Elgan speaks
...and her words thunder across the land

The party was loud, and now it�s over.

Sunday, Dec. 5, 2004
11:00 a.m.
Don�t you just hate getting those three-page, single-spaced newsletters from relatives and friends every year detailing the minutiae of Little Susie�s dance recitals or Wee Billy�s boy scout activities? Here follows this year�s version of our annual Christmas letter (names have been changed to protect the innocent and not-so-innocent alike):

Dear Folks:

Yes, it�s that time again when I get to regale you with our activities for the past year, and you get to add to the great pile of recycling accumulating in the green (or blue) box your municipality provides for such a purpose. If they don�t, shame on them!

The year has been a long one, 12 months long, to be exact, and much has transpired, many accomplishments which I�m sure Hubby would like me to list in great detail; but since I am the one writing this letter, I�ll do it my way. Let it suffice that his professional achievements are great, his compositions are winning acclaim across the country and he has enjoyed several premieres during the past circumnavigation of our star.

But the real news, or I should say, the REAL NEWS is that last year just before Christmas Hubby went into Montreal to buy an electric guitar and amp for Buddy Boy and�wait for it�also bought a Gibs0n Les PauI Custom for himself, plus a Fender Cybertwin amplifier. Your mild-mannered, bespectacled university professor/classical composer has become a long-haired, leather-pants-clad rock-and-roll guitarist and has caused quite a stir around town with his antics. As I may have mentioned last year, we regained control of EnsembIe Musica N0va, a new music ensemble Hubby helped found back in 1989, and our first concert this season had him playing electric guitar (clad in leather pants, no less) in an electronic-improvisational concert. I must confess, I too was clad in leather, but I was singing, not playing guitar. He has become the coolest dad in town. All of our kids� friends want to hear him play, students from the university are knocking down the door for advanced electric guitar lessons, and fellow faculty want to jam with him. I�ll bet you weren�t expecting that, were you?

I have had a busy year too, teaching, performing, doing laundry, shopping, cooking, occasionally cleaning. I joined the university choir this fall, something I had been putting off for years, and now I wonder what took me so long. It�s great fun, and great for the immune system! Little Princess is in her last year of CEGEP, headed for a career in astrophysics, and is now checking out universities for the fall. She is playing violin in a band, which performed one official gig for free beer and everyone in the bar loved them. Buddy Boy continues breezing his way through high school and will no doubt amaze us all some day with his accomplishments. Well, we already think he�s pretty amazing.

I guess that�s all. Have a great holiday season and a wonderful year.

Speaking of choir, the concert last night was yet another standing-room-only success, the spontaneous standing ovation heartfelt and enthusiastic, and tired voices were compensated for by sheer energy (and probably relief that it would all soon be over). Personally I felt I was suffering from vocal fatigue too, but being the consummate professional that I am (or consider myself to be), got through it without embarassing myself or the conductor. The party afterwards was too noisy for my sensitive ears and I ended up leaving around 12:30, taking my incredibly drunk daughter and a couple of her friends home.

The party was at the house where two of the choir members live, one of them being a percussionist, and several students just started playing music, very loud, in what would normally be a dining room. I tried to have conversations with some people in the choir I had not talked to previously, none of whom are music students, one of whom does not even read music, and popped Danish butter cookies non-stop into my face because they were there while I drank one and one-quarter beers. Little Princess, on the other hand, drank three beers (we�re talking Canadian beer, 5% a.p.v.) and was pretty silly.

When we got home I noticed the Volvo parked on the street, not the driveway. Apparently Hubby had gotten it started in order to drop some DVDs off at the rental store and pick Buddy Boy up from his friend�s house when it just died on him. He got it over to the curb, pushing it all by his lonesome, called CAA for a boost and was told, �This is a new battery, there�s something else wrong. Do you want us to tow it to the garage for you?� When informed that they would not give him a lift home again, he said �No thank you�, called Buddy Boy to let him know he wouldn�t be coming to get him, and resigned himself to paying a late fee for the rented movies. The last time we got that vehicle repaired I wanted to sell it and buy something a little more recent, but I was shot down. Now my point of view is being taken more seriously.


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