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Merry Christmas!!

December 15, 2000

I think I've made Santa's "naughty" list this past year (two? three?) in regards to keeping up with everyone. Hopefully this short update will put me back on his good side as well as for all my family and friends. :) Funny in this digital age of e-mail, cell phones, pagers, and instant messengers, it seems to get harder and harder to keep up with everyone I would like to. I hope this letter finds you happy, healthy, and blessed - especially during this holiday season.

I am still in San Diego, working at Cubic Corporation in the R&D department, part of a team designing contactless smartcards and peripherals. If you are ever in Washington D.C. and ride on the Metro, look for the SmarTrip card, which my team designed! In support of both this and other projects, I've been travelling extensively this year - mostly to Washington D.C. This has been quite a blessing as I have been able to see my parents and sisters at least once a month this entire year.

While on the subject of my family, here are the latest details:

Mom is still working at the US Department of Agriculture as a scientist in a nematology research lab. Working for the government, she finds herself doing quite a variety of things in addition to basic research. Besides watching worms, making taxonomic trees and writing papers, she answers lots of questions for high-school science projects, reviews papers, serves on committees and organizes meetings. One of the strangest "assignments" she had in 1998 was when a desperate middle-aged tree-trimmer came to the office suffering from probable delusional parasitosis. She tried to convince this man with a pocketknife scraping his skin that there was nothing she could see under the microscope. She prayed a lot during that episode.

Dad is doing well trying to keep up with the demands of being a taxi-driver for Amanda and Julia. He shuttles them from school to soccer games to field trips to piano lessons to friend's houses. While the girls are in school, he has undertaken to fix up the house and yard. He has completely re-landscaped the back yard and has just recently restored the garage and added a usable attic. I'm not sure what his next project will be, but I suspect winter hibernation may be in the cards.

Amanda has turned into quite a good soccer goalie. She practices two times a week with her team, plays games and tournaments on weekends, and tries to find pick up games when nothing is scheduled. Her team is ranked 15th in the nation and routinely beats teams 2-3 years older. If it were up to her, she would never wear anything other than a soccer shirt and shorts - even in the dead of winter. When she is not at school or playing soccer, Amanda is soaking up mystery novels or building with K-nex and Legos. She is always up to watch, listen to, or play anything that remotely resembles a real sport.

As much as Amanda is a tomboy, Julia really revels in being a girl. She loves dressing up, earrings, glitter, putting beads in her hair, Barbie, and crafts. But with Amanda as a sister, Julia has also decided that she is going to be a great soccer player. This year she played with a team made up of girls 1-2 years older than her. However, in addition to soccer, Julia has taken gymnastics and is currently learning to play piano. For Christmas she surprised me with a nice rendition of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas.

It's hard for me to believe that in January, Amanda will turn 11 and Julia will turn 8. Crazy.

As for me, I have been having lots of fun in addition to work this year. To start the year, I decided to take an acting class for fun. It continued afterwards with my taking an improvisation workshop. I keep hoping that I will be able to keep up with this, but work and other avenues of entertainment have kept me away. Perhaps it is something to look forward to in 2001.

During the winter and spring quarters at UCSD, I coached the men's B-team in ultimate frisbee. During the summer and fall, I played with the San Diego men’s club ultimate team - Peligro. Over the course of the year, I either played in or traveled to coach tournaments in California, Hawaii, Arizona, Seattle, Idaho, Colorado, and Virginia.

With the tournaments in Hawaii, Colorado and Seattle, I was also able to piggy-back a vacation with the trips. With Peldi, a friend of mine from Italy, I explored the Big Island of Hawaii. We visited Volcano National Park, saw flowing lava up close and hiked to a hidden green sand beach. In Seattle, I got in some hiking with my cousin Aaron and friend Katie and then was able to hike around the Mt. Rainier wilderness with Yusi. After Colorado, I took a greyhound to Utah where I met up with Dean and Mike. In the course of a week, we backpacked in the Needles Area of Canyonlands, hiked in Arches and Islands in the Sky National Parks, and found the most amazing slot canyons at Capitol Reef National Park. In addtion to these mountains, I was able to visit the concrete canyons of New York visiting with my friend Markus and to meet with my Chilean cousins Mario, Mane, and Trini as they stopped on their way to London.

The only other trip of note this year was an adventure Dean and I had in the San Gorgonio Mountains in November. Unfortunately, it is a bit too long to relate here. If you are interested, check it out at my website:

The entire story should be posted by New Year's Eve. Coming up in early January 2001, is a three-week trip to Chile and Tierra del Fuego. I'll post pictures from this trip as well on my website.

I’ve also tried to be more involved with my church, the Catholic community at U.C. San Diego. I’m very much enjoying community outreach and it is nice being able to touch the lives of people outside the church.

During the times when I am actually in San Diego, I've been learning Lindy Hop (a variant of swing dancing) and going out dancing as often as possible. The most fun I've had doing this involved about 30 people gathering on the top of a parking structure at USCD and dancing until the wee hours of the morning.

In general, life has been very good to me, and I’m looking forward to the start of the next millennium – it does start at the end of this year you know. J

May the Lord bless you and your loved ones this holiday season.

Love,

Dave

 

Contact information for everyone is as follows:

David, Lynn, Amanda and Julia Carta
1710 Briggs Chaney Rd.
Silver Spring, MD, 20905

301-384-9798

Dad:    dcarta@alumni.caltech.edu
Mom:    cartal@ba.ars.usda.gov

David Carta (Junior)
12638 McFeron Rd.
Poway, CA 92064

858-748-4020 (Dave and Angela’s place)
858-638-1586 (My place)

I still use Dave and Angela’s home as my mailing address.