The Zev family’s 2012
Now that I have a blog (www.ityfaq.com), I don’t feel like I have to put every detail of my life in these year-end newsletters (“Thank goodness,” you are thinking!)
When Marc got a job at California State University Northridge’s Tseng College of Extended Learning as a Technical Analyst in December of 2011, Jackie was ecstatic, as it relieved her concerns about how they were going to pay Jonathan’s college expenses. She was also happy that, if an out of town event came up, she could go without stressing over the cost. However when Marc started his job, she did not expect to be making 10 trips in 2012!
In March, Jackie went to the Bakersfield Square Dancing Fiesta with Marc and Benjamin. In April, she and Benjamin went to Anaheim for the World Robotic Competition. In June, she went to Chicago for cousin Michael’s Bar Mitzvah, with Marc to Houston for cousin Mali’s wedding, to New York for cousin Alyssa’s Bat Mitzvah (also with Marc,) and to Spokane with Jonathan for the National Square Dancing Convention. Then in July, she went to San Jose for cousin Eitan’s Bar Mitzvah with her mom. In September, Marc, Jackie and Benjamin went to Oxnard for the Square Dancing Jubilee. In October, Jackie went to Berkeley for her 30th college reunion, and to Portland for a Sisterhood convention. Whew! Then she came home and tried to get caught up on everything that didn’t get done while she was away!
2012 was mostly been a continuation of 2011 for Benjamin. He finished 9th grade and started 10th with grades that made even his demanding parents proud of him. His extra time continues to be sucked up by Robotics, soccer, Hebrew High, chorus, square dancing, computer games, and (of course) reading. Over the summer, he went back to Gindling Hilltop Camp for the last time (he has aged out of their program) and enjoyed himself very much. One new thing in his life is that in November he started learning how to drive.
Jonathan also continued many of his 2011 activities, most notably his education at Rice University in Houston. He continued his involvement in the Rice’s MOB (the Marching Owl Band) where he plays the accordion. He is also still involved with FAST WARP (the gaming club at Rice) and the local Hillel. A new activity for Jonathan was a summer job at CSUN. He worked with Marc writing web applications and really excelled at it.
Marc has enjoyed his new job, and the 10 minute commute is hard to beat. Having just started, he didn’t have enough vacation time to accompany Jackie on all of her trips – on the other hand, he probably didn’t want to go on all of them anyway! He started a new hobby called “repoussage.” Repoussage is a metalworking technique where a malleable metal such a copper is shaped from the reverse side to create a design in low relief. It’s pretty neat, and he generated some very nice works.
We hope you have enjoyed 2012 as much as we did, and wish you a very happy 2013!
Jackie, Marc, Jonathan and Benjamin
P.S. Marc is very thankful for ityfaq.com because it makes editing this newsletter much easier!