What a Year 2017

The full version [by Jessica]:

We lived a lot of life in 2017!

If you read the summary of 2016, you may not be surprised that I started off 2017 by needing to take some time off from work to recover from the state of severe burnout that I found myself in. Dealing with physical and emotional exhaustion, I did a lot of resting, reading, jigsaw puzzles, and baking to get back to normal. I also met regularly with an executive coach, who helped me grow in self-awareness to be able to intersect with the stresses of the job in a different way. During this season, I had to figure out how to be at our tiny apartment home, which is Michael’s workspace, and still allow him to get his work done —no small accomplishment. I went back to work in March with more hope and perspective, and have been doing the same job since, able to deal with the craziness in a healthier way.

While I was off, we traveled to NYC in January for a work trip for Michael. I got to see the Edenworks facility (the aquaponics farm growing micro greens) for the first time, and I was even allowed to feed the fish! While he worked on farm sensors and data management in Brooklyn, I wrote wedding thank you notes in the Rose Reading Room at the New York Public Library and wandered around to the best coffee shops. During this trip we met up with friends, Tim Cheung and David and Andrea Jouppi and visited the New York Botanical Gardens. We did take the time to properly celebrate the completion of Michael’s PhD from NYU by going to see The Lion King on Broadway, which was excellent.

A series of unfortunate dental events landed me in the a dentist’s chair in February, and I went on a runaround to every oral medical professional - multiple dentists, a periodontist, an endodontist, an orthodontist, and back to the periodontist (this sounds like the start of a bad joke) before having oral surgery to repair a critical gum issue. It was so bad that I probably should have lost the tooth! It’s not a small miracle that I didn’t. We learned from all the ’ontists over the course of the year that there are deeper issues that needed to be addressed with my jaw and teeth alignment, so Michael and I have been evaluating what our best plan is to prevent more serious issues in the future.

We took a road trip to New Orleans the weekend before I went back to work, which happened to be St. Patrick’s Day. I imagine that the way the Big Easy celebrates the Irish is second only to how they celebrate Mardi Gras. We enjoyed the beignets, the historical walking tours, the crazy people with zero body shame dancing in parades, and did I mention the beignets? On our way back, we stopped at a plantation – Oak Alley. We took the tour of the luxurious plantation home, which stood in painful contrast to the crude slave quarters.

In April, it was time for me to travel to Belfast again, but this time, I took Michael with me. He worked from a coffee shop in the city during the day, and we explored the city’s restaurant scene in the evenings. We went on one of the famous Black Cab tours, where taxi drivers that lived through The Troubles (the violence between Catholics and Protestants in the 80s-90s) take you on a tour of the city and explain the murals, the history, and the walls and gates that still divide the sides of the city. On the weekend, we rented a car and headed off to explore the northern part of the country. We saw the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge (sadly it was closed to pedestrians when we got there), and the Dark Hedges (a Game of Thrones filming location). Our favorite spot was the Giant’s Causeway, which is a geological formation of hexagonal basalt crystals that is fabled to be part of a bridge to Scotland made by giants. We climbed out on the rock formations and watched the sun set as the waves crashed over the stones. It was pretty magical. We left Northern Ireland and headed to Dublin. There we visited the Guinness Storehouse Museum and learned the proper way to drink Guinness, saw parts of the Book of Kells in the Trinity College library, and visited a modern museum on the Irish Diaspora.

In May, we traveled back to Michigan for a quick weekend to surprise Len Netti for his 50th birthday party. We were also able to see Sarah and Carolyn Schulte.

We live in the Theatre District of Houston, and in June, we put our location to good use. A friend of friends gave us tickets to the ballet, and we were able to walk three blocks to go see La Bayadère. We enjoyed it and felt very cultured. I’ll get to Hurricane Harvey later, but the theater that hosts the ballet is still closed, 6 months later, due to severe flood damage.

