Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Christine Knox '99 Playing Beach Semi-professionally


I'm not sure why I never got this in the blog, and now it's somewhat outdated, but cool nonetheless, so I had to add it in here!  I caught up with Christine Knox '99 over email a couple years ago, which was great!  She's an attorney who works on Long Island practicing estate planning and administration.  She was also in school part time getting a masters.  Still going strong both academically and athletically, and finding time to play some serious volleyball.  

We had lost touch for a few years there, and she got back in touch with me when she was planning to come up for Homecoming, but were out of town that weekend.  She's still playing a ton of volleyball, and was playing semi-professionally on the beach, which was fantastic news to hear!  She mentioned that she and her partner had done very well over the summer ('10, I believe), and had won a free trip to play in the US Open for Beach Volleyball in Manhattan Beach, CA.  She said it was an incredible experience.  This picture is from that tournament.  She also had this to say about beach vs. indoor, "I'm mostly retired from indoors - too cruel on your body once you get older - but I'm now playing beach volleyball semi-professionally.  Such a blast and sooooo much more fun than indoors!"

To the right is a picture of her brother getting married.  It's fun to have both the "athletic" Knox, and the "totally decked out" Knox with her family.  Thanks for sharing your new life, Knox, and next time you're in VT I hope we're in town too so we can catch up in person!

If you're an alum--send me updates any time, and we'll just keep adding to the Alum database of fun updates and pictures etc.  

Reunion 2012

What a fun weekend!  I had recently talked to Jane and Elissa and told them that we'd all be on the same reunion schedule in the future since they were graduating in 2012, and I was having my 20th reunion ('92).  I had a friend returning for reunion, and was looking forward to seeing others from my class, but I hadn't heard from any volleyball alums.


Well, I took my family and we were having dinner and catching up with my old college roommate when Rachael Faraone '02 and I spied each other!!  We had such a nice chat, and she was teaching my kids some blocking technique, or maybe high-fives, and what fun!  She's a lawyer and is currently doing some soul searching for just what makes her truly happy in life, and it was really great to catch up with her.  She also commented that she's finally gotten her blocking timing down.  She's not early any more!  Better late than never, I say!

Sometime after that, I realized that Carolyn Stewart Birbiglia '97was actually in my same tent (they'd combined the 20th and 25th classes under one tent)  What fun it was to catch up with her.  She had both of her adorable kids there, one of whom wasn't feeling all that well, which was too bad.  She's doing well, though, and was very happy to be back on campus for reunion!

There were fireworks on the old practice football field (which probably didn't make the neighbors all that happy), but it was a great MIDD celebration.  It was a time to relive some glory days, and to catch up on what we've all become since we left (most of us anyway?!) our little time capsule of MIDD LIFE.

I would encourage any/all MCVB alums to come back, and please let me know when you do so we can catch up, even if it's only briefly!