Dropping in on the New York Alumni

After having dinner at Bubby’s in Tribeca on July 8, the usual suspects
and I went out for some additional libation. From left, Nic Barajas ’08,
Deepa Shah ’06, Emily Paulsen ’05, Jim Hawver ’07 and Matt Quintanilla
’07. Not shown is Stacey Coburn Williams ’07, who actually organized
 the Bubby’s gathering but couldn't come out with us later.

As part of my summer travels I had a chance to spend a few weeks in New York earlier this month after returning from a week in Prague. This gave me plenty of time to catch up with some of my favorite alumni. No matter how much time I have, there's never enough to see everyone I’d like to see, though, but here were the highlights.

Aaron Edwards ’12, now an associate editor at NBC’s
Breaking News, was kind enough to give me a tour of
the news operations at 30 Rock on July 10.

One of the high points of my visit was a
tour of the Lower East Side Tenement
Museum on Orchard Street, conducted by
our own Emily Gallagher ’06 on July 14. I’ve
always been fascinated by that chapter of our
history, and Emily did an excellent job telling
the story of the immigrants and their struggles.

On July 11, I grabbed some coffee with the legendary
Sami Khan ’02, who had recently put the finishing
touches on “Khoya,” his first feature film.

Had brunch on the 13th with Edon Ophir ’09,
whom I had’t seen in way too long. We caught
 up, reminisced about the legendary Fight Club
of 2008–09, and he filled me on his new job
at Uber.

Back to Bubby’s on the 14th for dinner with Paul
Colombo ’00 (left) and Dave and Lisa Boyars Gehrke ’01.
And the best part was I finally got to meet little Aaron,
 who had just turned two months old the day before. 

Beer and apps with James Sigman ’98
 and Mike Cagnazzi ’97 at The Half King,
Sebastian Junger’s bar under the High
Line on W. 23rd.

And last, but far from least: Team Newsday! From left,
Casey Musarra ’11, Kaydi Poirier ’11 and Erin Geismar ’09,
all working at newsday.com, came in from Long Island to
join me for tapas at El Quinto Pino on the 16th. A couple of
days later I had more tapas with Patrick Doyle at Bar
Basque just two blocks away, but I was so engrossed in
our conversation I forgot to take a picture. There's always
one. Sorry Patrick!