In June we traveled to Baltimore to visit Amy Cesak. We visited the famous Lexington Market and feasted on oysters, crab cakes, and NattyBo (the local beer, short for Natural Bohemian). We couldn’t help be notice the start contrast between the luxurious seafood inside and the homeless population with obvious drug additions outside. In the evening, we took a pirate cruise in the harbor, that was very colorful and fun.

We celebrated the Fourth of July in Westerly, Rhode Island with Marc, Priscilla, and Ruthie Liebenthal. They took us clamming, which involves wading in water and digging around in the sand with hands or feet to try to find the happy crustaceans. I think Michael and I each found one. It was not catch and release. Obviously we took them home and Priscilla cooked them up for us. Since two clams won’t feed four adults and a child, we also picked up a lobster that we took photos with before boiling to perfection.

Later in July, we flew out to San Francisco to see Michael’s friends, Jon and Vicky Lai, get married. It was a beautiful ceremony and reception at a vineyard with a bluff and gorgeous view. We spent a whole day at the Disney Family Museum, and I think Michael would have stayed longer if he could. We did a nice long cable car ride, and walked down by Fisherman’s Wharf. We enjoyed vintage arcade games at the Musée Mécanique, and had a lovely dinner date at Scoma’s. There is a saying attributed to Mark Twain that goes, “The coldest winter I ever spent, was a summer in San Francisco.” We felt the truth of that statement in our bones, as we were frozen to them. Who would have thought we would need scarves and gloves in July?! One thing that warmed our hearts and bellies was the morning buns that we found at the Tartine Bakery. They’re to die for!

Schlitterbahn (German for “slippery way”) is an amazing water park outside of San Antonio, TX. It is two parks in one, with one side being fed by cold river water, and the other is typical chlorinated pool water. In August, we went to see my parents and to explore the park. My mom, Claudia Schulte, has friends that are very familiar with the place, having been over 30 times. Jose and Sara Liscano joined us to make an even six-some, and we had the best time. My mom has short legs and would get stuck in every eddy on every long, twisty, gentle water slide. She couldn’t get herself out, so Jose was usually the one running up stream with his tube to rescue her. We got smart and made her go first, but most of us would end up slingshotting past while trying to grab ahold of an arm, leg, or tube handle. Sara and Jose were the most excellent tour guides and we dubbed them our Schlitterbahn Sherpas™.

Hurricane Harvey came through and wrecked Houston and the surrounding area in late August. We were a little late to stock up on food and water, so when I went to the store, the shelves were bare and looked apocalyptic. Being the resourceful girl that I am, I picked up some yeast and whole wheat flour and decided to make my own bread before the storm hit us and filled all our jugs and buckets with water. It rained HARD for days. We went to bed while it was storming so hard that street storm drains became geysers. The next morning, we looked down the street out our 9th story window to see street filled with water. It wasn’t street flooding like I originally suspected, but the bayou that was 39 feet (almost four stories) above it’s normal levels and overflowing into the city streets.

We lost power that morning when the underground transformers were flooded, so we also lost all water pressure in the apartment. We were able to ride the elevators down with emergency power and explore the neighborhood on foot. We were amazed at the flooding. I now know that any pictures of flooding can’t communicate how bad it is, unless you are very familiar with the landscape when it’s dry. We got in our car and drove around to see how far we could get. We were able to top the car off with gas, but realized that our part of downtown Houston had become an island. We had friends offer for us to stay with them, but we couldn’t get there. We found a way to cross one of the bayous, but not the other that stood between us and power, water, and wifi. We spend the night in our apartment. Thankfully, the storm brought cool air, as summers in Houston aren’t known for their comfortable nights.

The next day, waters subsided enough to cross both bayous. Michael and I were discussing going to volunteer at the convention center less than a mile away from our apartment that had become the main shelter for displaced folks. When we found out that there was talk of releasing reservoirs upstream and increased flooding, we decided to escape while we could, else we become the ones seeking shelter.

