The advent of a new year is one of three occasions during the year when I tend to look back on the recent past and appreciate all the good portions of my life. (The other two, if you’re interested, are my birthday and Thanksgiving). 2004 has been another mostly good year for the Sabella family:

Mark is doing very well at TCNJ, taking extra courses every semester so he can major in Finance and minor in Accounting while still graduating on time.

After five successful years running cross-country, Andy has decided to retire, mostly because the wear and tear on his feet was bothering him and making him anxious about his future health. Since his best friend Colleen also quit, he seems content with that decision.

Jean is still teaching during the day at County College of Morris and Statistics one night a week at Centenary College.

My parents are doing all right, their health being about as expected for two people in their early 80s. They are very happy living at Heath Village, a very nice senior citizen community nearby, which is close enough for us or my brothers to be available whenever they need us.

Jean’s aunt Ceil had arthroscopic surgery on her knee this past fall, and it is amazing the things she is able to do at her age of 80+. Hopefully Jean and I will be that lively in our old age.

Fei Fei is nearly finished with her doctorate and preparing for her tenure-track position at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaigne, one of the best Electrical Engineering schools in the country. She has her own lab with a nice-sized budget, and earning more money her first year than I am making. That’s her reward for all her hard work and brilliance.

This summer my nephew Chris was the first Sabella of the next generation to get married. It was fairly traumatic both for my college friends with whom Jean and I sat at the wedding, and also for my brother David and me who dread the thought of Stephen becoming a grandfather in a few years. If that is not the ultimate doorway into old age, I don’t know what else could possibly be.

We went to Notre Dame for the graduation of another nephew–Jean’s brother Peter's son Jesse. While there, Jean and I both chatted with Jesse’s brother Gabe who is very happy teaching elementary English in a small village in Japan.

Jean and I had a small 25th anniversary party attended by my parents and several close friends, which was fun. We also spent a weekend in Lancaster, most of which Jean spent shopping at outlets while I haunted two remaindered book outlets.

We spent two weeks this summer in Canada, camping near the St. Lawrence River and spending a day in Ottawa and a day in Montreal. Canada is a gorgeous country, with very friendly people. I would be thrilled to retire there, especially considering how crazy this country is getting with its tax-cutting frenzy and aggression overseas. I just need to convince Jean that it is not “too cold”.

I have a very demanding and stressful schedule at school this year, teaching 5 different courses, including Advanced Placement Statistics, which is a lot of work since I know nothing about Statistics at all. I spend several hours each night and nearly my entire weekend doing schoolwork, but I have a lot of very nice students who spend time in the Math Lab every day, so that makes up for a lot of the stress.

I published the 100th issue of my fanzine Visions of Paradise this past summer, and I am pleased with the generally-good reaction it gets from my readers. People also seem to enjoy my two blogs, which is nice and which encourages me to continue writing them.

I bought or received as gifts 25 books and 19 cds this year, most of which I enjoyed. My favorite book of the year was Guy Gavriel Kay’s alternate historical novel The Last Light of the Sun. My favorite cds were mostly compilations, including Fairport Convention’s Cropedy, Time-Life’s 9-cd boxed set The Folk Years and two-cd greatest hits collections by Jackson Browne, John Mellencamp and Creedence Clearwater Revival.

Happy New Year everybody! Hopefully I’ll be in touch with a lot of you in the months ahead.

Although I admit to being cynical much of the time, I still enjoy the Christmas season. The past two days have been very busy ones, but fulfilling ones. Yesterday, after opening all our gifts in the morning, the four of us and Mark’s girlfriend Kate had a quiet Christmas dinner. In the evening my brother Mike and his family came for dessert, plus we spent a few hours playing Trivial Pursuit. Would you believe that I never had a copy of that game until Mark gave it to me for Christmas yesterday? I love trivia, and am fairly good at it, if I can say so myself without bragging, so it was a fun time.

This is the week when I hope to catch up on a lot of chores which I put off during school. Already this morning I cleaned up my computer files, and I plan to send email to many friends and former students today. However, there are far too many people I want to keep in touch with to write them all individual letters, so some will get a general summary letter from me. I hope nobody is offended by being part of a group mailing.

Current reading: Shadow of the Wind, an acclaimed mystery by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, translated from Spanish, about an author whose books are being systematically sought out and burned by a mysterious assailant. This is definitely a book for book-lovers.

Currently listening: John Fogarty’s Deja Vu All Over Again, the latest album by one of rock ‘n’ roll’s most underrated singer-songwriters.

