Send me your pics

Hey alums,

Thank you to everyone who attended our 20th class reunion. Echoing Cat's blog posting, I also had a wonderful time reconnecting with everyone. Overall, the reunion was a reassuring and grounding experience. Sometimes it's nice to be reminded where we came from and how far we've gone – nothing does that better than a class reunion. Whether it's running experiments on Super Colliders in Switzerland, defending low-income/disadvantaged clients in Seattle, broadcasting with NBC in NYC, following successful artistic careers or educating the next generation of leaders (to name just a few), it's safe to say our class is a pretty impressive bunch. It makes me smile to think we all suffered through our teen years (or more) together.

A big thank you goes out to the committee (Dave Salchow, Amy Myrbo, Rich Barlow, Chris Cheney, Fred Kaemmer, Cat MacKenzie, Daymond Dean, Andrew Arashiba) who helped track down classmates and organize the big day. I always looked forward to emails from this group as each one found a long-lost face and shared their news. Planning the whole thing was MUCH more fun than I anticipated.

Thank you to Theresa (Zottola) Drift for sharing her pictures from both the All School Dinner on Friday and our class party on Saturday. I've created a flickr page with these images for everyone to share. If you have more, feel free to email them my way, and I'll add them to the set. My email is jobrienreg@hotmail.com.

Good luck and best wishes, everyone. Let's stay in touch.

One Big Hug

So....since I've been back in NYC everyone keeps asking me how the weekend was.  I just smile and say GREAT! So much FUN! 

But I was sitting here...trying to really put into words how it felt to be around so much familiarity and family at the same time and came up with this. 

For me at least...this was what seeing you all, being with you all was like...with almost everyone it was like no time had passed...conversations were not silted or halted...and the joy that bubbled inside of me at seeing old faces was truly geniune...

I wrote this next line to a friend who asked for details about the weekend it sums it for me the best...

It was really comfortable once everybody got over the whole "what are you doing now" thing in some ways it felt like one big long supportive hug the kind that makes you feel stronger when it's over...the kind you'll long for again when it's not there right at your fingertips.

Thanks Class of '88 for memories good and bad...but for not forgetting where we all came from. 

OK I'm done being sappy now - please those who ever head out to the Big Apple give me a ring so we can share glass , tell more old stories and have one more hug. See you all soon! Love Cat "Cathy" McKenzie

Thanks and Share Your Pics

Fellow classmates,

First

Last weekend was very fun. While I don'ts suspect we will have the same number together again in the next few months, I do hope that those of you who traveled from far and wide had enough fun that you are ready to return again (if not before the next significant gathering, then at least in 5 years). There were others who said that they wanted to come and hope to see pictures from the event. I dropped the ball on this but there were plenty of flash bulbs. So I am begging for a huge communal favor – Please be willing to share your pictures!

The blog that Dave set up would be a great place to post pictures for everyone to see (we're older now, so I trust nobody did anything that would cause trouble). If you haven't already gained access to the blog, then contact Dave Salchow at davidsalchow@yahoo.com.

Thanks,

Chris Cheney

All-School Reunion

What a great time everyone had at the SPA All-School reunion dinner last night. It was a bizarre and nostalgic experience to walk through the halls once again. Dinner was in the brand new dining hall with cathedral ceilings, which were surprisingly free off flicked pats of butter (or other sticky items). Someone also noted how much of the art and murals survived the renovations, but the lockers didn't (they're all tall, and beige). Monkey Island has also disappeared (replaced by 2 old couches). Those of us that spent most of our time in the music rooms were so impressed by the new facilities.

But the best part was seeing familiar faces of class mates and teachers at dinner. It brought back lots of memories both good and not-so, but all worth laughing about years later. Our classmates were kicked out of the dinner and landed at Plum's (on Snelling & Randolph) for more drinks and stories until the wee hours. Thank you, Theresa (Zottola Drift), for taking so many pictures last night!

Looking forward to seeing even more people at Lurcat tonight (Daymond tells us we're breaking attendance records). Bring cameras!

P.S. We've been told that Blake will also being having a class reunion there. Let's go show 'em who's boss, everybody.

Guess Who's Coming

Here are some familiar faces we'll see this weekend. It's not too late to join us. Just contact SPA ASAP to get on the rsvp list. 651 696 1308 or online.

