January 17, 2012
Happy New Year!
We know. We know. We're so late with this family update. But maybe we're not THAT late for a 2012 New Year's letter given that our last one was written in May. Of 2010.
Life is good for the Singer family. We are all healthy. The kids are working hard at their respective schools. Gary and Susan are working hard at our respective businesses, and generally speaking all is well. To be more specific…
Gary, Jess, Susan and Hannah during Chanukah this past December
Jess is a senior this year at Union College in Schenectady, New York. She has completed the requirements needed to graduate as a Math Major and is in the early stages of a job search for next year. Grad School may be in her future but not her immediate future. Jess has done some serious and really exciting traveling over the past 18 months. Last fall, she spent four months in Athens, Greece. While there, she studied the Greek Language and Ancient Greek Athletics, among other subjects. She traveled all over Greece and the Greek Islands and she ran a 5K race that culminated at the original Olympic Stadium (which happened to be outside the door of her school building). She also took advantage of her proximity to other countries and visited Madrid and Italy as well as Israel. Then this past Winter Break she spent three weeks traveling all over India! It was quite an experience for her. Not an easy trip though; probably a good trip to take at age 21! Jess is still pole vaulting for Union, is still a sorority member (SDT) and is still active in lots of other activities on campus. The photo to the right is Jess and her boyfriend, EG Gaffin-Cahn at Jess's sorority formal this past fall.
Hannah is a sophomore at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. She plans to declare Economics as her major. Over her Winter Break she was fortunate to participate in a 10 day long Birthright/Northwestern Chabad trip to Israel. Her assessment of the trip: “It was awesome!” Hannah is active in her sorority (Kappa Delta), Hillel, NU Dance Marathon and several other on-campus extra-curriculars. She is no longer diving for Northwestern having injured her back during her team's training trip to Hawaii last December. The loss of diving was a big adjustment for her but she has found Zumba, Spinning and Pilates so she is keeping herself in great shape. Hannah is hoping to study in Europe this summer, possibly in Cambridge, England.
Gary's business is going really well. He has scaled down a bit on his consulting business Redline Results in order to focus more time and attention on Buyology, Inc. ( www.buyologyinc.com) but that tradeoff is paying off! At the end of last year, Buyology was included on Forbes Magazine's list of America's 100 Most Promising Companies as well as their list of 16 Companies Poised to Take Off. The distinction has attracted potential investors and clients to check out the company, so that is a very positive and exciting development.
Susan continues to work on her Closet Curator business and it's going very well. She is increasingly busy, as clients are finding her through word of mouth as well as through her website www.ClosetCurator.com. And local media is becoming aware of her business, which is exciting. But most of all, she really loves the work she does because she finds that she is able to help her clients transform their look and feel better about themselves. Very gratifying! Susan is also a stylist with (the host of What Not To Wear's) Stacy London's new company Style for Hire so she is keeping busy with the clientele from that company as well. Otherwise, she is enjoying living in New York City as well as New Canaan. She's spent some time this past year catching up with dear friends and she is generally feeling very blessed to be living the life she is living.
In other news (not to be outdone by our kids) Susan and Gary did some wonderful traveling this past year as well. Through Gary's work with one of his clients, we had the great good fortune to visit Istanbul (last April) and Berlin (in September). Both cities were fascinating and fun and we loved spending time there. We have had lots of chances to spend time with our extended family which we also love.
The one cloud on our horizon is the fact that Gary's mom is about to begin several weeks of radiation therapy for a cancer that she is battling. We pray that she will weather this treatment without too terribly much discomfort and we hope to be able to provide her with love and support as she gets through it.
SO that's the update. We hope that 2012 brings only good and happy things for you and your family. And we hope that we will have a chance to spend some time with you this year.
With love and good wishes,
Susan, Gary, Jess and Hannah
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