Summer of '94 & Updates
Continuing with Tom Kaplan-Maxfield...actually, before I do, two things: updates and a general statement. It's been a busy week or so...FINALLY caught up with Melissa Ramsay -- we finally managed to connect over the phone. She's now done with finals, but is in the process of now moving into the house she and her beau, Oliver (forget his last name), closed on. We managed to talk for a while to catch up and to make tentative plans for me to visit their new home in the coming weeks.
Speaking of school, Ian E., who used to be one of my models, just graduated from Columbia so I went to congratulate him before he was away for the summer, after which he will be at Boston University to begin working on his law degree. It was good to see him for the first time in a while -- we'd both cut our hair short, so that was a topic in of itself. We met up at Lotus, now a veteran of the Meat-Packing District's fancy clubs, and it was a strange sensation to be there, for the first time in likely a year or so. Lee Zumdome, Ian E., and I had some drinks to celebrate his graduation and I called it a night at about 1AM...
Another friend who's just about graduating is J. Harry Edmiston, whom I'd mentioned before. I dropped him a line recently, after hearing from his sister Pandora, who was headed for Thailand, after having returned from the Cannes Film Festival. We caught up, since we hadn't spoken in some time -- he'd just gotten in from surfing (in England?!?!?!), and rightfully he was frozen.
Also touched base with Jennette Swartout, a friend from the Accenture days over IM. I hadn't really used IM much recently (except at Accenture, where it was used professionally), but am reconnecting with a lot of Accenture folk through it -- including Susi Gulla (in Philly, studying now to become a doctor), Phil Spannenger (in New York now, still at Accenture), and Merrit Brown (a Flyers fan, but he's forgiven...still with Accenture as well, in London and D.C.). I also heard from Ginevra Felt who is happily engaged and buying a house in CT -- she's one of the very few women I know who actually can appreciate video games as much as we guys do, without being a total nerd.
Over IM, I also spoke to my old friend Alex Kulick, a Russian I used to work with over at Viacom on a project -- through Alex Kulick, Alan Mandell, Dhaval Parikh, and my efforts, we'd implemented a corporate-wide business software in 1999 that's still in active use today. His company, Offsiteteam seems to be doing well, and he's in New York now. He's invited me out to drinks, but given that the last time we went out for drinks, he took me to the Russian Vodka Room where I was served glasses full of vodka infusions, and I was barely able to even stay sitting up, I made it a point that I'll only have Guinesses. It'll be good to see him nonetheless, as it's been over two years, maybe three.
And speaking of someone I hadn't spoken to in a while, I heard from Brian Rosenworcel of Guster -- I'm not sure if I'd mentioned the house before, but at Tufts, we lived in this house on Powderhouse Circle, at 139 College Avenue -- it was eight of us all together, and it was a ruckus every hour of the day, every day of the week. Bri is touring still and he may miss Jake's wedding, but he seemed well. Other cast members from that house were: Ryan Miller (also of Guster); Neil Foster (moved to New York and is now married); Chris Harmon (finished with Kellogg, is in Boston now, and will be marrying his girlfriend of 12 years, Allison Oshinsky, finally this fall in Lake Tahoe); Mike Carcamo (was racing for a while, then joined the engine team for Players in the Cart circuit, before moving on to design consumer car engines); Jacob Millard (whom I've mentioned before -- one of the smartest guys I know); Jake Sherman (who recently wrote again from Afghanistan, and is coming back to NY soon in preparation for his wedding); and Dave Tohill (who e-mailed recently from Hawaii...I think I mentioned him before as well).
Neil Foster & Dave Tohill at 139 College Avenue, Circa 1994
I was working on an engineering project to design a better dental flosser, but...
There are stories galore from that era -- everyone in that house was intelligent, creative, very different individuals that were all funny as hell, so it was laugh a minute...I remember one instance when Chris Harmon and I had to literally get out of the house and run away to the nearest restaurant because we were near dying from laughter. I guess before veering off into another tangent, I should return to the title of this post.
This past weekend was Memorial Day Weekend, and of course, there were barbecues to attend to. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get away for the weekend, but it was nice to catch up with old friends. I went to a barbecue at my friend Mac Premo's (whom I've mentioned before) new apartment in Brooklyn, also to celebrate his birthday. We've been meaning to have sushi together for some time, so, despite the fact it was a barbecue, I brought a platter of sushi to get that monkey off our backs. It was good to catch up with him and his now fiancee, Adrianna; look at slides from the art show in Belfast; look through his book (which is more enjoyable in person, given that it's a mixed-media work); catch up with Betsy Richard; look at their new duplex apartment (with roof, which is where we had our barbecue -- Mac has such a unique sense of style -- he's a RISD graduate -- that it leaves a signature on everything he touches. His apartment is quintessentially Mac Premo, and I wish I had photographs to better demonstrate what I mean); meet Jeff (don't know his last name) who's Broadway musical with puppets called Avenue Q comes highly recommended by Mac, so I need to check it out (quick update: Avenue Q just won a Tony for Best Musical, 2004); etc.
Then on Saturday afternoon/night, I met up with Maarten Devos, his wife Stephanie, Oliver and Amy Pihlar, et al. in Prospect Park in Brooklyn for a barbecue as well. It was good to see everyone, and we tossed the good ol' pigskin around, which was nice -- I hadn't tossed a football in a while, not since college, but, if I say so myself (and with my colleague's confirmation), it was nice to see that I still have a pretty good arm...I did play football, believe it or not, in high school after all.
Anyhow, as this post has become a beast in of itself, I will have to write about the Summer of 1994 some other time...
Labels: Old friends
All text © 2004
Posted @ 01:01
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