Latest updates

Updates from May 17, 2010

Adi LaBombard

Hi Everyone,

Hope this little update finds you all happy and well!  Hardly seems like a year has gone by, let's see...Well I moved out of the house of Freo in January and am now living with Kit (boyfriend of 1+yr) and his two slightly younger brothers just outside of Perth, in Pepermint Grove, Western Australia.

I graduated in March and have been doing temp work for RioTinto while keeping my eyes open for other exciting opportunities and saving money for more travel.  No concrete plans to move back to North America....yet.

Summer is just ending here.  It rained for the first time in months yesterday and is almost cold enough at night to turn the heat on.  On the plus side, our garden veggies, passion fruits and lemon tree should start to go nuts and I'll be less likely to pike on work and spend the day scuba diving or laying by the ocean - well, least till its starts getting warmer again in September.

Looking forward to your updates!  All the best,

-Adi

Ben Balch

Hey what's up? Well I sold the pizza place took some time off to spend with the family. And starting a new adventure spraying pesticides on trees and shrubs looking forward to that. I have a fiancé Sabrina and three kids now Kodi who is 8yrs old Madison is 2.5 years old and Lucas who's 7 months so life is busy but good I'm on facebook if anybody is into that well take it easy

Cam Bourne

Hello you bunch of Lymies!

I hope this finds everyone happy, healthy, and blessed.  I am still stuck in California!  I guess "stuck" isn’t the right word, but I am living just outside of San Francisco in a small town called Pleasanton.  My girlfriend and I bought a house here last summer, and are really enjoying it!  It's hard to leave California once you're here.  I am working in sales/ project management for a steel fabrication and erection company called Herrick.  It is a rather new adventure that I have embarked on, but I am really enjoying it.  It keeps me very busy, and in these times I feel blessed to have a job that I enjoy!  Life is good and full of new adventures with the lady of my dreams.  I hope you all are enjoying your adult lives, as much as I have started to enjoy mine.  I extend the offer to you all to come and visit San Francisco.  I will give you a warm bed, food, and LOTS of wine!  Best wishes to you all!

Ariel Brewster

I'm still living in Toronto, where I work as an editor at a monthly magazine. (http://www.torontolife.com/magazine/)  Work keeps me fairly insane at all times... we do twelve regular issues a year and then I'm editor-in-chief of six additional special interest publications. (Real Estate, Weddings, Home Design, Restaurants, etc.) Outside the office, I'm usually running by the lake, going to yoga classes, pretending to be tough at a boxing gym I joined, escaping for a weekend in New York, or watching playoff hockey. I'm looking forward to summer -- my boyfriend should be getting transferred back to Toronto after a year away (he was reporting from places as far-flung as Alert, Nunavut -- that's basically the North Pole -- and, for two stressful months, Afghanistan). And it's now officially wedding/retirement/graduation season: I'll be in Lyme at the end of May for my mom's retirement from Dartmouth, and then in Ithaca for my little sister's college graduation and my five-year reunion (yikes). In August we're off to British Columbia and Vermont for two weddings, and then it's up to Maine for another wedding on Labor Day weekend. Phew.

If anyone's ever planning a trip to Toronto, definitely get in touch. We have cute neighborhoods, sandy island beaches in the middle of Lake Ontario (really!), a great indie music scene, film fests, etc. Hope you're all happy and doing well!

Anna Super

A lot has happened in my life since last May. It has been a challenging year, but I think it was a very important one as well. I'm still back in Lyme (I briefly moved to Boston in 2007) and I'm very happy to be here. I love this area, being near my family and activities like skiing, kayaking, and hiking, so I can't think of a better place to be. So all that stuff has stayed the same. The changes were more related to my professional life. 

I probably wrote last year that I was a reporter for the Connecticut Valley Spectator, a weekly newspaper that was created in 2001, after some of us graduated from high school and many of us left town for college or other things. The paper encouraged us to focus on features since we were a weekly in an area with a daily (the Valley News) which was great for me. I love writing features. I would actually prefer a magazine job to a newspaper reporter because I find stories about the arts, the environment, businesses, non-profits, and other human interest stories more fun to cover then writing about hard news. I also enjoyed the success I was having. Each week I had a phone call, email, or was even stopped on the street by readers and sources telling me they loved my stories, and loved my story choices. Sources said I really heard what they had to say and portrayed them well. I found out how interesting the area is while doing that job, in fact I re-discovered White River Junction, which is an area that is changing a lot becoming pretty interesting in just the last few years with the Center for Cartoon Studies and many artsy businesses.