The last day of school before Christmas vacation is always a nice day because of the good will which permeates the classes. Yes, I taught all 5 of my periods, but my students did not protest much, even my 7th period ESL class! And several of my students were thoughtful enough to give me presents, which really made me happy. Thanks so much Divya, Amy, Manal, and Gianna! It’s great having all of you in the math lab every afternoon!

Tomorrow will be mostly a cooking day since I am making the fish this year for the gathering of the clan–of which there will be 20 of us gathered at David’s house tomorrow night. I am making calamari, scallops, mussels, and shrimp. That is not the traditional multi-course Italian celebration, but my family has become mixed since all of us married non-Italian wives. Part of me misses the old days when the meal consisted entirely of antipasto and fish. As I get older and experience a bit of the diverse ethnic backgrounds of my students, I really wish my family followed Italian traditions a lot more than we do. It is too late for me to turn back the clock in that regard though. All I can do is try to learn more about Italian culture and history, which I hope to do in the foreseeable future. I wish there were some way to encourage my sons in that regard too...

Last night I was at school until 1:15am for a negotiating session. We have reached the point where a state-appointed mediator is trying to reach some common ground between the teachers’ representatives and the Board of Ed’s representatives, which in this case is the superintendent of schools. Because the Board of Ed lost a $84 million referendum last winter, and the budget was defeated in the spring, they are trying desperately to convince the township that they are fiscally secure by taking it out on the teachers. Complicating the situation is the fact that several Board of Ed members are anti-tax, anti-teacher, while there are 3 members who are forbidden by state law from voting on budgets since they have family members who teach.

We had a successful rally six weeks ago, at which nearly the entire district and teachers from the entire county marched on the Board of Ed meeting. And the teachers overall are remaining supportive of our efforts in spite of our working without a contract this year, so that nobody has gotten any raises at all since last year. It will be interesting to see what the mediator’s report says when it is released to the public in another month. If it is favorable to us, it might put pressure on the Board of Education to settle. That would be nice...

This is the Christmas season, which tends to be incredibly busy but very rewarding. Yesterday after school I went to Sarah’s apartment for her Math Department potluck dinner. My department is a very good one, and I really enjoy socializing with them–not to mention the food everybody made, which was really delicious as well!

I left the dinner early to go to an Indian Culture Club dance, which also went incredibly-well. The kids all seemed to have a good time, doing more dancing than I expected, and they were so well-behaved. Preeti and Sagar did a great job organizing the dance, and I really hope they are both around next year as officers again.

Both Andy and Jean are finished with their semesters, which is not fair since I have another week of school, and then I only have a one-week vacation while they will be off for another week afterwards, three weeks in all! *sigh* Thank heavens I enjoy my students so much or I would really regret leaving college teaching many years ago for high school. ☺

Any of you who really like the rock ‘n’ roll of the 60s and early 70s should look for the George Harrison Tribute Concert, which PBS has been showing recently. A lot of really fine musicians, such as Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney, Billy Preston, and Ringo Starr spent two hours playing the songs of George Harrison. A really fine concert to see (and I bet it was even better live).

Currently reading: a colorful Jack Vance mystery-adventure in his Demon Princes series, The Killing Machine.

Currently listening: All Things Must Pass, George Harrison’s finest moment as a musician/songwriter.

I had jury duty this past week, and for the first time I actually served on a trial. I was placed on a civil suit for an immigrant couple whose car was struck 3 years ago. The woman who hit them had already been declared guilty, so the purpose of this trial was deciding how much money should be awarded to the couple.

The first day was fascinating, consisting of the jury selection followed by opening statements by the lawyers. The whole atmosphere of the courtroom was intriguing, especially the three lawyers’ different approaches to trying to “win over” the jury; the testimony itself by the couple, augmented by two translators; and watching the body language of everybody involved in the trial. The female plaintiff was obviously in great pain as she shifted and fidgeted in her seat all afternoon. Since her main complaint was lower back pain, and the symptoms she described were very similar to mine when my back is at its worst, I tended to empathize with her. The lawyer for the defendant–whom I assume is really working for the car insurance company–stated that he did not have to prove anything, but that the lawyers for the plaintiffs–and both the husband and wife had their own lawyer, which was interesting–must prove that they suffered “permanent damage” as the result of the accident.

