Month: June 2004

Today’s post was going to be about all the music folks I caught up with over the reunion weekend, including the aforementioned Messrs. Webb and Barker, the elusive Justin Rosolino, and the mysterious Dr. Strangepork—wait, wrong show. But I didn’t quite get there. Next time…

I took the Nikon with me to the reunion, and practiced on a familiar subject, the Grounds (aka campus) of the University of Virginia. It’s a worthy subject as well as a nostalgic one; the original grounds, designed by Thomas Jefferson as his last major project, are designated as a World Heritage site by UNESCO (together with Monticello). The buildings, which draw on an array of classical models and incorporate multiple architectural details, were meant both to provide housing and classroom for students and teachers and to be a living classroom for students of history and architecture. It was in this spirit, as well as with my Class of ’94 ring on, that I took my camera along. The result was a collection of almost 50 shots of the Central Grounds area of the University.

I tried to think more about composition this time out. I know there are things I could do to improve light-dark balance, but I only had three days in Charlottesville, and two of them were raining or cloudy. I also tried to grab photos of some interior spaces which were meaningful to me but haven’t been excessively photographed (example: the basement rehearsal room for the Glee Club in Old Cabell Hall). Despite the conditions, there were a few photos with which I am pretty pleased.

I could probably continue to go blow by blow through the reunion weekend, but I thought focusing on some highlights would be more memorable and appropriate. And, as always, the highlights of any reunion are the people. I’ll save the music folk for another post, as this one will be lengthy enough without them.

The first night’s conversation with Scott and Susan Barker was an early highlight. I don’t think that, ten years ago, I knew Scott would be back at the University teaching, but I certainly knew he was destined for great things. The fact that Susan thought he was a good guy is definitely proof of that. —Friday night was the Barkers’ tenth wedding anniversary as well, they told us over a plate of Big Jim’s Barbecue. I asked them whether the tenth was traditionally the Pork anniversary. I don’t think they appreciated my joke…

We spent some time talking with Dan Herzfeld and his beautiful fiancee, who clearly outclasses all of us and with whom Dan is appropriately smitten. We saw Dan after Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball lecture, during which he handicapped the presidential race. He’s a powerful speaker, but at the end I had to agree with the guy on the Lawn who said, “The bottom line according to Sabato is that it will be a close race, unless it’s a blow-out.”

Saturday afternoon I bumped into Doug Acton and his wife and new baby. Doug has been busy in the military-industrial complex, primarily on the IT side. He was one of two physics classmates I ran into over the weekend; the other, Patrick Manigault, had finished his Ph.D. only to decide it was time to do a career change. He’s now in consulting. (Sound familiar?) At the same reception I ran into Carrie Smith, who was a year ahead of us and also went to the same high school (and middle school) as I. She and her husband appear to be doing well.

On Sunday we breakfasted with Greg Greene and Esta, who drove up from Richmond. The morning was a little comical, as we started out planning to go to Duner’s for brunch only to learn from the helpful lady at our B&B that it no longer did brunch. We then tried the Biltmore and other Corner restaurants, only to find they didn’t open until 11. This left us with the Virginian, about which Bernie Fallon (who was unable to attend the reunion due to work) always said, “Who eats there? You never see anyone go in or leave. Parents don’t eat there, faculty don’t eat there… who eats there?” Well, Bernie, apparently the answer is: people who want Sunday brunch before 11 am.

Afterwards we stopped at the Brown College (née Monroe Hill) reunion brunch, where we saw Marc and Diane Leipzig and their little baby. We also said hello to Carl Trindle, who is still in residence at Monroe Hill (he jokingly calls it his “sinecure”—certainly given his contributions and continued work it’s much more significant than that).

Carl Geisler told me that he thought later reunions, when everyone’s kids were grown and life was more certain, were better. I disagree. The best reunions are ones where the years melt away and you’re speaking with the same people you studied, ate, drank, laughed, and lived with. By any standard this counts.

I started Saturday on a somber note, in the University Chapel, in memorial to passed classmates.

Written at 2:12 pm Pacific time on Saturday, June 5: After a brief nap on Friday, we made our way to an informal barbecue dinner for my class. Since the rain was still coming down in sheets, we had to navigate our way to the Aquatic and Fitness Center, where we eventually found ourselves and met up with Don Webb, fellow Glee Club alum Scott Barker and his wife Susan, Lara Dalch, Steve Eslami, and a bunch of other folks. After eating and catching up on old times for a while, Don, Lisa and I drove back over to downtown where we found our way to the Court Square Tavern.

Don and I had joked for years about the tavern that we would make it our home away from home. We had passed many good nights there—with Scott Norris and John McLaughlin after their return from their post graduation trip to Europe; with John Navarrete and others watching Nav try his first hefeweisen and blurt, “It tastes like sweat socks!”; and with other Glee Club friends, including Jon Vick, who would always start the evening with a Newcastle Brown Ale.

We found a seat in the small booth on the upper level beneath the specials chalkboard (where Nav had sat). In Vick’s honor, we started with Newcastle and proceeded to some serious reminiscing. And we continued to reminisce into the wee hours of the morning.

Written at 5:54 am Pacific time on Saturday, June 5: We landed at Dulles a few minutes before 7 am yesterday morning. After pausing for a Starbucks fix in the terminal, we started looking around for the mobile lounges. —A moment here. I don’t think I appreciated the quintessential weirdness of Dulles while I was flying from it as a consultant, but man. Those mobile lounges. The big ol’ flying wing. You just know Eero Saarinen was hanging out with Austin Powers in the shagadelic sixties when he designed the place. On the plus side, riding in those lounges you get an unparalleled view of the airport’s real activity, which as Lisa put it appears to consist of very large slow moving machines trying to run into each other.

We got out of Dulles and navigated reasonably successfully back out into the suburbs. We wanted a proper breakfast and decided to head back to old haunts, so we made for McLean and got full breakfasts at La Madeleine, the local chain farmhouse-French restaurant. Then we realized we hadn’t packed for a weekend of rain, so we napped half an hour in the car to wait for Nordstrom’s to open so Lisa could go in and buy some more rain-appropriate shoes. Ah, the joys of travel.

We eventually made it to Charlottesville and checked in to the Inn at Court Square, which if anything actually excels its appearance on its website. Our room is furnished with antiques and looks out onto a park, and was gorgeous even in totally pouring rain. (Oh yes. So much for beautiful pictures of the Grounds.) We grabbed a late lunch at Michael’s Bistro and killed time until the first event, the class dinner, at which we met up with a few old friends. More on that in a moment.

I was worried about adjusting to the Charlottesville weather. After all, Charlottesville is in a mid-Atlantic state where temperatures and humidity typically run high, and every summer I’ve experienced since 2001 has been in temperate, dry Seattle.

The adjustment isn’t as hard as I feared, as it’s raining here, and likely will all weekend. Sigh. Bang goes my hope of getting really excellent pictures of Grounds.