This summer the Spectator closed down, so I found myself without a job. I know this is an issue many people have faced across the country, but it was particularly challenging for me. I have always found it challenging to find the right kind of job for me. I seem to excel at verbal skill: writing, reading, listening to people and understanding their point how they meant it, and talking to people to teach them fun and interesting information, or to simply make them feel comfortable.  However, many other job skills have consistently been a challenge for me to learn. The things that should be easy, like learning to use a computer program, learning to use a cash register, or where to find an item I need to do my job even when I've found that item before, all those "easy" skills are challenging for me. In a world where the web is taking the money out of the writing field, or at least new people trying to get into the profession, there seems to be less paying jobs in my areas of talent. In kindergarten I was diagnosed with a learning disability called dyscalculia, but that affects math and some other skills, but not the job skills I have always struggled with.

This summer I decided to "make" a job for myself that would focus on my talents. I worked on starting an Upper Valley children's magazine with the help of a photographer friend and a page designer friend. We put out two online issue (totally free, they were mainly marketing tools to start the business). I got some good feedback, but I couldn't secure funding to turn it around and make a business, so I decided to go back to job searching, but I wanted to do it better this time. I wanted to know more about myself so I would be able to choose jobs better, and be able to make job challenges work for me. I wanted to see if there was more holding my on-the-job learning and abilities back then just the dyscalculia I was diagnosed with in kindergarten. 

I decided to take something called a neuropsych test, which tests for learning disabilities and identifies strengths as well. It's an all day test, and it is very thorough. It tests many things your brain does by having you do those things. The results say I do have dyscalculia (yep, math is still not my friend) and I also have something else, a diagnosis that didn't exist as a diagnosis when we were in kindergarten (although it has existed before), so although I've always had it, no one knew what it was when we were in Lyme school. I have a nonverbal learning disability (NLD). That sounds opposite from what it is. It means I learn and can use verbal skills (talking, listening, reading, writing) very well, but I have trouble learning nonverbal things, like the computer programs, the cash register, and other job skills that are easy for many people. This LD can show itself differently in everyone that has it, so when I Google it some of the people sound like me, and some are nothing like me, but all of us are considerably better at verbal abilities then nonverbal abilities. Some are verbal geniuses. Like all LDs, people with NLD have average to above average intelligence. It is a fairly uncommon LD (dyscalculia is less common then dyslexia, too. Of course I have to have the rare ones! hehe).

I recently started a job in the education department of the Montshire Museum as an "Explainer" teaching science labs at the museum to the museum visitors and working on the museum floor while open for regular hours . Now I understand why doing the labs with the museum goers (using words to explain science) and talking in front of school field trip groups at the museum is so easy for me, when other parts of the job are a challenge (though I chose this job because it focuses on my talents and minimizes my areas of struggle). Overall I am really enjoying this job, though I want to get writing back into my life soon. I would like to do some writing about learning disabilities, too, but in a way that is interesting for people that don't have them and don't have family members with them. I would like to help raise awareness since the topic is not talked about very much.

The Cullenbergs

Hi All!

It’s been truly amazing to watch you all grow and spread your wings.  We so appreciate your annual letters, seeing you when we can and we can’t wait to hear from you once again.

After getting his associates degree several years ago and working towards a bachelors at Montana State, Travis has launched in a new direction.  This week he will finish his first year at the Thompson school at UNH in Durham where he is studying horticulture.  He has been taking some difficult science courses which he refers to in the colloquial – woodies, herbaceous, etc.  He loves the program and the professors and is doing quite well with his course work while carrying a full load.  It’s wonderful listening to him talk about plants using their botanical names and so on and so forth.  After struggling for so many years he has found something he is excited about and that’s the best part.  He has reconnected with some Lymies also in Durham, Mike Webb being one of them, and do they talk up a storm when they get together!  He cobbled together two jobs for the summer for a required internship.  One is working for the University in the greenhouses and the other for a classmate who has a landscaping business where he will be planting and taking care of gardens.

