Rooney New Year’s Update

I haven’t sent Xmas cards/letters in 2 years, but yours have pleasantly kept coming. Though it was a tough fight, I could not let myself drop the ball again this year. Below is our annual winter update. which comes with the  best of wishes for your new year and sincere appreciation for keeping us updated and in touch with your lives.

Aiden is 20 years old and in her senior year in the Marine Biology program at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida, where she also works as a busser at the St. Petersburg Yacht Club.  Last summer she interned with the Florida Oceanographic Society, working on oyster restoration projects in the St. Lucie Estuary and Indian River Lagoon. She graduates this May and is planning to obtain a one-year internship/post baccalaureate in Marine Science this summer, during which she will determine her next big step. If you know anyone doing marine science (or related) research with a position for a research assistant, call/text us!!

Seamus is 18 years old and in his second year at UNC-Asheville, studying Music Technology. He finished his first physics class with an A but says he doesn’t understand it much more than I did when I was in college - I had hoped he’d be the one to finally explain it to me.. He has a campus job providing sound systems and expertise for concerts and other productions at UNC-A and hopes to obtain an internship in the Moog Electronic Music Studio or a similar situation this summer. As of this year, he and his girlfriend Jesse live in the eclectic little fixer-upper we bought within walking distance of campus.

Kieran is 12 years old and in 7th grade at Durham School of the Arts, where he enjoys daily guitar (!), chorus, and theater classes. He also plays Cello in the Duke University String School’s Concert Strings Orchestra. This year he started performing with a chamber group, which he seems to enjoy despite the additional hour of Saturday practice required. Kieran was 6th-seat on the DSA tennis team last year and continues participating in tennis clinics and playing golf with his Dad when opportunities arise.

Mike has pretty much stopped doing pharmaceutical contract work and is concentrating on maintaining our Air B&B and the houses we rent here in Durham, as well as managing the entire family’s finances and travel plans. Twice he booked flights for Seamus to visit Aiden in college, only to have them cancelled. He is trying one more time this Spring. as well as taking Kieran to Florida so Aiden can take him to Disney World (which Mike will gladly skip). When he isn’t working on our properties, managing our finances, or booking someone’s travel, Mike plays golf at Croasdaile any chance he gets - membership was his “FU-Retirement” gift to himself; and if you know Mike, you know he’s determined to get his money’s worth.

I have finished my children’s picture book, One Black Cat, but have been unsuccessful finding an agent or publisher this year. I did secure a grant to pay a local web-designer to update my author homepage, which I hope you’ll check out: www.MelissaRooneyWriting.com. I’ve also started writing theater and performing arts reviews for Triangle Review and children’s book reviews for the New York Journal of Books. This January, I will be doing a writing residency with 3rd graders at Summit School in Winston Salem (NC), where we will create and publish an illustrated anthology. I’m also writing a children’s book about the endangered Roanoke Logperch for the Roanoke Kiwanis Club (release this Spring). In the meantime, check out The Roanoke Logperch Facebook page, which I am updating as I do research for the book: https://www.facebook.com/TheRoanokeLogperch. If you watch ‘em a few moments, you’ll agree that they really are adorable little fish.

Mike and I are also heavily involved with a new nonprofit called Urban Sustainability Solutions (https://www.urbanss.org), Mike as Treasurer and me writing grants to train public-school teachers and their students in rain-garden design and installation and then pay them to design and install rain-gardens on low-income properties with flooding and erosion issues.

Our short-haired black cat Kale continues to bring us joy every day with his dog-like antics.  And Seamus and his girlfriend recently adopted a fluffy black and white cat they named Jo Jo (who until very recently did not seem to like Kale or the rest of us one bit).

We hope this letter finds you happy and healthy. Be sure to look us up if you are ever in/around Durham, NC. Our doors are always open to well-meaning visitors.

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XOXOXOXOXO,

Melissa, Mike, Aiden, Seamus and Kieran (Rooney)  

MelissaRooneyWriting@gmail.com