ArtsFest 1997
This is me with my friends David Chapman and Amy Alleman. In 1993 we were in a production of Godspell and luckily have remained good friends in spite of distances. Amy is currently involved with the Popcorn Hat Players, a children's theatre company in Harrisburgh. This picture was taken in the summer of either 1996 or 1997 (I just can’t remember at this point... was it before or after I went to Greece?), when Amy and David both came to visit for ArtsFest, the big summer event in State College. I was living in a basement apartment at Hamilton and Athernton Streets at the time. I loved that apartment! I lived there from August 1995 until August 1997, which is one of the reasons I can’t remember which year this photo was taken. First with Jill Weinberger, and then had it to myself for a few months before one of my editors from the Penn State Daily Collegian, Todd Ritter moved in with me. I got along well enough with him, but it turned out that he was an asshole and a thief: while I was in Greece, he was pocketing money that my mother sent him for my sister, Katya’s, portion of the utilities (she lived there in my place while I was gone), then he tried to have her kicked out and, when he realized I was coming home, he skipped town without paying the rent that was due for the month in which I was returning. I wound up having to let one of my friends from Greece move in with me. He turned out to be a junkie, and I kept coming home to a diminishing CD collection as he and his friends pilfered it for pot money, so I moved out while I still had some belongings left. But that apartment was wonderful. I had my friends Tracey and Ed directly upstairs from me, and my friend Tony on the floor above them. My health club was right across Hamilton, and across Atherton was a giant field where you could play ultimate frisbee, or football, or baseball (there was a baseball diamond) or even tennis (there were tennis courts, too). It was an eight minute walk to the edge of campus, all uphill, which was great for my legs. I just loved it. I hated to move.
