Wallin Wightman Christmas/End-of-the-Year Newsletter: Year 4 (2005)

This is our first Christmas/End-of-the-Year newsletter. Yes, we know, we wrote that it’s our fourth year, but for any of you who read that and thought “Those jerks, I never got a year 1, 2, or 3,” no worries. There was no year 1, 2, or 3 except in the back of our minds, which we banished to the mental equivalent of Death Valley and tried to forget. But you can’t fight December forever, and thus, you are now reading the first official Wallin Wightman newsletter.

So this is usually the space where people write what they’ve been doing all year and all their many achievements. But we don’t have all that many achievements. We just barely do the dishes these days and all the corners in our house are covered with cobwebs. We clean up when our friends come over, which is why if you’ve been over lately, you’re probably thinking, “But your house looked great!” Other people’s judgment on our living space is the only motivating factor for cleaning up these days.


Russell: This is my portion of the first annual, annual Wallin Wightman Christmas/End of the Year, Fourth edition, first in-print newsletter. In this section you will:

• Discover the fun of juror’s prudence
• Craft a Christmas tree out of a paper plate and elbow macaroni
• Learn how to escape from prison using an empty milk carton, bubble gum, and two-sided duct tape

This past year, I started Graduate School at California Polytechnic University for Landscape Architecture. The program will take three years of school and two years of work for a licensed landscape architect. After all of that is finished, I can then take my licensing exam.

I began classes this past summer. My landscape awareness class went on a field trip of Yosemite and California’s Central Valley. We then went into Sacramento and met with the capital’s architect in residence. The idea was that we would learn about water (or lack-there-of in California) and how cities get it and use it. You can see me in the picture taken at Big Trees. As you can see, that’s one big-A tree.


My class also took a field trip to Arizona in the fall. We studied how people live and used the resources they have in various conditions. Apparently, Arizona is the place to learn about those things. On that note, the trip took us to Palo Soleri’s Arcosanti: an experimental city in the high desert. That is some crazy stuff. Google it some time. You won’t be disappointed.

Overall, I’m having a great year. My classmates inspire me to do great things. They challenge me to think about why I’m doing this whole landscape architecture thing. Group work is a big part of my studies and with that, it seems like all my flaws are thrown out there for everyone to see and, in some cases, experience.

My program is invigorating and exhausting, challenging and uncomplicated. It’s all it’s supposed to be when I’m both depressed and excited to be on break.


Sarah: This is my personal portion of the first annual year four Wallin Wightman Christmas/End-of-the-Year Newsletter. In this section, you will:
• Find out where the phrase “You done good” originated
• Discover how lame the world of online blogging is
• Learn just where Russell’s fifth finger is hidden in our house
• Start your own democracy, based on the iPod revolution

This year, I finished my first year of my M.F.A. program and started my second. Just for those of you who still might be a little hazy on the details, the M.F.A. is not just a master’s degree, but the master’s degree for the arts, including (but not limited to) painting, dance, and yes, creative writing. It’s a terminal degree and the same amount of units/hours as a doctorate. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m going to get a book deal when I graduate, like a business MBA might get a six-figure job offer after graduation. Like all creative degrees, it doesn’t really get you anywhere fiscally, just raises your cool factor in academic circles.

I love my program and the people in it. They’ve not only helped make me more aware of my writing, but helped me become more comfotable in my own skin, in my own voice. They also make me laugh, which is invaluable in the sometimes-humorless days of reading and writing and feeling like nothing that comes out is original or witty.


Right now, I’m about 1/3 of the way done on my third novel, tentatively titled The Ocean Below. This means I’m at about 150 pages and have 200 more to go. It’s going well and I’m having fun writing it – I plan on finishing or getting close to finishing it over January, which is my month long break from school. In short, the novel is about a marine biologist who loses her father and must fly to help out with the funeral and then, confront a secret she shared with him that has been haunting her since she was in high school. Every short synopsis sounds so Danielle Steele, but I swear, it’s much better than Danielle Steele. My book would never hold up to grocery store checkout lane standards.

Okay, enough long winded paragraphs of blah blah blah. Here is our year in review, bullet style:

• Celebrated New Year’s Eve/Day with Christina at Lucky Baldwin’s and the Rose Parade
• Visited the San Juan Capistrano Mission and ate at the Ramos House, once together, once with the whole Wightman clan

• Planted, plucked, trimmed, and watered our garden, designed by Russ
• Celebrated Todd’s birthday and many talents
• Led Westminster’s youth groups, which included leading some very corny games
• Got hennaed for Josh and Elizabeth’s Engagment Party, thrown by Christina (shown: Elizabeth's foot)
• Was present (Sarah, along with Kristan) when underwear was found in a Long Beach library bookcase by Jeremy
• Partied with Russ on his actual 28th birthday at a mini-golf course and at his party at Café Mundial with good friends who took the infamous “Russ Quiz”

• Read some great books, watched some great movies: too many to list, but write us if you want some receommendations.
• Cheered when Danielle graduated from Claremont Graduate University
• (Sarah) Danced a little with Elizabeth at her Bachlorette Bash
• After a rockin’ Easter service (thank you, Imre), dined on lamb and mint sauce at Christina’s annual Easter luncheon
• Spent way too much time on Ebay
• (Russ) Went on two road trips with classmates
• Had a blast when our niece Beyonce came to stay for a weekend

• Blogged some
• Went hiking and saw/photographed a huge, fascinating, potentially-harmful Tarantula Hawk

• (Russ) Slid down the slippery rocks in Tuolumne Meadows River
• Went wine tasting in Pasadena then to Taos, New Mexico for Christina’s 30th birthday
• (Sarah) Cut head while river rafting in the Rio Grande Gorge in Taos

• Celebrated my birthday at a campground in San Onofre
• Said goodbye to the 350 year-old oak tree that shaded our house

• Was totally unrecognizable as Edie Sedgwick (muse of Andy Warhol) on Halloween/Day of the Dead with Long Beach friends
• (Sarah) Went camping at Leo Carillo with Christina, Emilio, and Josh; went camping together at Malibu Creek State Park
• Rejoiced in the birth of Lucille Scout Jarot, first daughter of dear friends Diana and Chris
• Listened to the parrots squalling outside my house every morning as they ate the persimmons off the tree in our backyard
• Took lots of photos of ourselves that didn’t turn out well, worked on our imitations of famous people, laughed so hard we cried, and generally enjoyed all of our time together.

Sarah: Christmas is a beautiful time of year and for me, a time of reflection and renewal. My favorite Christmas carol is the song “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.” I always get a little teary while singing it because I think it captures the spirit of Christmas and what it means so perfectly. Namely that we are all waiting, full of hope, but also, full of despair about the way the world is so fubar. But according to the chorus, we can rejoice because there’s hope for all of us (crazies that we are!) – our hope is realized by doing our best to make this world a place full of love, of communion, of reconciliation, of peace, and of grace.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Love,
Russell and Sarah