When I learned SPA was the right place for me

Thank you for every one's support of the blog! I've thoroughly enjoyed reading the all entries. I have my own Pamela Anderson story .... but that's a different blog.

I want to share my story of the day I knew I belonged at SPA. It wasn't an inspirational moment of academic or athletic achievement (still waiting for those.) I believe it was a confluence of the space/time continuum or a divine intervention, but it was probably just dumb luck.

For those that do not know, I did not attend the Lower School, but started SPA in the Seventh Grade. The adjustment from public to private education was a struggle for me in general, but nowhere more so than math classes. In the Eighth Grade, I was in Mr. Drechsel's math class. I think it was the lower class tract, which we affectionately termed "dumb math." I wasn't Mr. Drechsel's favorite student and the feeling was mutual. He would call on me daily to solve problems on the chalk board in front of the class. Often, I couldn't solve the problem. I realize now it was a growing experience and the process was more important than finding the correct solution. However, I distinctly remember being humiliated on most days and sent back to my desk simmering with anger or fighting back tears, depending on my mood.

One day, the humiliation overcame me to the point I needed to vent, and it wouldn't wait until after class. I was just sent back to my desk and the class was to work a problem individually, so the room was silent There was a small sliver of chalk on my desk in front of me. Against my better judgement, I grabbed the chalk and whipped it at Mr. Drechsel with all my might! The next few seconds were in slow motion as the chalk flew true, end over end horizontally. It drilled Mr. Drechsel on his forehead, right between his eyes. The next split second (the bargaining phase) I thought, "Maybe the old man's nerve endings are detached and didn't feel it?" No such luck:

"WHO THREW THAT! I WANT TO KNOW WHO THREW THAT!" as he shot out of his chair to his feet. I never knew he could move that quickly. After a few seconds of uncomfortable silence, "OR DID IT FALL FROM THE CEILING?"

Almost as one, the class responded affirmatively, "That's what happened. It just fell. Strangest thing I ever saw."

Surely, somebody saw me throw the chalk. Yet nobody ratted me out. Amazing! You can imagine my relief.

That's when I felt accepted, not by faculty, staff, or administration, but by my classmates. That was far more important to me. With the help of my friends, I could deal with the authorities and challenges at SPA. That's when I learned SPA was the right place for me.

Dave

20 Years--It Can't Be So

The last time that I spoke to some of you was at our 10 year reunion where I had brought my girlfriend at the time who is now my wife.

So here's a story of fated love: A mutual contact set me up with this woman who went to SPA and graduated a few years ahead of us (1986). That's pretty much all that I knew about her. Well, given my experience with girls at SPA, I thought that there was no way that this would work out. We talked on the phone and I mustered up the courage to ask her out. YES!!!! A girl from SPA said yes to a date with me :-). Due to a mix up and not having my correct phone number, the first date almost didn't happen. On the first date we discovered that we had both gone to Horace Mann elementary school and had the same awful teacher after which we both transferred to Webster Magnet school. We even rode the same school bus. I later remembered that she was the mean bus patrol who made me sit at the front of the bus for throwing the one and only spitball in my life. We both also went to UW-Madison. We knew that we both went to SPA so we talked about teachers, classmates, etc. It was like we shared all of this together, yet in parallel. After the 2nd date, I remember telling a close friend that this was the girl I was going to marry. Do any of you remember Melissa Weisman?

Well, we have been married for 9 years and have a beautiful daughter Annabelle who is 7. She spends endless hours doing Project Runway fashion shows with her Barbie dolls, playing the piano, and making mom and dad very happy. I never imagined how much fun it would be being a parent!

...On to the career: I own my own IT Consulting firm and travel full-time for work to Rochester, MN where I provide Business Intelligence consulting services to the Mayo Clinic. The work is fascinating and the people at Mayo are truly "Minnesota Nice."

Being at Mayo, one might think that the motivation to be very health-conscious is strong. However, I can no longer see what color belt I am wearing. The good news is that I can still see the tips of my shoes. :-)

I can't wait to catch up with all of you at our reunion. Please try to make it.

P.S. Dave Salchow and I are still living in the 80's--we are going to the George Michael concert in July at the Xcel. He and I share an appreciation of fine Oldie's music!

-Rick Epstein

Attempt 2

Hi folks,

I was perusing the SPA blogosphere and it turns out that my first attempt was a rather miserable failure, declining to appear in these esteemed virtual pages. So.. back on the horse.

Thanks again to Dave and the others for settting up this blog. It really is great to hear from people again. Unfortunately I don't make it back to MN much and will not be able to make it to reunion. Would have loved to go back home and to see old friends.

My life in a nutshell.. My apologies to Dave, but unfortunately these little summaries can sound like a resume. Partly due to the realities of time. And partly due to the fact that... whatever happens in Boulder stays in Boulder, so to speak.

