deannews0904

DEAN'S QUARTERLY NEWLETTER, Vol. 8, No. 1, 09/01/2004

HIGHLIGHTS OF SUMMER 2004:

Anticipated move to Beltsville, Maryland: Much to my disappointment, my job is being relocated from downtown Washington, DC to an outer suburb called Beltsville, Maryland. Consequently, I have also decided to move from my current apartment to a location close to the new office. The new address will be occupied September 25^th and is as follows:

Dean Oman

10405 46^th Avenue, # A204

Beltsville, MD 20705

For those who want to visit Washington DC, my new location is not a very good jumping off point for it, at least in comparison with my previous address, which was within easy reach of all the attractions. Other than the proximity of my new apartment to my new office (within a mile), the new location is quite inconvenient for most other things. However, the subway ride into DC is reachable by local bus, though it is now a 45-minute trip instead of a 10-minute trip.

Though it’s nice to be within walking distance of my new office, I’m otherwise resolved to be bored living at the new location, but after my apartment lease expires a year from now, I may be ready to move again.

Trips to Toronto, St. Paul, San Diego, and Chicago – Summer time had me traveling quite a bit.

In late June, I headed to Toronto for a long weekend to visit friends, Igor, Alla and their son Michael Kosov and to enjoy the Toronto Jazz Festival (a favorite of Igor’s). They all seem to be doing quite well, and they always treat me like a king. Time and time again, Alla throws together amazing meals, even when she has to rush off to work and cannot partake in the meal herself. Toronto impresses me more each time I visit it. Its numerous ethnic neighborhoods are one big appeal, but I’m also impressed by the extent to which the neighborhoods have been able to maintain their quaintness, particularly exemplified by their numerous mom-n-pop shops that have managed to avoid being overtaken by mass chains such as Walmart, Target, K-Mart, and others that are the bane of the U.S. marketplace. Toronto has many appealing features, and I could imagine spending some retirement summers there.

For 12 days in late July, I caught up with family and friends in Minnesota. Walks around Lake Como with my mother and Lake Phalen with my brother and sister-in-law were my daily favorite thing to do. I timed my visit to correspond with that of my cousin Dave Oman from Arizona and cousin Darin Oman from Colorado. Aunt Patsy and I headed up for a relaxing couple days in Grantsburg, Wisconsin catching up with my uncle Doug, who after being recently unemployed from a company for which he worked for years, is considering with his family whether to buy into a bar and restaurant business. I caught up with numerous other relatives, but failed to catch up with most of my friends. That’ll have to be for another time. It was nice to see Jerry and Patty Jaehnert and family, after having not seen them for some time.

For the third year in a row, I attended a map maker’s conference in San Diego that focused on a particular Geographic Information System called ArcGIS. Again it was 13,000 map makers from around the world who came to learn and be wowed by the latest technological wiz-bangs during the daytime, and to schmooze and imbibe copious amounts of fire water in the evening. I caught up with my cousin Darin’s wife Anne, who came from Colorado to attend the conference. On the weekend before the conference, I stayed with my friend Hatem Mostafa and on the weekend after the conference, I stayed with my friend and Hatem’s former wife, Kathy Blossfield. After nearly two years since their separation, they seem finally adapting to the idea. Kathy and Hatem agreed to joint custody of me.

While in San Diego, my long valued friend, Cathy (Sultan) Ryne came from the L.A. area with her middle daughter Linda and Linda’s boyfriend. We spent a pleasant afternoon together in Old Town San Diego before joined by Kathy Blossfield, who treated us to an amusing evening seeing Jerry Seinfeld do his standup routine, and then hosted us at her home, where we looked over old photos, sang old songs, chatted and reminisced. Spending time with Cathy after not seeing her for so many years felt quite wonderful and very much like old times.

At the end of August, I enjoyed a long weekend in Chicago. What a great city! As a youth back in the 1960s, Chicago seemed in dire need of urban renewal and didn’t leave the best impression with me. Well, it’s had a lot of urban renewal since then, and I’m more impressed each time I visit. The latest attraction, dedicated just a month ago, is Millennium Park. What used to be an underutilized and underappreciated piece of land in the northwest corner of Grant Park downtown along the waterfront is now a very lively place, filled with Chicago natives and tourists alike, and made livelier with numerous musicians and street performers. Among other attractions, the park features a spectacular new outdoor amphitheater, a large donut shaped sculpture that is one of the most fascinating I’ve ever seen (and seems very popular with visitors), and an amusing water fountain that features video images of people spitting water threw their lips onto bathers. I biked around the city and enjoyed some of its nightlife, including improvisational comedy at Second City, the training ground for so many of America’s comedians over the past 40 years.

Back in Washington, I enjoyed a visit from Susan Stein, a pen pal (cyber pal) who lives in Northern California, and her boyfriend Tim. Susan and I first met on a train in Spain (mainly on the plain) four years ago, and have been periodically writing to each other ever since. We also traveled together a few years back in Laos. Here’s Susan (front right), Tim and Susan’s sister, who came from Baltimore to join us for dinner one evening.

Summer 2004 movie reviews

COMING UP NEXT QUARTER: Boston, Orlando

Check in and let me know what’s up with you.
You can contact me by clicking on this E-mail address: mail@deanoman.com.

Review previous newsletters:

Spring 04 – Dean’s News Vol 7, No. 4, 06/01/04 – Italy, Switzerland, Eastern Europe, New York City

Winter 03 – Dean’s News Vol 7, No. 3, 03/01/04 – Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Grenada, Arizona

Autumn 03 -- Dean's News Vol 7, No. 2, 12/01/03 -- Minnesota

Summer 03 -- Dean's News Vol 7, No. 1, 09/01/03 -- California and Toronto

Spring 03 -- Dean's News Vol 6, No. 4, 06/01/03 – Minnesota, Boston

Winter 03 -- Dean's News Vol 6, No. 3, 03/01/03 – Arizona, California and Colorado

Best wishes to all,

Deano

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