Republican Convention Fun Begins!

Hi Everyone,
Thought you all might like an inside scoop as to what's going on around here. For those of you who don't know, I work at the GM Building which is on 59th Street and 5th Avenue across from The Plaza Hotel. It's where the big FAO Schwartz toy store is and also the CBS offices. If you watch The Early Show, it's filmed in the plaza in front of the building where I pass through every day. (I won't be on tv because I'm always late for work!) Anyway, I wonder if they were filming what was going on this morning. A group of people coordinated a great stunt in the Plaza Hotel and this was the result.

One of my co-workers shot some photos from the ground outside and some others from inside our building from the 37th floor (where our offices are). Totally great! As you know, NYC is pretty anti-Bush (an opinion I don't disagree with), so it should be really interesting to see what goes on as the week approaches and progresses. I will try to update with any other news things that may get edited from Republican slanted press. What make this stunt more ironic is that rumor has it that Bush will be staying at The Plaza! If he's not, other high profile people will be, so it should get interesting around here as far as security goes. (Though it's not uncommon to have the side streets nearby closed for visiting dignitaries' security.)

Generally I do not get involved in politics, but for the first time in my life I am trying to learn as much about the Presidential election as I can so that I can back myself up when I say that I think it is really important not to vote Republican in this election. I know that many of you agree with me, and for those who don't, I urge you to do the same and really try to learn as much as you can about the candidates before you cast your vote.
Don't worry, I won't get preachy with any other updates, but they will inevitably be slanted to the left.
I hope everyone has a nice weekend. We get one summer Friday off per month June-Aug and mine's tomorrow! Leaving work now...
Over and out from NYC,
Lis

Hello from Jenny Winquist!

Hello everyone! Sorry it’s taken me so long to post, but we just moved and have been having internet issues. Here’s what we’ve been up to:

After Purdue I went to the University of Illinois at Chicago for social psychology and Rob went to the University of Chicago for molecular biology. After grad school I started teaching psychology and statistics at Valparaiso University. Rob did a post-doc in plant biology at the U of C for several years and in a couple of weeks he begins his first year as a professor at VU! We just moved from Chicago to Valpo and bought our first house. It’s very cute, but its best feature is that it is so close to campus that we can both walk to work. We don’t have any kids as of yet, just two cats.

We got married in 1997. We both really wanted to avoid a huge wedding that would take years to plan, but our families seemed intent on a big fiasco. Our solution was a surprise wedding. Rob told our families that he wanted to throw a surprise party for me because I had just finished my masters. So, both families planned a great party. When we showed up and they yelled surprise, we got to spring the news that we were getting married right then and there. We had a friend of the family (John Misher’s dad) become a justice of the peace for the day so that he could perform the ceremony. It was perfect.

Oddly enough, I just ran into Amy Snearly’s sister Kathy. She said that Amy is living in Chesterton with her husband Steve and their two adorable little boys. Amy is teaching grade school in Michigan City. However, I don’t have her email address or phone number. Unfortunately, I can’t remember Steve’s last name either.

I also have some info about Michelle Jobin that might help. She married David Engen and worked at Eli Lily in Indy. Last I heard from her they had two kids and David was a dentist.

Since I’m practically living in Chesterton, I’m sure I’d be able to make a Christmas reunion. It would be great to see you all again.

The Greatest Song EVER

Everybody POGO!

Ah, sockhops...

BLUE MONDAY!

[It's an mp3. Click on it! Everyone should have it in their collection.]

Christmas Plans

I see that several people have mentioned a possible "reunion" around Christmas. I thought maybe we could start a post to discuss plans. As for me, my family and I will be "...back home again, in Indiana..." for part of my Christmas break from school. We'll be attending my grandmother's 80th birthday party on Dec 19th. We haven't decided how long to stay in IN yet. With 3 kids, Christmas is easier if we're home, but it would be nice to see snow. I know snow isn't guaranteed in IN at Christmas (I remember playing basketball in shorts & a t-shirt on Christmas day one year) but the chances are better there than here in TN.