I met my wife, Jennifer, at Carleton right before graduation. Move to Los Angeles to start at UCLA in Chemistry. Transferred to U of Texas and lived there with Jen and had a buncha fun in a very cool (albeit hot as hell) town. Did a postdoc there. Moved back to Los Angeles to help startup a fiber optics company. DId that for a couple of years. Got a job back in academia which I find much more fun. So I came to McGill University in 2003. The things that keep me up at night (other than kids) are looking at nanogoo with really big lasers. Lotsa fun and games.

We are loving live in Montreal. We have two boys, Rohan (3.5) and Nico (1.5). Rohan was born to be a banker and Nico was born to be a surfer. you can tell it from birth! Mostly we spend time hanging with the kids, trying to do the foodie thing with kids (not so easy) and trying to get the kids to rawk out to Dinosaur Jr. and the Pixies. Nico seems to dig it - but as before, the surfer thing..

All told, things are great but intense. It seems such is life in one's thirties.

Pat

Thanks for doing this...

It is great to read about everyone after all this time.

I have not returned to the Twin Cities for any length of time since high school, but have visited at least a couple of times a year because my mother and my sister and her family still live in Minnesota. I went to Brown undergrad, took a year off, and went to Penn for med school, then moved to Pittsburgh for residency.

My husband Phillip and I met in college, have been married 11 years, and live in Pittsburgh, PA where we work as academic physicians for Pitt.

We spend the rest of the time chasing around our kids...I too am the proud parent of a future Jedi named Oscar who is going to be 5 in June. I also have 2 daughters, Elena is 7 and Maria will be 2 this summer.

Will try to make it to the reunion, would love to reconnect.

Michele Dorfsman

Hey kids!

I'll admit right now I forgot how funny Dave Salchow can be.

I'm so unlikely to make the reunion I can't even believe it—not only will I be in Minneapolis twice already over the summer but every weekend in September is booked already—but am excited to read more about what you-all are up to.

As for me, I'm based in Chicago, where I active and art and write. I've published a fair number of books, but my recent one, an anti-corporate treatise aimed at reinvigorating democracy and independent culture and called Unmarketable, was recently read by Pamela Anderson in a bikini at her Malibu beach home. I also just did an activist/self-publishing project in Cambodia that was amazing and wonderful and thrilling and dangerous and lovely, but still, nothing's ever made me laugh as hard or for as many consecutive days as this picture. (I'd post it here but it just can't compete with peoples' cute kid pictures. Not even Pam!)

Mostly, everything else about me is probably the same since the last time you saw me, at the 10-year reunion, and the time before that, in 1988. Including my manner of dress and my haircut. Actually, wait: the hair's cuter now. I guess I have learned something!

Hope to read more soon,
aem

Hi!

Hi Everyone,

I love this blog idea. I didn't realize that our upcoming reunion is this fall. Time flies!

I live in the Bay Area, California. I've been here for about 11 years. I'm married with two little kids. Henna just turned 1 year and my son Shawn is 3 1/2 years old. I love living in California. You can't beat the weather. My family still lives in Minnesota, so I'm always visiting...

I work in high tech in Human Resources. I graduated from St. Olaf and then received my graduate degree in Industrial Relations from University of MN. I'm currently Director of Human Resources at Intuit, inc.

Can you send more information on our reunion?

Thanks.
Reema Singh (new last name is Batnagar)

What's Dave been doin'?

Hello and thank you for supporting this blog and our forthcoming reunion!

One of the purposes of this blog is to re-connect, so I guess I'll start with myself. Here a short recap of my post SPA years and I'll try not to make it read like a resume.

Along with several fellow alums, I got a degree from the local U of MN in 1993. I went to the business school and majored in accounting. I started out as an auditor and stayed an auditor working for several places in different capacities. Currently, I'm working for the Lockheed Martin Corporation in Eagan, MN. I haven't found an employer I really like, which is nurturing and inspiring my entrepreneurial spirit. I really enjoy the customer service aspects of my job. I still find that doing for others are my most rewarding experiences. I think of myself as being in training for opening my own consulting shop.

This summer, my wife Krista and I will celebrate 12 years of marriage. Krista works in the Aging and Elderly services industry in an information and referral capacity. We have two children. Kirk is seven years old and in the first grade and has his first loose tooth. Connor is four and is a big pre-schooler and wants to be a Jedi when he grow up. The boys get their looks from their mother. We live in suburbia, Twin Cities.

I'm attaching some recent and not so recent photos for your viewing and ridicule. No, I'm not hiding another person under my shirt; I've actually gotten that big.

OK. I stuck my neck out. Who's next?

Dave