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As of December 19, 2003, Brad Guckenberger is a civilian again. He
is back in the FC and starting Real Estate School. Once he gets his
license, he'll be a full-time Residential Real Estate broker with
Weichert Realty. He'll also start college back up at NOVA, shooting
for an Associates in Business Administration, then plans to transfer
to GMU. Now you know who to call on if you ever need to buy or sale
your house! Lets see lets see…Daniel Hardman is currently interviewing
for jobs in corporate finance and investment banking. He expects to
graduate in March of 2004 from the University of Washington with a
BA in Economics and History. Over the summer he traveled to England
and stayed with his girlfriend's family. By the way, he wanted me
to inform everybody, especially the former athletes about the current
fundraising drive to help put lights up at the Mason field. "Despite
the fact that we will never play there I hope everyone will donate
what they are able to." Speaking of fundraising, Rory Miller
is training for the Saint Anthony's triathlon held in Saint Petersburg,
Florida. She is part of Team In Training (www.tnt.org), an organization
devoted to raising money for leukemia/lymphoma. She needs to raise
$4,200 by April. So lets help her meet her goal…even a little
would help! You can contact her at rmiller@skadden.com if you'd like
to donate something or need more information. Besides the triathlon,
she is still in New York working as a legal assistant.
So you teachers ready for this? Erin Ballard graduated on December
20th from Radford with a major in Interdisciplinary Studies. She plans
on staying in Radford until the end of next semester to build up her
teaching hours by working as a sub at some of the schools. She hopes
to further her education by getting a masters in School Counseling.
I finally heard from Lauren Lewis, who graduated from the University
of Virginia with a bachelors in Foreign Affairs. She spent the summer
mostly in Hawaii and beaches on the east coast. She is currently in
Seoul, Korea. (I'm so jealous.) She is currently teaching English
for a small, private company and taking an intensive Korean course
at Yonsei University, where she has learned quite a bit of the Korean
language. "There is so much to do here. I have been to Chejudo
Island (off the coast of Korea), the DMZ Line, numerous backpacking
and camping trips and I am planning on being on a beach in Natran,
Vietnam for Christmas and then traveling to Thailand in January for
5 days. I am going to an island off the coast of Korea this weekend
to shoot a Daewoo commercial as well which should be pretty interesting
(I am playing the part of a rich, cruise ship owner's wife)."
I have to see this commercial! Erin Sweeney is also teaching…in
Africa! She is currently doing peace corps in Benin, teaching English
to three classes of kids. "At around 180 students, everyday is
hilarity and a struggle all at the same time." Her accomplishments
in Africa include "carrying water on my head, eating bush rat
and snake, riding in the cab of a dump truck, washing laundry out
of a series of large bowls with bar soap, using a latrine, having
her first dog and house, killing scorpions, and learning the local
language, fon: for example, 'un do fon gbe kpede kpede, bo un nyi
mesi glesi gbe. bo un no nyi yovo a...translation: I a little speak
fon and I am an English teacher and my name is not 'whitey'."
Hahahaha! Her village's name is Zinvié, 11 kilometers from
the paved road, in the south of Benin (between Togo and Nigeria).
She says "everything is so beautiful and effortlessly graceful
here." This is a great story, "I nearly peed myself laughing
as a goat wandered onto the little porch in front of our dear, door
less classroom, and let its two front legs give out, shoving the front
half of its body along the length of concrete, in order to scratch
its belly and neck simultaneously, before taking an eventual virtual
nosedive off the porch, where it righted itself, and continued walking
parallel to the porch, dragging its neck along the concrete edge....
either attempting suicide in slicing its own neck, or hedonistically
seeking more neck scratching pleasure. Hilarious. I nearly fell off
my desk quaking with laughter… meanwhile, above our heads in
a lofty corner, there was the real-life soundtrack of muskrat love
taking place as two rats were like...making love or something…
squeaks abounding. Hilarious. Hilarious." Only in Africa right?!?!
Below is her address if you'd like to write (only 80 cents to write):
"ok, peace......................corps" - Erin Sweeney
Erin Sweeney
B.P. 12
Zinvié, Benin
Afrique de l'Ouest
Meanwhile in "Nashvegas" as she likes to call it, Susan
Forester is officially in Nashville working at a community center
preschool with underprivileged kids. She's one of the lucky ones who
LOVES her job. She also works at the Nashville children's theater
(both jobs are part time) and is continuing to meet with people about
music. "I'm trying to figure out exactly what that process entails
in terms of singing/songwriting, etc....so it's turning out to be
really fun!" So if anyone should find himself or herself in Nashville
maybe on a road trip or something, you can always crash with Susan!