Directions to Cafe Lurcat and Parking information

Hi everybody,

We have a little bit of reunion business to take care of this evening. I'll try to think of something disgusting to post later.

Directions to Cafe Lurcat:

http://www.cafelurcat.com/

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=1624+Harmon+Place+on+Loring+Park,+Minneapolis,+MN+55403&ie=UTF8&ll=44.971599,-93.285384&spn=0.015575,0.028539&z=15&pw=2

Cafe Lurcat is located at 1624 Harmon Place in the shadow to the west of Downtown Minneapolis. Beautiful Loring Park is right across the street.

• From the East:
  Travel west on I-94
  Take exit 231B for Lyndale Ave toward Hennepin Ave
  Keep right at the fork, follow signs for Lyndale Ave S/Lyndale Ave N/Hennepin Ave N
  Keep left at the fork to continue toward Lyndale Ave S
  Keep right at the fork, follow signs for Lyndale Ave/Hennepin Ave and merge onto Lyndale Ave S
  Continue on Hennepin Ave
  Turn right at Maple St S
  Maple St S turns right and becomes Harmon Pl
  
  
• From the South:
  Travel north on I-35W
  Slight left at MN-65 (signs for I-94 W)
  Take the ramp onto I-94 W
  Take exit 231B for Lyndale Ave toward Hennepin Ave
  Keep right at the fork, follow signs for Lyndale Ave S/Lyndale Ave N/Hennepin Ave N
  Keep left at the fork to continue toward Lyndale Ave S
  Keep right at the fork, follow signs for Lyndale Ave/Hennepin Ave and merge onto Lyndale Ave S
  Continue on Hennepin Ave
  Turn right at Maple St S
  Maple St S turns right and becomes Harmon Pl
  
  
• From the North:
  Follow I-694/I-94 to I-94 east/south
  Follow I-94 east toward downtown Minneapolis
  Take exit 231A-B for Lyndale Ave/Hennepin Ave
  Merge onto Lyndale Ave N
  Turn left at Dunwoody Blvd
  Slight left at Hennepin Ave
  Turn right at Maple St S
  Maple St S turns right and becomes Harmon Pl
  
  
• From the West:
  Follow 394E toward downtown Minneapolis
  Take exit 8A to merge onto Dunwoody Blvd/Wayzata Blvd toward Hennepin Ave
  Continue to follow Dunwoody Blvd
  Slight left at Hennepin Ave
  Turn right at Maple St S
  Maple St S turns right and becomes Harmon Pl
  

Parking:

There is ample parking in the area, although not all of it is free.

(Cafe Lurcat is circled at about the center of this image.)

Valet Parking is located right in front for a cost of $7.

There is a significant amount of metered on-street parking in the area, which is free of charge after 8 PM. However, these are difficult to come by, so a significant amount of searching or luck may be required.

There is a free weekend parking lot underneath I-94 next to the Basilica only about a block-and-a-half north of Lurcat. Don't park in any of the reserved spaces.

Finally, there are a lot of paid parking ramps and lots within a few blocks. The closest is on the corner of Maple Street and Harmon Place on the same block as Lurcat. The cost is $5. Another good option might be the Minneapolis Community and Technical College ramp on Hennepin between N 16th Street and Laurel Avenue. The cost is $5.

A little further down Hennepin toward downtown, on the corner of Hennepin and 12th Street, there are several $4 lots plus a municipal parking ramp. Finally, there is parking near the Walker Art Center and Parade Stadium to the west of I-94 which would include a nice walk through the art park and flower garden.

If all else fails, Cafe Lurcat is conveniently located within walking distance of the City of Minneapolis impound lot.

I hope this post is helpful to some of you. I'm looking forward to seeing many of you at the all-school reunion this Friday and more of you at the class party Saturday night!

Dave

Hi Everyone,

I am sorry that I cannot make it to the reunion on the 27th. It would be great to see everyone. So in the spirit of letting everyone know what I am up to, here goes, briefly.

