Dear Friends and Family,
Let’s just cut to the chase: Tricia is retired and loving it.
She greatly enjoyed her last 12 years as a volunteer assistant principal at Chinquapin Prep (volunteering more than 15,000 hours), but she was out of gas after over 30 years in education and training. She has spent the last year refueling, doing physical therapy on her shoulder (which you will recall she fractured in a fall in March 2023, it has been a part time job getting back to normal), catching up on home projects, traveling with Alan on some of his business trips, and starting some new hobbies (like painting).
The year was filled with many recurring entertainment activities although some in “new” seats, including Baylor basketball games (Alan caught the interest of the TV cameras and radio announcers in our baseline seats in Baylor’s new Foster Arena as he distracted opposing free throw shooters), and Rockets games in hip hop artist 50cent’s floor box (Alan’s company splits the box with the singer’s local business interests – featured in photos include Eddie & Kelly Anderson, John & Ann Ayre, Sabrina McTopy and Scarlett (Collings) Hewell), as well as enjoying a rebound season from our regular seats at the Texans, and rodeo with Tricia’s family who were in town for niece Vivian’s 18th birthday in March this year.
Our travel videos start with some classic rock concert tours we attended including Bill Joel’s 97th residency concert at Madison Square Garden in NY, and 50th anniversary tours for Kansas and John Mellencamp. Our travels included the beautiful BlackBerry Farm in Tennessee not far from Knoxville (a working farm with gourmet meals and peaceful surroundings), revisiting many of our favorite spots Northern California from Healdsburg to Calistoga, and visiting three cities in Germany as part of a theater tour with the director of our Houston musical theater (Dan Knechtges of Theatre Under the Stars where Alan is in his 20th year on the board) from Hamburg in the north (with very modern architecture and a vibrant arts culture), to historic Berlin in the east, and festive old Bavaria aka Munich in the south, along with a side trip to Prague just across the border in Czechia (long on our wish list due to how well preserved this 1,500 year old city is, including the statue of “…good King Wenceslas…”).
We also tried out the off-road features of our Bronco sport in a summer “Off-Roadeo” program offered by Ford in Moab, Utah, where we wandered through the mountains climbing great heights and uneven terrains. Then, in the winter, we were back in Utah, this time in Provo, as part of a Baylor men’s basketball road trip to Morgantown, West Virginia, and BYU where we attended practices, strategy sessions, and games (plus also got to enjoy snow tubing!).
We were also in New York a couple of times, once for Alan’s business but with shows in the evening and on the weekend (as well as a visit to a Michelin darling Per Se including a kitchen visit!), and another with some of Alan’s family just before Christmas to see the Rockettes, Billy Joel, and a Baylor men’s basketball game against Duke in Madison Square Garden. We enjoyed a summer getaway in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, before attending one of the 2023 Renaissance Weekend programs in Beaver Creek.
And, of course, we got away to our condo in Ormond Beach (Daytona), where we’ve begun taking lessons to allow us to take boats out on the ocean in addition to our normal boating on the intercoastal waterway (Halifax River). Lots more dolphins out there!
We also enjoyed seeing friends and family throughout the year including Alan’s mom Elaine’s first Christmas back in Houston since the pandemic. Also featured in photos are Tricia with Ambreen Salters our friend and Alan’s business partner, Tricia and Grace Ferrand—a high school classmate who lives in L.A., attending our first Mitzvah (hosted by the Gordon family), Alan at some charity events, Alan teaching high school with Ambreen on a volunteer day, a celebrity sighting or two, Vivian’s 18th birthday and Tricia’s mom Carolyn’s 80th birthday celebrations, Alan with high school classmate Bev and husband Clark when they were in town visiting their daughter’s in-laws, Alan and 30 year friend and longtime office manager Linda Calles, nephew Jack’s graduation from high school (with a photo of Alan’s brother David from his high school graduation), scenes from Vivian’s 2023 summer visit when the Barbie movie premiered, Alan in Jack’s freshman dorm room at Baylor where he is finishing his first year, photos from an Olympic Trustee meeting in the Hollywood Hills to hear updates about preparations for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, holiday photos, office Halloween photos and, finally,…
…photos of our cat Hip Hop to whom we said last goodbyes to a 19-year member of our family. Good friends Lind and Tiffany Bruton memorialized her with some paintings they had made for us as a gift. She was the last of the second set of sister cats we’ve had during our marriage, the eldest in the first pair living 17 years (and we’ve been married 37 years). We look forward, in time, to adopting another pair.
We hope you and yours are doing well and hope to see you in the next year whether during our travels or yours.
Tricia & Alan
Tricia: tricia.ratliff@comcast.net and 713.705.7422.
Alan:aratliff@stoneturn.com and 832.435.3535,
What an incredible, fun year you had! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for sharing this fun year. So sorry about Hip-Hop.