1984

Happy 40th birthday to us all at somew point this year—or at least to most of us! Mark Hansen was the first to pass the milestone among those of us born in '62—he reached the big four-oh on January 1. He and his wife Jennifer '85, along with their family (Keri, Erin, Christopher, Amy and Timothy!) are living in Lebanon, where Mark works as a financial planner and CPA. One of Marks old roommates, David Brunelle, sent an enigmatic Christmas card with next to no news and no explanation. David lives in Seattle and works as a pediatrician. The last of the three roomies, Cory Reed, an associate professor of Spanish at U. Texas-Austin, is just about as correspondence-challenged as David. I had to learn from a colleague at a conference that Cory too joined the ranks of fatherhood last year. Another academic, Peter Wolcott was a bit more forthcoming. (Actually, it was his wife, Ellie, who wrote; as you may have guessed, I am mining my Christmas mail!) Peter got tenure last year at the University of NebraskaOmaha, and a university-wide award for teaching excellence. Kudos to the prof! Peter and Ellie have three girls (Elisa, Lena and Clara), plus five guinea pigs.

Another spouse who is better at communication than her husband is Robin Kaiser' 83, who wrote to tell us what Peter Gish has been up to. After four years in France, Peter and Robin breezed back to the States this past June "so that Peter could direct UPC's U.S. subsidiary Wind Management, LLC, which Peter co-founded. Wind Management is a partner in a proposal to build a wind-power park off the coast of Massachusetts." You can read all about the project in the December 2001 issue of that best-selling jourlal Windpower Monthly.

Neither Lisa Grogan Sams nor her spouse said much on the back of their Christmas photo. (But they did better than Paul Graham, who said nothing at all I could use for this column on his.) Lisa and her husband Jim, and their two children, Claire and James, are living in San Francisco but hoping to return to Washington, D.C., someday, maybe via a stint in Europe. Lisa writes, "Now that my kids are both in school all day, I'm finally starting to get my act together again." A sentiment I suspect many of us 40-somethings can share. Another California convert, Dani Klein, graced your secretary with an e-mail (the rest of you could follow her example!) in January. She not only changed coasts but also her marital status this past year. But I'll let her explain. 'After reading the Jan/Feb issue, I felt compelled to write with some good news. I got married, late bloomer that I am, to Tod Modisett 94, a film editor in Los Angeles. Although we thought it would be very amusing to submit some crossdecade photos of alumni from the big day, getting married was so disorienting for this confirmed bachelorette, I forgot to take them. After traveling for a year and hanging on to my NY apartment for 10, I finally settled down last March. I wrote a show about my panic about giving up that apartment to move to Los Angeles and marry Tod. Fortunately, I wrote it and started performing it before September 11. It's become this neurotic love letter to an innocent NY, where one's biggest concern about life in the city was how to pry open your painted-overwindows and hang on to your rent-controlled lease. The Move was chosen to appear at the Aspen Comedy Festival."

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