Tina continues with her occupational therapy work and volunteering for many good causes.  It is so awesome that spring is now here and in full bloom.  It’s light when she takes our yellow lab “Ridge” for an early morning walk.  No more icy wind and roads for a few months. Her flower gardens are in full bloom with the early stuff but it’s been a weird spring here in Lyme.  It arrived very early and all kinds of stuff are popping that normally wouldn’t for another 3-5 weeks.

Dave is working as hard as ever taking care of his many clients.  Will left him in August to venture off to DC and the office hasn’t been the same since.  Will somehow managed to captivate all of the women in the office who still talk about that wonderful young man who was just as sweet as can be.  God Will!  I don’t know how you did it.  They don’t talk about me that way so know that you are missed. 

The best news on Dave’s front is that he is taking a lengthy vacation this year.  He is off on Memorial Day for some serious mountain biking in and around Zion and Bryce National Parks in southwestern Utah.  He is going with a 25 year old nephew who lives in Boulder.  Dave issued him a challenge last summer by telling him that he will kick his ass.  His nephew laughed saying you might but the altitude will get you first.  Dave has been kicking up the trails in the back hills of Lyme since early April determined to be in as good shape as possible before leaving hoping that with several days of altitude acclimation he can at least come in a close second.  Eventually he will hook up with Tina and Travis to join Tina’s family on a cruise up through southeast Alaska from Vancouver to Anchorage where they will then spend some time in Alaska sightseeing and visiting one of Dave’s many brothers and then a law school classmate for some fishing in the wilds.  Back home on July 1.

An outstanding book for your generation on climate warming is Storms Of My Grandchildren by James Hansen.  Hansen is a scientist at NASA’s research facility at Columbia University and has spent a lifetime studying planet climatology.  It’s quite sobering.

Please drop by whenever you are in Town.

Love to you all – The Cullenbergs

Sean Kellem

Hello Lyme friends,

Sorry this is going to be brief, because I have a crushing final exam tomorrow morning. I am living in Washington, DC, right now, and I'm in law school at Georgetown. It's fun, but I'm ready for this first year to be over. I'm going down to North Carolina tomorrow to my sister Joelle's college graduation, then I'll be back here for the summer, working as an intern in a judge's office, meting out hard justice. I'm also really, really bald now.

I miss you all, wish I still lived at home.

Peace,

Sean

Molly Henderson

Hi everyone! I hope you're all doing well. I'm still living in Brooklyn, and after four years of teaching middle school science, I decided to go back to school... as a student! I just finished my first year of a two-year Master's program in neuroscience and education at Columbia and have been working at a neurogenetics lab. Luckily, I've found I really enjoy research and plan to apply to doctoral programs in the next couple years. In Henderson news: my parents moved! But only 40 minutes away to a beautiful place in Grafton, NH (thanks to Paula Small)! I'm planning on visiting them in a few weeks and would love to catch up with anyone in the area, so send me an email at mollyann.henderson@gmail.com. I can't wait to hear what you all are up to!

Emily Rapp (Colgan)

Well I don't have a blackberry or iphone so I guess a regular computer will have to do. At the very moment I am in the basement of an obscure relative (2nd cousin twice removed) in Manhattan, Kansas. The "Little Apple" is home to Kansas State University and not much else... but I did get to see some baby Bison today!  I am driving cross country from my home base Philadelphia to San Francisco with my mother and my dog. This is the forth night of eight and all of us are still alive- success!  My husband, Adam, has a job as a summer associate for Skadden Arps law firm in San Francisco so we will be living there for the next 3 months.  After this summer Adam has one more year of law school before any real plans for relocation begin. I still work as a labor and delivery nurse at Pennsylvania Hospital in Philly and for the summer they are letting me work only two shifts a month since I will be living elsewhere.  I have 5 (!!!) weddings this summer and I plan to fly back to work, drink my face off and then fly back to San Francisco.  The next time I will be back in Lyme is for my sister's wedding in September.  If you drive by a big bonfire at my parent's house around that time stop by and say hi!  Cheers, Emily

Kate Webb

Hi Everyone!!