So we have 4 teachers and 1 more soon to come! Summer Harrington took
her first trip to the west coast with one of her college roommates
from JMU. They drove from San Francisco to Lake Tahoe, then to the
Napa Valley for some wine tastings, down the coast lounging on beaches
and to LA. She's still not ready to be "Ms. Harrington, the elementary
school teacher," instead she works part time at the Early Head
Start National Resource Center in DC, and is a nanny for a family
in Arlington.
Emily Rudd scored a job at LA Inc, The Convention and Visitors Bureau
as a Sales Associate for their Eastern Region Sales. Her company does
conference and event planning for events held in Los Angeles. An awesome
perk is she gets to go to movie premieres because of her company connection
with Universal! She would like to be in New York or California in a
couple of years but is not sure if she'll want to leave LA Inc. She'll
keep us posted. I also exchanged emails with Kevin Allan. He visited
Tyler Sweek in California, then flew to Utah to see some old friends,
took a road trip to Vegas, then moved to New Mexico. He's spent the
last few months working on a ranch in Grand Junction, Colorado "I
worked as a ranch hand in the 'city slickers' vein - sitting on horses,
yelling at cows, sleeping on the ground with nothing but a blanket and
a fire, mending fences around the property, stuff like that. It was
a fantastic time." Well, he's moved back to Virginia for the time
being. The cattle ranch had financial problems and soon afterwards,
went under. The owner was forced to sell off all the cows (over 2 thousand
of them) to cover his losses! Kevin is saving money to buy a plane ticket
to New Zealand after March. Hopefully, he'll have a job lined up there
working on an organic farm. Seeno Merobshoev is going back into the
studio to record new material. (If you know any great violinists, email
him at seeno143@aol.com.) He plans on releasing his first full-length
album at the beginning of next year, followed by several gigs around
the Washington, D.C. area. Then, it's back to his home in Tajikistan
for several months to work on a movie soundtrack for an untitled German
film. As if that wasn't enough, he'll be kicking off the New Year in
Brazil!
Don Juan has left Spain for an illustrious career as a trapeze artist
with Cirque du Soleil. His next show will be held at the Pacific Bell
parking lot, December 21st in San Francisco, CA. He is still known as
"the one" and dubs himself ruler of the free world. Darren
Caumont's wedding plans are coming along nicely. They are heading to
the Dominican Republic for their honeymoon on June 21, 2004 and the
wedding is still on for June 19. They've taken their engagement pictures,
which will be in the Richmond Times Dispatch December 21. His fiancée,
Carrie is still working with Governor Mark Warner and Darren is still
working at APEX Systems, Inc. as a technical recruiter.
As for myself, in September for my birthday this year, my lovely boyfriend
flew us to Montego Bay, Jamaica for 5 days. It was my first time anywhere
in the Caribbean and jeez is it hot there, but beautiful as well! We
snorkeled everyday. There was a reef about 50 steps away from the hotel.
Tip: if you want REAL Jamaican food, don't eat in your hotel. Go into
the town and get some home cooked stuff. It's tastier and maybe you'll
get your own personal serenade! I think one of the best parts about
Jamaica, besides the food, is lying on your beach chair, watching the
multicolored sunset, pina colada in hand and listening to live reggae!
That's as far as vacations go. I didn't go anywhere for Turkey Day and
plan on staying at home for the holidays. I'm trying to save some money
and hopefully, this coming May, go to Egypt (if its safe). I'd like
to see the seven wonders of the world in my lifetime. I'd have to say
my proudest moment this year was cooking an entire Thanksgiving meal.
I even plucked my own bird! (J/K), but everything else I did from absolute
scratch! That'll make you feel good and really REALLY appreciative of
whoever cooks this annual feast. What's amazing is it was actually edible!
I mean tasty, mouth-watering, no bad-bathroom-story good!
That's all folks! I hope everyone had Happy Holidays! And remember,
you have until it gets warm again to send me more stories! Please email
info to othomas@wlsrealty.com. Thanks guys!
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