Thursday we listened to testimony for nearly 5 hours, including both plaintiff’s lawyers and the defense lawyer, questioning and then cross-examining. The lawyers tried everything possible to impress we 7 jury members, especially the cross-examiners who tried to “trip up” the witnesses. In the morning we listened to the chiropractor who treated the two plaintiffs for 3 years, while in the afternoon we listened to the doctor who examined them once in the employ of the defense lawyer. Since that doctor is physically unable to conduct his daily practice anymore, his salary consists exclusively of examining patients and reporting on them in court, 80% of whom he does in the employ of defense lawyers. So how are we supposed to believe this doctor is unbiased if his salary is dependent on satisfying the insurance company? In his testimony he insisted that reading MRI and other test results is subjective, not objective, so doesn’t that damn his own testimony as obviously unreliable? While the chiropractor is no longer treating the two plaintiffs, what reason does he have to be nonobjective?

Friday morning we listened to closing statements by all three lawyers. The lawyer for the defense tried to impress us with the doctor’s testimony, but most of us were already prejudiced against him. The lawyer for the wife was a young man who also did not impress me much, trying too much to imitate television lawyers. The lawyer for the husband was a middle-aged lawyer who served as a teacher, telling us all the facts we needed to know but, obviously, emphasizing facts which were likeliest to impress us. As I expected, he derided the doctor’s credentials as a shill of the insurance company, compared to the chiropractor who knew the two plaintiffs much better from having treated them for three years.

Then the judge instructed us as to our duty, which consisted of answering three questions for each plaintiff: Did they sustain an injury caused by the accident, consisting of a permanent injury within a reasonable degree of medical probability? Did they sustain an injury caused by the accident that has had a serious impact on their life? And how much money will fairly and reasonably compensate them for the pain, suffering and disability caused by the accident? We were given absolutely no guidelines for monetary damages, but were told that the scales only had to tilt slightly toward the plaintiffs for us to judge them deserving of damages.

When we went into the jury room for our deliberations, several jurors were confused at first. I tended to take charge and told the other 6 jurors that damages had indeed taken place in the accident, emphasizing the knowledge of their condition by the chiropractor, the results of the MRI and EMG tests, and the unreliability of the doctor. For each question I had supporters in the room, so eventually everybody came around to our position and we voted “yes” 7-0 on each question.

Then we came to the money, and I suggested that according to the chiropractor’s records they had been going to see him once a month prior to moving out-of-state early in 2004. At $50 a visit, that came to $25,000 to continue receiving chiropractic care for the 42 years which is the expected survival rate of both plaintiffs. Since lawyers receive 1/3 of the settlement, that raised the total award to $40,000 each. Every juror agreed that it was a fair amount, so that was our decision for both plaintiffs. When we read our decision to the court, the lawyers turned to the plaintiffs, and all four of them seemed satisfied with our verdict.

Serving on a jury was a rewarding, and very interesting experience, and I am glad I did it, in spite of the inconvenience to my classes the past three days.

I have been very busy the past week, too much so to have time to blog. Last weekend Jean and I spent two days in Oriskany, New York, where we drove her aunt Ceil back after her Thanksgiving visit. Then I spent Sunday writing tests and college recommendations, grading tests, working on salary guides, and going to the YMCA. Monday night I had guitar lessons, as usual, and last night I was out for the annual PTHEA Executive Board holiday dinner.

Today I did not go to school because I had jury duty and, for the first time ever, I was placed on a jury for a civil lawsuit. ObviouslyI cannot talk about a trial in progress, but I will miss school definitely tomorrow and possibly Friday as well. Another teacher who was selected for the jury told the judge how bad that would be for his students, but the judge laughed and made a joke about when he was a student he was pleased whenever his teachers were out! So much for supporting education. I hope I can find something for my students to do in my absence that will be valuable and not just busywork on their part.

In spite of the inconvenience for my teaching, I am finding the trial interesting so far, and I will have a report on it when the trial is completed.

The media center specialist at PHS died early this morning after a two-year fight with cancer. Although she and I have been teaching together for 20 years, both starting at Par Hills HS two decades ago, I was never particularly close to her. Nor was she the type of beloved educator whose passing will cause a major rift in the school. What impressed me about her though was her fight to continue coming to school right until the next-to-last day of her life, never complaining or giving any indication to the school community that her cancer was so advanced that she was literally in the last days of her life. Such fight is truly inspiring, and her death makes me realize how foolish worrying about aging/health/bad classes really is. We all need a periodic reminder to forget about the bad and concentrate on all the good aspects of our lives, which are certainly plentiful in my case: my family, my overall comfortable life, my passionate interests, my delightful students. It is unfortunate that it often takes the death of another person to remind the rest of us to seize the moment and enjoy every day remaining to us.