What plans does anyone else have?

-Mike

Hi from Hot-lanta!

Hi Everyone. Thanks to Eric for organizing this internet page. It is great!!

So....the short version of what I have been up to. Did undergrad up in New Hampshire at Dartmouth College, graduated in '93. When I was done with that I did a year for the "domestic Peace Corp" in Eugene, Oregon. I was working with a parenting education organization. The experience was both very rewarding and challenging. When I was done with that, I took another year off and more or less hung out in Chesterton for a year before starting medical school at University of Vermont in ‘95. There I meet someone and became engaged to someone who I thought was the most amazing man in the world ( I later found out I was wrong). He had his dream job in New Jersey (ewww) and so I did my internship for pediatrics there. After the first few months, I realized that the program was not what I was looking for (it was too easy). So, then I transferred to Emory in Atlanta for the last 2 years of pediatric residency. Right before the completion of residency in 2002....the engagement ended (which was a very good thing, although it was hard on me). I ended up having a job in private practice fall into my lap and joined this great group of about 6 other pediatrician. Overall, being a pediatrician is a great job.... very rewarding and have wonderful patients. I have been with this group for the last 2 years (since I finished residency) and looking at being partner in a bit.

Been living in Atlanta for the last 4 years and really love it here....the weather is great, nice people and yummy restaurants, fun things to do and there is no snow. I have been looking to buy a house here in Atlanta for the last 7 months, no luck yet. Otherwise, on the relationship front, I have had some wonderful relationships, but no Mr. Right yet.

If anyone finds themselves in Atlanta, let me know. My phone is 404/486-0850 and my email is mmar@alum.dartmouth.org

Lis is finally official!

Hi Everyone,
Here I am...I finally figured out how to do this! No computer genius here. I've been enjoying reading about everyone else, so now here's a little bit about me...
After college I was living in Chicago for a while and just wasn't figuring out what I should be doing, so in '97 I picked up and moved to New York City--well, just outside of the city in Westchester until I figured out whether I wanted to stay. Some of my college friends (Kent State) welcomed me with open arms and soon became a second family. I lived in Manhattan in the East Village for a while--figured if I was going to be in NYC, I should live in the heart of it all which was really awesome. Did a bunch of temp work finally stumbling on the offices of Clinique (the cosmetics co.), then tired of my expensive shoe box apartment, I moved to Brooklyn. Now, thanks to a tip from a co-worker I've moved to Astoria, Queens into what here is considered a huge apartment which I share with my boyfriend. It's a great, diverse neighborhood only 15-20 minutes on the subway to midtown Manhattan. [Contrary to popular belief (Robin) it's nothing like the part of Queens you see in that Eddie Murphy movie Coming To America! I have worked my way up at Clinique in their in-house advertising department as Manager of Creative Operations. Basically it's a lot of just making sure people are sticking to timetables, but it's comfortable and has a lot of great perks (only it took me 5 years to get them to hire me on as full time). So I'm finally getting settled in--definitely plan on staying in NYC for the indefinite future.
Ok, the boyfriend... He's Courtney Prescott. I met him through mutual friends. In October it will be 4 years since our first date. He's terrific. Wedding bells somewhere in the future.
We don't have a home computer yet (saving up to get one soon) so I may not write very often unless I get more down time at work or feel like staying after like now. I will be in Indiana at Christmas so I'm totally in for a reunion! I love the photos!
xo Lis

FYI

Felt like a purple mood today!
Jenny Winquist just e-mailed me about an hour ago to say that she deleted(on accident) the invitation I sent her. So another one is on its way. Hopefully, her and Rob will be joining the "f&gs" soon. I am excited that everything is moving along so well. Talk to you all soon.

Robin

So great to hear for everyone!

I'm not sure where to begin.
OK - well I start by thanking Eric for putting this together - what a great idea! I'm totally up for getting together in December. Lets make sure we make it happen!

