legend with Barbara. We flew to Seattle and boarded the ship there. From there we went to Tracy Arm Fjord, Skagway, Juneau, Ketchikan, Victoria, BC, and back to Seattle. Highlights of that trip included cruising Tracy Arm Fjord to Sawyer Glacier, kayaking in Juneau, a double-decker bus tour of Victoria at night, and even a couple of prizes! Leo won the ship-wide Connect Four tournament, and John won the Match Up tournament, so they both came home with little golden Carnival Legend trophies as souvenirs.
New acquisitions in 2018 include new front landscaping, which we're very happy with. John's 1996 Infiniti G20 died after 22 years, and we replaced it with a brand-new 2018 Honda Fit EX-L in Helios Yellow. His old car got donated. John's old CPAP also died, and Kaiser replaced it with a new ResMed AirSense 10 Auto-Set. He also got a used metal detector (Bounty Hunter Elite 2200), and a used DSLR (Nikon D3300 and two lenses,18-55 and 55-200). Ondine was issued a new work laptop and a new rolling backpack for her work laptop. In addition to turning in her old laptop, she also got to turn in her pager! We also got new non-stick Greenpan frypans, and a new-to-us used Weber Q220 propane grill, for which we swapped our old full-size Weber kettle grill.
Plays: Hamilton (San Diego Civic), Shrek (PHHS), Bring It On (Horton Grand), Charles III (Coronado Playhouse), American Mariachi (The Old Globe), Amadeus (Roy and John at the Ent Centre in Colorado Springs), Madeline, The Musical (Roy and Leo's original collaboration, PHHS), Les Miserables (SDC), The King and I (SDC), The Tempest (TOG), Much Ado About Nothing (TOG), Phantom of the Opera (SDC), Fun Home (Lyceum), Macbeth (CPH), Julius Caesar (TOG MFA), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Globe for All), Anne Lamott (Ondine and Lucy, Balboa Theatre), Waitress (SDC), and A Christmas Carol (Glendale Centre Theatre) - wow that's 18 plays!
Movies: not so much - Crazy Rich Asians and Bohemian Rhapsody, although the kids saw a few more with their friends.
Born: new cousins! Nicholas Junzo DeSilva in April. Wesley Damon James Cohen in December.
Died: our neighbor across the street Mr. Hanna died in December. He was a big part of the lives of everyone up and down the street.
In other news ...
California: The Camp Fire was the deadliest wildfire in California history, killing over 88 people and destroying more than 20,000 buildings. This wildfire was somewhat near where we go camping in the Sierras.
Big national news stories for 2018 include a looming U.S. government shut-down over funding for Trump's border wall; former president George H.W. Bush died; long-time maverick Arizona senator and perennial presidential candidate John McCain died; Ford and General Motors announced plans to downsize production, all but ceasing making small cars in favor of more-profitable SUVs and cross-overs; continued mass shootings at schools and other public places, the vast majority by American citizens and legal gun owners; Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed as US Supreme Court justice despite credible accusations of sexual assault; net neutrality rules ended; Elon Musk's company SpaceX launched the world's most powerful reusable rocket, which included a Tesla roadster in its payload; the market turned rockier but continued its general upward trend despite downturns; and Apple became the first trillion-dollar American company.
In global news, Brexit continued to be an issue with hard-liners pushing British Prime Minister Teresa May for a "hard exit" and others urging variations of a more nuanced transition; climate change continues to bring harsher hurricanes, hotter heatwaves, and more-extreme weather in general; British Prince Harry married American actress Meghan Markle; Iraq held its first democratic election since driving out DAESH; and President Trump met with Kim Jong-Un in an historic U.S.-North Korea summit meeting.
In news beyond the planet, NASA launched a solar probe, the Curiosity rover discovered further evidence of water on Mars, and the Insight lander arrived successfully on Mars.
Neighborhood gas prices began the year at about $3.19 per gallon, rose to over $4, but are currently around $3.39 per gallon.
Remember, photos from 2018 can be seen on our 2018 photos page. To see what we're up to now, visit our regularly updated weekly journal!
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