After college I went straight to graduate school in biochemistry and received a PhD in 1998 from Michigan State University. It took me nearly six years to get my PhD due to the amount of extra curricular activities I partook in; namely ultimate Frisbee, Bells Amber Ale, concerts, and general socializing. I also met my future wife, Laurence, while I was in graduate school. Laurence also has a PhD in biochemistry and she is from a town near Toulon, France. As a result, we go to southern France for a couple of weeks a year. Good food and good drinking makes for a tough life. Near the end of our time in East Lansing, Laurence and I got married in 1999. We then began our journey around the country getting additional scientific training prior to our current positions. We lived in Seattle for a little under a year since the person I was working with decided to move his laboratory to San Diego. So we moved to San Diego.

In San Diego, I worked at a company that is now closed, and Laurence worked as the Scripps Research Institute. We lived in Encinitas, CA, which is a fabulous town. The biggest challenge out there is traffic, and it is horrid, but the fish tacos and sun make up for a great deal of traffic. We also had our first kid out there, Alex, who is now 7 ½. After 2 ½ years in San Diego I decided I wanted to get an academic job rather than work in industry. I applied for a number of assistant professor positions at universities around the country and I was lucky to be in a hot field at the right time. As a result of this we moved to Kansas City to take positions at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research. If you are curious about the Institute and what our lab does here’s a link, we are science geeks, no doubt about it (http://www.stowers-institute.org/labs/Washburnlab.asp). Kansas City is quite a change from southern CA, but in fact we like it more. Much less frenetic, people are nicer, and we don’t spend 2 hours in the car everyday. In Kansas City, we had our 2nd son, Rafael, who is now 3 ½. They are both nuts and want to play just about every sport imaginable, although Rafael has a tendency to make up his own rules.

Here is a recent picture of all of us. Hopefully the two of them get their hair from their mom’s side of the family.

Hope all of you are doing well.

Best regards,

Mike

Update from Russell Baccaglini

Hi all,

Wow, 20 years I can’t believe it! I was not even 20 years old the last time I was at SPA. I broke out the year book and it brought back great memories (after I spent about 5 minutes laughing at the cover picture … I still can’t believe they printed that). As a late comer to SPA and an east coast boy, I am really grateful for all the friends and good times I had. Let’s just say there was not much of a comparison to Henry Sibley High School in Eagan. Of course, Dave had to remind me of French class. After how difficult the third year of French was I can’t believe I was stupid enough to take year four … and if you were in my class I am sure you would agree … with how stupid I was. Thank goodness for math and science (which equals geek).

I booked an airline flight so I am committed and am looking forward to the weekend.

If you’re interested, here is what I have been up to since SPA. I went to college at Columbia University in New York City. That was a great time and a blur … more like an alcohol induced haze with enough studying to graduate in four years. I went to work at Price Waterhouse as a management consultant after college. About 2 years after IBM bought the management consulting division of PricewaterhouseCoopers in 2002 I finally realized traveling every week … week after week … year after year really sucks. I even spent a year and a half managing a project at Thomson West in Eagan around 2003 (you can kick me at the reunion for not contacting you if you like … work just seemed to be too important at the time). In 2004 my father was in the process of easing into retirement as a financial advisor for Thrivent Financial. I woke up one morning and decided to make the career change and join him. It was rough to start over, but it was worth it and things have been great after the first year or two.

I attended the summer of 1991 Paul Simon concert in Central Park when I was in college. One of the 750,000 people there was my wife, Jola. Of course she was just someone I was sandwiched like a sardine with on the great lawn of the park at the time. We have been together ever since. Here is a recent picture of the kids. From the left Anna (13), Mary (17), Paul (4), and Emily (6).

Jola came to the USA from Poland just about a year before we met. I’m not sure if my French or Polish is worse. That said it has been great to get the perspective of someone who was not born in the USA. Let’s just say we are really fortunate. We live in beautiful New Jersey ... surprise surprise:). Here is a somewhat recent picture of the family on vacation.

I am really looking forward to catching up with everyone. Feel free to send me a email to catch up if you like at rjaep@optonline.net.

Class Photo of Chris Cheney

Chris had some trouble uploading his own "senior picture" from '88 off the yearbook site, so I'm helping him out. While I don't remember Chris with this 'do, I remember others who did have this rockin' look.

Last week to return your RSVP

Hi again,

The RSVP is due back to the alumni office by Friday, September 12th.

If you haven't done so already. please take a moment to return the card. Even if you can not attend, consider sending along a note to classmates.

I can't wait to see everyone!

Dave