The Texas Times, Volume 20

Volume 20. Wow. I've been writing these things for longer than most of the students who are sitting here in my final exam have been alive. I think I wrote last year's edition during my final exam as well, so this may well be my first real Trinity University tradition. And speaking of Trinity, remember when I told you that one of our main goals was NOT to have our arrival coincide with Trinity breaking its string of 21 consecutive years ranked (by U.S. News) as the #1 small university the West? So far, so good on that account. However, we found out this week that Hunter was granted admission for next year ... so the jury is still out on whether our family's association will be accused of causing Trinity to jump the shark.

Kids

Proceeding, as is the norm, in chronological order ... Reagan is a junior at Trinity and is still very much enjoying his time here. After thinking that he was going to be an English major with an emphasis on Creative Writing, he has now decided to major in Religion. Theories abound on the specific reason for the shift, but he seems happy with it and is planning on minoring in Creative Writing. He got a lot of extremely positive feedback on his writing this semester -- both fiction and non-fiction -- and will be starting the process of collecting rejection notices (aka submitting stories to journals) in January. He's still involved with The Children's Shelter, the university choir, and his 3-man band, The Daytrippers. He is also growing a hideous, mangy, pretend-a-beard.

As mentioned above, Hunter has been admitted to Trinity and will start the next stage of his development here next August. Trinity was the only school he was interested in, which pleased us mightily given that kids of faculty don't have to pay the $35,000+ yearly tuition bill. Clearly, getting a top-notch education for the cost of room and board is a Major Win. He's planning on majoring in Computer Science or some sort of Communication angle that involves the more creative aspects of technology / code writing. He'll also be involved in choir and, presumably, community service work that is comparable to Reagan's. Lest you think that Hunter is all grown up or whatever, don't even go there. He's still hilarious, quirky, maddening, clever, and - most accurately - unexplainable. The fractional parts change from day to day but the sum is still very much the same.

Hadley is a Sophomore at Alamo Heights High School. She got her braces off this year (we paid for them twice!!!) and has her driver's permit. Sigh. She's playing soccer for the San Antonio United club and also managed to be one of five Sophomores who made the varsity soccer team at Heights. The program there is very strong, so she is pretty fired up. The coach told her that he was bumping her to varsity to play defense, because they "don't need any more forwards." For most of you that will mean nothing. For the rest of you, he doesn't seem to be kidding. I've told Hadley that I think he is viewing her more like a utility infielder in baseball, but in their first scrimmage she only played defense. So I guess we'll see how that goes. She claims to like playing defense (????), but clearly I am not a fan of it. The only thing worse than being the parent of a defender would be being the parent of a goalie ... but we're hoping for the best. Other than soccer, she's just doing the usual stuff. So far she has managed to stay out of trouble and minimize her interaction with boys (I hear those two events are not necessarily independent), and she still seems to really like us a lot. So that is cool.

Finally, Hollis is in 5th grade at Woodridge Elementary. He's still in the Spanish Immersion Program (all-Spanish-all-the-time) and seems to be liking it fine. Actually, I think he would be sort of surprised to go to school and speak English during class at this point. He's continuing with piano and he joined the San Antonio Children's Chorus this year. He also started playing team tennis in the division that consists of kids who haven't had coaches and/or haven't been playing competitively since they were in the womb. For a good bit of his life, obviously, he hasn't really been able to do much sports-wise, so it has been good to see him branch out a bit there. He also participated in the Cotillion program this fall, and honestly I think that was the highlight of his year. He very much digs dressing fancy and dancing with similarly well-clad young ladies. The manners part was less of a hit, but still ... overall it was a big success. Most importantly, we're happy to report that since the placement of his shunt in June of 2012 (if you're out of the loop on that, you can read a summary of it here), he hasn't had any further medical issues. Knock on wood and praise the Lord (both literally).

