Holiday Greetings!

Now, I know a few of you will be getting this in a card in a couple days so I'll be ruining the surprise... Sorry about that... LOL But hey, what good is working at a print shop if you can't send a few Holiday letters, right? Well, here is the end of the year letter! Wow... 2008 on its way out. Whew....

Happy Holidays everyone!

Whoosh!!
Did you just see that? A whole year just flew by... and what an eventful year it’s been!

In February I celebrated one year in Boulder with Sean. We also celebrated two birthdays! My mom's birthday was on February 25th, and Sean's was on February 28th. So Sean and I celebrated his big day with a bunch of our friends at an Old Chicago in town. Sean, Mom and I went to California Pizza Kitchen for my mom's birthday dinner. I like being able to finally afford things like two birthday dinners in a week. Good stuff, having a steady job and a steady income. Who knows what the future will hold?

March brought some interesting news when we found out that Anikka would not be leading our Merrye Madrygal Mavyns for the 2008 CoRF season. As you might expect, we had a flurry of communication as to who would lead our group. I ended up picking up the reigns for the group. We later held auditions for a new Alto/Bass and found the lovely and talented Michelle Boudreau.

In April and through May we were practicing and working and re-working and rehearsing and what-not the entire time. I was so tired by about mid-May that I almost skipped town for a few weeks. This is where having Sean is truly a blessing. He is my rock and my champion. The only real spat that we had from April through the summer was because I don't take good enough care of myself. Wacky, eh? To be fair, he has a point. I was burning the candle at both ends and partly in the middle: getting stuff ready for faire and working at the print shop or collecting music or doing website stuff, or whatever, and haven't been taking much care of myself.

April also featured a lovely visit from Sean’s Mom, Jill. She was here for only a week, but we had a lot of fun. We were the last stop on a meandering trip through the southwest. Being so busy during this time, I really wanted to go with her!

May brought the realization that music, just like anything else, can be a job. Michelle, our newest member, learned her music faster than I thought was possible, which was excellent. She plays piano and has quite a bit some music experience. Plus, she's a fun and energetic person. Leadership is something that I had always craved, especially in our group. Even with the sudden and mostly unexpected departure of Anikka, we really pulled together. At times it felt like I was driving a previously owned car that was very well taken care of: There are parts missing or broken, but for the most part it drove great.

In early June the Madrygals finally finished up our one and only CD. Sean had it mixed in record time and we began selling CDs at the faire. They’re still available online if anyone is interested www.cdbaby.com/cd/mmmavyns.

July brought a chipped tooth due to my own antics. Michelle and her fiance hosted a good many of our rehearsals both before and during the faire. Her apartment building has an entryway with a small closed circuit camera that they can watch who is buzzing to enter the building. The Mavyns and I would take joy in doing silly stuff to the camera because we knew they were watching. Well, one time I mimed that I was eating the camera(it peeks out of a hole for security) and misjudged the distance to the wall. Yep, chipped my tooth. LOL

In August we parted ways from the Renaissance Festival and the Merry Madrygal Mavyns splintered. We might get back together down the road, but for now we’ve disbanded. Dana wants to pursue other performance opportunities which will be excellent for her. I’m excited to see where she goes with it. Leah would like to take a season or two off to rest her voice and get settled in Boulder where she moved about mid-season. Emily and I are in talks at the moment to see if we’ll do a duet sort of thing featuring a guitar. Hmm...

September was filled with a lot of laundry at a Laundromat, financial recuperation and sleep. Believe me, I needed it. Actually... I’m still tired. We also lost one of our most celebrated performers this month. Joe Kudla, aka Thomas Snot, passed away. He was part of the most integral performance teams, the Puke and Snot show at the Colorado Renaissance Festival.

Also in September, we had a bit of a flood in our basement. A water main broke and flooded the parking/storage area in the basement of our condo building. We didn’t have water for three days and then didn’t have our laundry machines for over two weeks.

In October I turned twenty-six and my brother hosted a Luau in my honor. Sean, Anne Osborn and my best friend Megan came to party. We ended up with a fair turn out. The Luau fire-pit that my brother Thomas built in the backyard was a bit hit. He even called the fire department so that the pit would be up to code. It was great!

In November Sean played at our friend Lou’s happy birthday show as a special guest along with a couple others. I even sang happy birthday in Italian for him. Thanksgiving was lots of fun and Sean was even able to make it for dinner! It was great food and great fun all around. Thomas, the kids and Diane made it out also. Thanksgiving also gave us all a good chance to enjoy Mom’s new kitchen floor. Her and Thomas did an incredible job. Diane helped a lot on it and I helped with the grout. (Also, Congratulations Barack!)

December has been up and down, surprisingly warm and incredibly cold. Between work and housework, I’ve been a little out of touch. That, and I’ve been learning guitar since November 10th at Lou’s show.

Singing on stage woke something up in my head and I decided to seriously learn guitar. Actually, I’m doing well enough that I got to sing at Lou’s special guest show on December 12th. Sean did some songs from OilCan Drive. I played and sang Good King Wenceslas and I Just Can’t Get it Right Today by Joe Purdy. Then Sean and I played and I sang Santa Baby. It was a great time. Next time I’ll be sure and invite more people... the first time was more of a trial run to see if I could do it or not. Guess what? I can!

So, its been an eventful and sometimes incredibly stressful year... but a good and learning year! “And why do we fall? ...so we can learn to pick ourselves up!”

Have a Great Holiday Season and a Happy, Healthy and Successful New Year!!!

A couple other changes....
New email: monikacgraf@gmail.com
New blog: monikacgraf.blogspot.com