We ended up spending over a week at Pam and Doug Dunlap’s home before the power in our building was back on. It was a surreal week. Work and school were cancelled across the county, and everyone was volunteering and donating wherever we could during the day. Since Michael was working remotely for the indoor farming startup, Edenworks, he actually did have to work his day job. The evenings became like summer camp, and other people in our church small group would pop in for dinner and jigsaw puzzles, and it was one of the most special times for our friendships in Houston.

We learned that when homes flood, there is a short window to make sure that mold doesn’t take over and render the places inhabitable. We helped out with demo where we were able (a family home, a charity headquarters, and my boss’s house), and the smell of wet and molding sheet rock is forever burned into our scent consciousness. I don’t which is worse — the smell or the sight driving down a street that flooded, seeing family belongings, mattresses, and building materials pile 10 to 15 feet high on either side, knowing how traumatic it must be to lose everything in your home.

We started volunteering with an organization called Houston Welcomes Refugees (HWR). They partner with resettlement agencies and provide additional support, home goods, food, and school supplies to families being resettled in Houston. We joined a team and worked with a family from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). There were eight kids, and they didn’t speak English, but they would be so happy to see us. Most of the kids had lived their entire lives in refugee camps. We would visit with a translator when we could, but translators for Kinyarwandan are not especially common. Our team was able to help the oldest daughter get enrolled in high school, despite being 18, and help the mother find work and an ESL class.

In late September, we flew back to Michigan. We celebrated my Grandpa, Bob Jordan’s, 90th birthday, attended the Grand Rapids Art Prize, and we got to see my nephew, Jack, play in a soccer game, where he scored his first goal. We were able to grab beers with Aaron Smith and Alisa Netti on a lovely Michigan fall day. We also spent a couple days in Jackson with Michael’s parents, John and Jan Karlesky. We visited Uncle John’s Cider Mill and took a hayride and ate fresh donuts and cider. We also took a tour of the old prison in Jackson, which used to be big business – using forced prison labor to make wagon wheels.

We started paying attention to the baseball team, the Houston Astros, in October when they played for and won the pennant. We were staying up late and watching the games with Pam and Doug Dunlap and Greg Leach, becoming real (fair weather) fans. We even had a friend, Jeff Boone, visit us and get sucked into the madness as well. When they won the World Series, it was madness. It meant so much to the city that was still hurting so badly from the flooding. We attended the victory parade with friend, Melissa Posada, but the closest we could get was over a half block away in the middle of the street. There were thousands of people lining the streets, and filling the cross streets.

Thanksgiving holiday had us back to Michigan once again. The Schulte/Jordan extended family Thanksgiving meal is always a full house, and my grandparents, Bob and Wanda, were kind enough to invite John and Jan Karlesky to join in the celebration. There was the annual bowling outing on the day after Thanksgiving, and lots of family chaos and togetherness. During the trip, we were also able to enjoy dinner with Peter and Amy Joseph and family, as well as go Christmas tree hunting with the Netti family.

Once back in Houston, we threw a Chalkboard, Chocolate, and Chaos party in our small apartment. We had about 18 people in our small apartment to eat fancy chocolate, decorate our chalkboard wall for the holidays, and be on top of each other in chaos. We also enjoyed the annual Lights in the Heights event with friends, which is a giant block party spanning several square blocks with parties and live music, and over the top decorations.

For Christmas, we welcomed my parents, Paul and Claudia, to spend it with us in Houston. We rearranged our furniture to make room for a table for four, and enjoyed the company and a nice meal, and they enjoyed the comforts of Pam and Doug’s home where we had lived during the hurricane.

Reflecting on this year makes us more grateful than ever for our home, sense of belonging, and safety. We are thankful for the capacity to give to those who are in need, and for the friendships that have deepened and matured this year. We are looking forward to see what 2018 holds for us professionally and to see where this crazy thing called life takes us.