Us

Paige and I are fine. We celebrated our 24th anniversary this past week. Traditionally, the 24th anniversary is associated, gift-wise, with a musical instrument. However, because Paige doesn't really play an instrument anymore - much to the chagrin of flute and bassoon aficionados across the world - I decided to get her a couple dozen donuts instead. Practical. Sweet. The numbers work. Of course we're still in the midst of my annual 10 Days of Anniversary Celebration (daily gift fabulousness from December 16 through Christmas) but as a way to get things rolling I thought the donut thing was pretty solid.

We also remain happy with our decision to leave Texas A&M. Trinity has problems just like any university, but our colleagues are nice and several of the people we've met in other departments are terrific as well. There are some cranks and total nutcases ... but again, you're going to have a sizable number of those in any group of academics. We continue to believe that the newly formed School of Business has a lot of promise, we're having a good time with our students, and for the most part they're working hard and not complaining too much. And really that is all we can ask for. OK, well that and money for the School of Business so that we can hire a few more faculty. If you wanna make a donation, let me know. By the way, in addition to our standard day jobs involving teaching and research, Paige is now chair of the newly formed Finance and Decision Sciences department and I have temporarily taken on the responsibility of being the School of Business' Director of Accreditation. She is happy with her position. I am not happy with mine. But again, hopefully it is verrrrry temporary, given that Trinity definitely did NOT hire me for my administrative prowess.

Random Stuff

Music: My recommendations for the year are as follows -- Milk Carton Kids, Aoife O'Donovan, and The Lone Bellow. I feel like I was a bit late to the party for a couple of these; nonetheless, the recommendations stand. Chris Thile's solo mandolin album featuring some of Bach's violin sonatas and partitas is absolutely brilliant as well. And my appreciation / infatuation with Julie Fowlis continues to grow. If you can watch this and not have to consciously force yourself to breathe at some point during the performance, please don't tell me.

Television: Weird, right? When have I ever had a television recommendation? Sorta random since Paige and I never watch anything, but when we have watched stuff this year it primarily has been from one of two boxes: (1) the original late '50s to early '60s Twilight Zone episodes; and (2) the original Alfred Hitchcock Presents / Alfred Hitchcock Hour episodes. All of these things are available streaming from either Netflix or Amazon Prime. The stories are great. The acting is terrific. Everything is in black and white (as God intended) and is from the time when men wore suits and drove real automobiles and people listened to Tommy Dorsey and Frank Sinatra and, even better, Nat King Cole. Every time I sit down to watch one of these things, I experience an immediate (and indescribably fantastic) time warp. I experience the same thing in my office every day when I'm listening to WHRO's 1920s Radio Network (which extends through the 1940s). Today I even strategically timed my office hours to correspond with the Jack Benny Show. No, I am not kidding. And if you would like to read more on my views related to the General Demise of America, you are welcome to visit this link.


The College Station House: For the non-business readers in the audience, a "liquid asset" is something that is convertible into cash without a substantial loss in value. For a company, examples typically would include inventory, accounts receivable, and investments. For a person, examples most emphatically would not include a six-bedroom house in College Station, Texas. So ... if you know of anyone who needs something like this, let us know. The house has been on the market for close to two years at this point and if we don't sell it by June of 2015 we'll have to pay tax on whatever gain we're able to manage. What that means, of course, is that you still have some time -- but not a lot of it. Complacency is not encouraged.

Clothing: My top discoveries in the past two years are Drake's of London (ties) and Dapper Classics (socks). Those who are feeling particularly generous may make your Christmas selections for me from the former, while those who don't like me as much may opt for the latter. If you don't want to have to deal with the hassle of international shipping, Drake's has a small but fine selection at Mr. Porter. I'm doing what I can to make things as efficient for you as possible ...

With that (and my annual Christmas carol recording), I'll close. Please let us know if your travel plans include the Alamo City. And no matter what holiday you're celebrating, we wish you peace and good cheer!

God Bless,
Mike, Paige, Reagan, Hunter, Hadley, Hollis, and a variety of animals
1009 Garraty Road
San Antonio, TX 78209
mw0705@mac.com
paigefields@satx.rr.com