I guess I'll start with college & go from there--
I graduated from Purdue in Dec. 92 in Fine Arts, moved to Denver a year or so later with my finace at the time. We lived there for a year [and had a lot of fun hiking and biking] but I moved back home when things didn't work out. Then, I moved back to Colorado for about 6 months on a soul searchng adventure and ended up in Lafayette, IN - where I lived until last year. I worked at Purdue for a few years in the in-house printing operation. I left a string of disasterous relationships and my first house, which I loved, and moved back to Valparaiso to get married to a wonderful man who my sister introduced me to. His name is Al and we are happy as clams. We were married last September (27th). We have two dogs and two cats and will probably start working on the family next year.

As of late I've been working in printing and making art on the side [I always leave art on the back burner & don't know if I'll ever change that]. I have begun to exhibit my work and hope to get more out there. This fall I'm going to start my yoga teacher certification program in Chicago - so I'm very excited about that. I started taking yoga several yars ago after a bad break-up, and haven't stopped since - I love it!

I recently left my job at a local printer and am currently looking for work in marketing/communications. In fact, I logged on to quick check my email before I dug into my job searching efforts for the day - and here I am - freaking & geeking! Oh well, that's the way it goes.

I miss you all and remember those times as bittersweeet. Besides all the family crap I was going through at the time, it was so hard to be a teenager and to figure out who you are and where you fit in. You all made that a bit easier. Man, did we have fun.

Amy

Simply titled: "Gang Dinner"

me and bob 

My wedding 

Hilarious photos

Schmer, the photos you posted are hilarious! The one of you and John and the one of Lis are ones I took in photo class - I think I have tons of those somewhere of all of us, I'll have to try to dig them up and send some more to you!

Robin - so great to talk with you. Sorry our conversation got cut short - it's hard to talk while I'm at work, and sometimes the cell doesn't get the best reception inside the building. Anyway, glad to hear you are doing so well!

Housekeeping

Just a few things to mention:

Diana - I don't know what keeps happening, but, once again, you aren't listed on the "Member" page at all. Right after I sent you another "invitation" email, you showed up as being in "pending" status, but, now you don't show up at all.

John, Lis, Monica - get on the ball and sign up for goodness sake. You've all been "pending" for weeks now. We want your active participation here, so give us what we want.

Welcome to Lisa! Lisa, I got the pictures that you sent. Where the hell did the picture of Rob, RHODA VALPATEC [sp?], and myself come from?!? I don't remember that occasion at all! By the look on my face, it must've been while Rhoda and I were "going out"... What was I thinking? The big group picture must've been at some dinner party - was it a COUPLES thing? That one is so good that I think that I will just figure out how to post it in a actual post rather than shrinking it down to fit on the side. If I shrunk it, you wouldn't get to see everyone's bright, shining faces. Oh, and the one of you 4 Purdue Ladies [that's what I named the photo] is just SO college.

Amber and Derrick have been sent "invitations" to join! Amber is now completely aware of what we are doing here, but it looks like she might not be able to attend in December. I'll let her tell you why when she signs up and starts posting. As for Derrick, I found an email from him off of his personal website: http://www.forchetti.org/. Oh, and exploring a little more there, I just found an MSN email address that I will try sending something to as well. Haven't officially gotten his attention/participation, but hopefully we are on our way.

Oh, and I'm hoping that Amber can get us back in touch with Amy Davis. She [Amy] contacted me a few years back, we lost touch, and a couple of weeks ago I tried calling the number that I had for her but it wasn't an active number anymore...

I called Ream's parents last week and left a message on their machine asking them to pass along to Michelle my contact info. Haven't heard anything from her yet, so I may call them again this week.

I did a search on whitepages.com for "Winquist" and "Chesterton" - assuming that HER parents were still in the same place - and came up with a Winquist on some strange street that I had never heard of. Anyone know where she and Rob are [I'm assuming that they are married by now...]? It seems like when I last heard from/about them they were both working/in school at UIC. Actually, maybe that was when I talked to them at Diana's wedding...