Here is our year in review for 2012 …
Amanda
had a very interesting, exciting and stressful year in her new position as
Artistic Director for Broadway By The Bay. Her non-profit theater company went
through a complete restructure and reorganization as they ran into a financial
crisis. The Executive Director resigned and the Board of Directors was
completely remade amid the financial shortfall. All the while Amanda was able
to keep things together enough to put on some really good shows – Hairspray, Marvelous Wonderettes and A
Chorus Line. BBBay was reinvented mid-year by a significant partnering with
the Fox Theatre in Redwood City. They brought in a new ED, Trista Bernstein, and
a completely new Board. Trista and Amanda are essentially the new BBBay. They
announced the 2013 shows that include Cats,
Oliver, Cabaret and Guys and Dolls
and yearly subscription renewals are doing great. Obviously all the problems
behind the scenes didn’t adversely affect the product on the stage as folks
want to come back for more. That’s a true testament of what Amanda is all
about.
Amanda and Justin on opening night for Hairspray.
Justin
finished up at California Theater Center this year and started a new position
as Theater Manager for the Academy of Art University in San Francisco in late
September. He really enjoys working in a vibrant metropolitan area such as SF
and he has his hands full with the new job. He quickly found out that he was
wearing multiple hats and he had way more to do than could fit in a normal work
week. Fortunately it seems that his management has recognized this and there
are some plans to bring in some help for him.
Robbie
is really looking forward to NOT attending school anymore as he graduates from
the University of Colorado with his MBA in December. We’re all going to attend
the graduation on December 15th in Denver – all except for poor
Justin who has to work that weekend – to celebrate the occasion. We’re all
really proud of Robbie to have stuck this out while working full time at the
NBC affiliate in Denver as a Sales Executive. He has been very successful in
his position, especially for someone so young. He and Desta were very busy
flying all over the country attending weddings for friends this year. One highlight
was when they came out in June for a Friday night wedding in St. Helena
immediately followed by a Saturday afternoon wedding in San Jose. Paul and I
took advantage of this and stayed in Calistoga and visited the area wineries
sampling their finest while the kids attended the ceremonies. A great time was
had by all.
Desta and Robbie at the Burks' wedding reception in San Jose
We didn’t
take any extended vacations this year as we were going through some changes as
well. Paul lost his job at Allscripts in June when the company decided to close
the development office in San Jose. It took a while but Paul eventually landed
a development manager position with Kaiser in Oakland starting in December. We
took quite a few weekend outings while the job search was underway. We spent a
couple of weekends at our friend’s cabin by Lake Camanche – lovely place with
all the amenities including satellite TV to Paul’s delight. We took a day trip
to Angel Island and found what a treasure it is. We’ve lived in the Bay Area practically
all our lives and had never been there. We also took a few quick trips to
Denver to spend some time with Robbie and Desta. They have a great apartment
near downtown that is very spacious and comfortable. They also make great
hosts!
As
for me I’ve settled into my part-time position for Kaiser Permanente where I
work a couple of days a week gathering data from Pediatric Intensive Care Units
to populate a national Pediatric database for statistical and analytical purposes.
I also continue to teach Neonatal Resuscitation a few times a month at the Heartshare
Training Center near home. I’ve also taught S.T.A.B.L.E. and BLS at the same
facility from time to time. My favorite though is teaching infant CPR for
parents at Tiny Tots in Campbell. The students (parents and grandparents) are
very receptive and WANT to learn – very different from classes where the
students MUST attend to maintain certification. All in all though I enjoy
teaching and it’s something I can do for years to come, God willing.
We got a great surprise in January when we found out that Renato Folena, Paul's first cousin on his father's side, was coming to the San Francisco area for a visit. Actually Renato was here on a business trip as he works for Roche who now owns Genentech and he was here to oversee some IT issues in their South San Francisco facility. It was the first time that Paul had met him and we had a great time showing him most of the usual tourist spots. Renato returned later in the year, also on another business trip, and the timing was perfect as he was able to attend the Divas for Life charity event in Los Altos where Amanda performed ( see the YouTube clip at the bottom of this page).
Amanda, Jane and Sandra with primo Renato
2012 San Francisco Giants World Series Champions parade.
And of course a HUGE event happened again - 2nd time in 3 years - the Giants are World Series Champions!!! This time we flew Robbie in from Denver to attend the victory parade. Paul regretted not flying Robbie out in 2010 so he wasn't going to make the same mistake twice. They had a blast.
In
November we had a special guest for Thanksgiving again – Aunt Delores came in all
the way from Cedar Rapids for the 2nd year in a row to spend a week
with us. We brought my dad down from Sebastopol to have a double celebration –
it was my dad’s 93rd birthday on Thanksgiving Day. We held a
Finnegan Family reunion of sorts on the Saturday right after Thanksgiving as
Jim, Joanie and Shannon came down from Woodbridge and we all went out for
Chinese Dim Sum in Palo Alto. We all had a wonderful time as Robbie was here
from Denver and Amanda and Justin came down from San Mateo.
We BBQ the turkey at Thanksgiving.
Well that pretty much wraps up the Folena Family 2012 review. The Folenas want to wish you and your loved ones a fabulous holiday season full of joy and good cheer. Have a healthy, prosperous and jubilant New Year!
Amanda performing Let's Kill The Ingenues at the 2012 Divas for Life charity benefit in Los Altos.