Hello Family and Friends!!!Thanks for taking the time to come visit our blog. It may end up that this space is filled with stories and dreams of our future or we may simply use it as a space to save a tree or two once a year during the holiday.
It has been a couple years of busy busy busy times for us in the Rutherford household. Many of you receiveed a holiday letter for Christmas 2010, which would have been just after we made the move to NYC. We were certainly feeling as though we had many successes to celebrate then and now we are overjoyed (and at times overwhelmed) with the amount of work we do here.
Kurtis is currently in his second year as Technical Director for Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet (http://cedarlakedance.com/). This dancing company has their own studio space located in Chelsea and Kurtis enjoys an additional shop space in Jersey City. They do a fair amount of traveling, particularly to Europe. The variety of work from drafting to set builds to office work keeps Kurtis on his toes in a mostly positive way. He generally gets along so well with his fellow carpenters that he is often being offered free lance work on the side. This is what Kurtis first did when we came to the city and is the reason that we survived our first year of living here. A union house that Cedar Lake danced at in May, the Joyce, offered Kurtis work which he was able to take on over the summer during a bit of down time. Many people Mary works with still ask how Kurtis is and whether he is available for work.
Mary advanced into the wardrobe industry very quickly in the past year and a half. She was honored to join the NYC Wardrobe Union this past March, having completed 30+ days on Broadway and in union houses. This opportunity allows her to be a part of a very active community and gives her access to more work. In the past year, she has worked at Radio City Music Hall on the Christmas Spectacular and Zarkana, with Signature Theatre Company as Assistant Costume Shop Manager to help them open their new space, and at Jersey Boys on Broadway. Each company has wonderful people working for it and offers a wide variety of work and experiences that Mary treasures. As someone who had always had her eye set toward Broadway, it is a dream come true to work here and she looks forward to what the next year might bring.
Our cats continue to keep us well entertained at home. Granger will be 6 this year and Gavroche will be 3. They still have days where they don't get along so well and others where they may be found frolicking with each other. Gavroche has developed some special spots - panther caves - in the apartment where he can keep to his own. We have discovered that Granger will come to the sound of phone ring tones, which is entirely unique to her and not terribly surprising. You can imagine that there is not a lot of time for hobbies when we are both so busy working, add transit times on to that, and your day goes away pretty quickly. However, Kurtis brought beer fully in to our house this year with gallons upon gallons of home brew. He has a very special skill in his home brewing and we are often sharing this with friends in the city. Mary planted a larger garden this year, which did fairly well, that is until the mosquitoes became to unbearable to go out and weed for five minutes. Still, the tomatoes and basil survived the longest and those are the two things we enjoy fresh the most!
Our trips were few a far between this year with a quick one out to Vail to ski with Mary's dad and siblings, a few quick visits to KS and a weekend to Chicago. This next year should hold a big trip to Australia. We really enjoy traveling together and look forward to the possibilities that each trip holds.
There are very few other things of note, except a big thanks for the many visitors this past year: ***Pam & Randy Johnston, Charles Johnston, Tim Shook, Caleb Crainer, Kevin Rutherford, Hannah & James Tolleson, Karl & Marilee Rutherford, Janice Gallagher, Jenna Huffman, and Dana Pinkston*** All of these folks made a special effort to come out and spend time with us in our home and we loved and appreciated having you here. From new explorations that we made in to the city to good food that we shared, visitors are always fun to have around and we feel very blessed to be so lucky to have so many that are able to make the trip.
Best wishes to all of you in the coming year!
Love,
Mary and Kurtis