Will, thank you so so much for remembering to do this every year, I love that we’re still touching base THIRTEEN years after we were all in the same building….wow, we’re getting old.

I’m living in West Nottingham, NH with Jesse, my boyfriend of two years.  I got my masters in Applied Behavioral Analysis from Simmons College last year, and realized that New Hampshire doesn’t really know what ABA is, so I’m consulting in Massachusetts…driving all around the state creating programs for kids with autism.  Lots of driving, but really rewarding.  I’m confident NH will figure it out sooner or later, but for now I’ll keep driving!

I’m attempting to take 3 layers of wallpaper off of all of the walls in our house…my mom and I worked for two 12 hour days and we barely got through one room.  Never, I repeat NEVER put up wallpaper.  It is the devil.  But, I have to admit it’s pretty fun to watch the gold and brown from the 60s disappear and picture what it’s going to look like someday.

That’s pretty much what’s going on with me, it’s weird to kind of feel settled, done with school, into a house.  But a good weird, like I’m actually sort of an adult.

I can’t wait to hear about what everyone else is doing…if anyone is ever driving up rte 4, stop by and say hi!

Kate

Allison Malcolm

I am currently working as a part time Instructional Assistant and part time Special Educator in Piermont, NH. I live mostly with my boyfriend (in a house we rent) in White River Junction. I am still playing hockey all the time and have recently joined a modified fast pitch softball team. I have just accepted a job at Woodsville Elementary School as a Special Educator! I am very excited about the new job, but not the drive. :(
Hope all is well!

Megan Moore

So I forget what my last update was but I am in Boston - living in Somerville but working at the aquarium here.  I work as a Visitor Programs Specialist which basically means I'm in charge of educating visitors in the main building through informal and well as formal talks.  It's a fun job because - as any other educators/teachers know  every day brings new challenges.  I have also found a way to dive routinely in the Giant Ocean Tank at the aquarium since I technically wave to visitors so it counts as interpretation... :)  I spend a lot of time at my job figuring out new ways to educate about "living blue" - the aquarium's spin on living green.  So I talk about recycled toilet paper (did you know most toilet paper comes from virgin forests?)  and plastic pollution (cigarette filters are plastic too!) That's what I'm up to right now, who knows what I'll do when I grow up... ;)

Brian Lewis

Hey All!

One of these days we will all have to get together and have a reunion! Many thanks to Will for putting this together and warm wishes to the Cullenbergs.

Perhaps we will have to start a "Lyme class of 1997" group on face book!  I know it’s great for people to stay in touch! (of course if you ignore the privacy concerns).

On the note of privacy, since I work for the Air Force Research Labs Information Directorate in Rome NY (Central NY by Syracuse) we are always very concerned about information assurance and security.  The best words of advice I can give to anyone is no matter how secure you think your computer or internet is, make sure anything you post online you won't mind someone else getting that information.  Sadly that includes Credit Cards, thus why I never suggest people use a debit card online.

I don't remember if I wrote last year, but the last 2 years have been very exciting.  The summer of 2008 I ended up deploying on a military team to Iraq for the summer helping with technical support for a program called Angel Fire.  (yes I was a civilian dressed up in the US Air Force Uniform without  a rank)  The Marines on base were very puzzled by this and thought I was special forces or something.  After that fun trip to the sand box and 130 degree heat I adjusted to the cold 80 degree temperatures back here.  Upon my return I focused hard on my thesis and finishing up my Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering.

The last year I have been spending the majority of my time focusing on data link technology (wireless communications) and running a few programs for the air force.  I've been lucky to play with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs both helicopter and fixed wing).  Because of everyone getting upset about the human not being in the loop with UAVs... humans are still controlling them btw. But the word unmanned upsets people!  We now call them RPVs (remotely piloted vehicles).. Now everyone feels so much better!  My job is to make sure that the payload data on the UAVs... oops ,I mean RPVs... gets to the soldiers on the ground.

Away from work (thank god for mixing vacation with work travels) I have been having a blast traveling.  (Still jealous about Will's adventures in Asia, but catching up fast!)   I have contractors working for me in San Diego and Salt Lake City. Those are a few of my favorite hot spots for sailing and skiing.  I also had work in the UK and Australia the past year.

