I attended a luncheon, last week, featuring the new editor of the Plain Dealer, Susan Goldberg. It was interesting to hear her views on Cleveland since she moved here only a few months ago, and it was encouraging to hear her say she wanted to highlight positive stories about the city. I took the opportunity to “pitch” the story of an Ohio City Baby Boom and related cooperative ventures, such as the babysitting co-op, food co-op, dinner club, book club, etc. Surprisingly I did get an email from one of her reporters who expressed interest in doing a “fun story for the holidays.”
Where are they now?
Several friends have replied to my mass email about our blog and shared their latest news or locations. Peace Corps (or State Dept) friends include:
Alex Hamilton, and his wife Jessie, are in Taipei studying Chinese in preparation for his State Dept. posting in China.
Mark Reese is somewhere in Afghanistan doing Allah knows what. Here’s a recent pic:
Lorel Donaghey is in Austin, TX working for a non-profit and traveling domestically.
Sophie Forbes is back in NYC after a few years in Indonesia. Sophie shared an update on Amy and Irving who are now the proud parents of three.
Alisher Samadov is now in Moscow working for BAT. He sounds very happy and is hanging out with Pardaev and other Tashkent friends. Alish's dad, Dr. Samadov, also wrote and he and the family are doing well.
Chicago friends who visited recently include Simon Lopez, who was in town for work last week.We attempted to dine at “The Harp” with Sofia in tow. Sofia wasn’t very cooperative. She was pretty restless and I think may have scared Simon since he’s the new father of a three-month old boy.
Hopefully his little Max will have more patience for restaurant dining. Here’s a photo of Simon’s son at three months (on the right):
Edgar Hernandez was also in town about a month ago for his job. Edgar is now a regular fixture in Ohio and works often in Columbus.
I also saw Brian McDonough in San Francisco about three weeks ago when I was there for work. Brian and I first met in 1998 at Joe and Mary Dalsin’s wedding, thanks to Janet Cavallo. We’ve been good e-mail friends, but hadn’t actually seen each other in about 10 years, so it was a fun reunion.
