Well, hello, everybody, long-lost HS buds and assorted hangers-on! I
remember you all, although faces are by and large those in the Junior HS
yearbooks for some inexplicable reason. I'm not sure why I've been listed
as being among those missing in action. I haven't been hiding (nor am I
dead or in prison, although that would make an interesting list to post
here).
I feel compelled to recount my doings over the last twenty-odd years. I
also feel a shameful twinge of self-indulgence at the prospect. My avowedly
self-indulgent home page (http://www.gate.net/~wyman/) will fill one in to
an extent, but even with its sprawl it's still an incomplete picture (you
*will* find pictures from the last twenty years, though!). Also, I really
should be doing other things, particularly since I'm sitting for the
Florida bar exam next Tuesday and Wednesday.
How I got to *that* point is an interesting tale. I left Syracuse in 1976
after my freshman year, primarily because they refused to recognize bonging
as a legitimate major. I moved out to California (San Jose) later that
year. Over the next couple of years I grabbed a few credits at a community
college and worked with the developmentally disabled at a state hospital,
among other things. I moved back to Manhattan in 1979. With the exception
of 1982, which I spent in Paris writing a (what else?) self-indulgent novel
that remains unpublished, I spent the next dozen or so years in Manhattan
(well, 3 of those were in Jersey City!) doing a bizarre assortment of
things: copywriter, actor in commercials, sales clerk, retailing executive,
freelance writer, and recording engineer, producer, and artist (signed with
RCA). All but music and retailing were relatively short-lived. The
music-biz stuff was what I had been doing for the last six years before I
left Manhattan for Florida in 1992. The move to Florida was precipitated by
my desire to go to law school, having decided that I couldn't see myself
making rap and dance music at age 50 (though I did very much like working
with the computers and technogadgets). However, I only had 33 college
credits, which was, um, a small problem. My mother, who had since moved to
Sarasota, Fla., offered to put me up while I finished undergrad, an offer I
quickly accepted because it was going to be very difficult to keep a
Manhattan apartment on my own and go back to school. In any event, I
finished up my undergrad (Lit major) in Florida and stayed in-state to go
to law school at FSU in order to take advantage of the cheap tuition
(though I still owe big $$ nevertheless). I did very well in law school,
where I was editor-in-chief of the law review (check out the on-line
version I created at http://www.law.fsu.edu/lawreview/).
So that's where I am now. I'm moving out of Tallahassee next week right
after the bar exam (Tally is Florida in name only, it's more like south
Georgia). I'll be clerking at an appellate court in Miami for a year and
living in, yup, South Beach, media haunt of the last week or so. I'm not
sure what I'll be doing after my clerkship is up--I've kept my options open
as far as areas of the law are concerned. Could be anything from civil
rights to cyberlaw. I do have to pay off my student loans, though! I would
like to settle down and get married, particularly now (thanks for
reminding, Neal!) that I've turned 40. I really feel like the last holdout!
Everybody seems to be married with kids. I've no prospects now, but I
suppose that's the next goal.
A couple of odds and ends--of my family members, those of you out there
probably only knew my brother Nick, who is married, has three kids, and
lives in Larchmont. He's done quite well as an actor--perhaps you saw him
as Jeremy Irons' sidekick in Die Hard with Avengeance, among other things.
I haven't kept in touch with anyone from Summit really, although I've
stayed good friends with Gil Chassie, Scott Schnipper, and Greg Rybka over
the years (none of whom were in our class, though).
Anyway, sorry for the rambling post here. I've read most of the posts in
the archive--it's really great to see what everyone's been up to, Tina,
Becky, Dave, Bill, Neal, etc. Love the "Peter Quizert" post! Only a HS
class from the mid-70s would get something like that. Anyway, I'm always
open to e-mail from any and all comers--I'm on-line daily. Here's my
address and phone, too, for the record: 401 Ocean Drive #220, Miami Beach,
FL 33139 (305) 604-8533. That's effective August 1. As I mentioned earlier,
I'm only tied to Miami for a year; if I don't stay there, I can always be
found in cyberspace. But since Neal, bless him, has put the site up and
maintained the listserv, I'm hopeful I'll always be able to tune in that
way. Cheers!
James
--
James Wyman
http://www.gate.net/~wyman/
Nobody heard him, the dead man,
But still he lay moaning:
I was much farther out than you thought
And not waving but drowning.
--Stevie Smith