Everyone makes fun of me for having a bucket list!  They say I am too young, but I argue you have got to start when you’re young!  Last year was a great year for the bucket list.  I decided to take a trip to Bermuda to get my open water diving certificate.  I'm so glad I had this training because when the work opportunity to go to Australia came up I was able to go diving on the Great Barrier Reef!  I decided to go on a 4 day cruise and also got my advanced diving certificate. I also took care of getting my motorcycle license last year.  Trust me, that is scary for all!  I enjoy cycling (this is a bike without a motor) and I have had enough spills on there.  My father is absolutely terrified of the thought of me riding... I do tell him I drive like grandma. I thought I was going to get pulled over by the cop for going too slow or something the other night!  Maybe I am overdoing it a bit by saying that, but I am being careful so I don't kill myself anytime soon.  I also fell in love with sailing this past year!  Each time I go to San Diego for work I always make sure I get out on the harbor.

As for the future I was accepted into University of California San Diego for their PhD program in Communication Theory and Systems.  I just recently submitted the paperwork for work to pay for the tuition. It is a great deal.  I get to go away for 2 years, focus on my education while earning full salary.  So I am keeping my fingers crossed this works out.  If not, I will aim to transfer to Dayton, Ohio or Washington DC.

Unfortunately having fun traveling and seeing the world isn't always positive toward dating activities, however if anyone knows any active ladies who want to settle down after I have my PhD tell them to find me on face book :-)    oh and if you want to find me on face book search lewisb@rpi.edu

Hope everyone has a great year!

Brian

Cole Cutting

Hey folks,

It seems like forever since I have talked to any of you.  Life gets busy very fast these days.  I am still running Cutting's Northside Cafe here in good old Hanover, New Hampshire.  Like I said before, life is busy but thing's are well.  We have now been here at 62 Lyme road with the cafe for three years.  Time is flying by, but things with the cafe are going good.  We are entering our busiest time of the year between catering and the good weather we are getting, I will be running none stop till the winter.  I am living here in Hanover in a three bedroom apartment in the back of the cafe.  I live with my girlfriend and a high school buddy of mine. (currently looking for another roommate if anyone knows someone looking in the area)

I am getting ready to head up north to Pittsburg, New Hampshire like we do every year.  We will go up these next two weekends to enjoy some fishing and relaxation.  As well as to witness my sister, Torey, get married.  I am very excited for them, but can't believe my little sister is getting married.  Other then that things are more of the same.

I hope everyone and their families are doing great and I can't wait to hear what everyone is up too.

Cole Cutting

Sarah Burton

Hi Lymies! I'm back in New England after 4 years out west, and living right outside of Boston. Work's been hard to find after the move, but I'm bringing in a paycheck front-desking-it at a spa nearby (free services for employees!) while continuing to look for work in the public health field and working on applications for graduate school. I spend a lot of time down in the Somerville area with my boyfriend and up in Bedford, MA hanging with mom and dad Burton. Looking forward to learning how to surf this summer, and heading out to Portland, OR to throw a bachelorette party for little sis Amy who is getting married this fall.

I hope you are all happy and healthy. Have a wonderful summer!

Will Gray

Hey guys, thank you all for getting back to me about this, it is so much fun putting something like this together and seeing all of the cool stuff everybody is doing.

This time last year I was living at home and working part-time for Dave Cullenberg at his law firm. While I loved doing that and really enjoyed working for Dave and living in the Upper Valley again, eventually it got time to make a decision. So, last October I gathered up what money I had (and borrowed a little more) and moved down to Washington, DC. I arrived knowing almost nobody and having no idea what I was going to do for a job. Now, well, I know a few people, but still don’t really know what I’m going to do for a job. I’ve been doing contract work for law firms to help get me by, which is interesting, but not exactly secure. In the mean time I’ve started taking classes in Russian at the Russian Cultural Center, which is a lot of fun and really interesting.

But on the bright side DC is a great town, I’ve got some good friends and some of the night time establishments in the area are really cool. Every now and then Sean will tear himself away from his text books and case studies and we will go hang out at Eastern Market, get him some Kim Chi and pretend like we are not staring at all the pretty ladies walking by.

Really glad to hear from all of you and I hope this coming year will be even better for everybody.