Erica's Friends and Family

I don't know why this kind of page fascinates people, but it does. So by popular demand, here's mine.

I am blessed with many, many wonderful friends! The list here will never be complete, but it will continue to grow as I think of the right things to say. If you think your picture should be up here, e-mail one to me.

Note: A lot of my friends are now using LiveJournal. I have marked those people with the LiveJournal User Icon (). For those who have already seen fit to provide personally identifiable information (e-mail or website) on LiveJournal, I have linked this image to their respective personal journals.

Aaron Block (Pup) has many wonderful qualities -- almost as numerous as the high-tech toys on his belt. He introduced me to the world of geeks. He's also the person I trust most in the world. I assigned him a theme song accordingly.

Amy Yeager, blessed (or cursed) with an editor's compulsive soul, is fortunately also gifted with the sense of humor to back it up. She's a sucker for black Lab puppies, can role-play Scully like no one else, and routinely holds elaborate vegetarian feasts disguised as board game nights.

Brian Bermack went to MIT, graduated and left for a while, then came back to not only work but also do theater. Which is good, 'cause that's how I met him. He was the first person I allowed to initiate me into both Babylon 5 and Lois McMaster Bujold, which is saying something on both counts.

Jennifer (Weissberg) Dolgoff has not only a beautiful face, but a beautiful Jewish soul. And besides being the spunkiest chick I know, she's now (at last!) a bride: She married Aaron Dolgoff on October 28, 2001. The fondest wish of her heart. Amen.

Jessica Resnick (of Brighton, MA) should have her own Gen-X-in-the-city prime-time show. She paints her apartments awesome colors like purple and tangerine, struggles through life armed with an editing pencil, and generally has many exciting adventures.

Joelll Herda, "sysadmin-biker-skum" and deceptively clean-cut Nice Jewish Boy extraordinaire. Partial, when not busy hanging stage lights high in the air, to such accoutrements of good living as the smoking jacket. Variously known as The One With The Short Hair and/or The Man With Too Many L's. Yes, there is a reason he started spelling it that way. No, I'm not going to explain it.

Jonah Safar (Points/The Dragon): true gentleman, master chef, theater geek, engineer by trade, snuggle artist by nature. I originally met him through Cos (q.v.). He went to RPI, which is the reason I have actually set foot in Troy, NY.

Jonathan Watterson, Jedi Zen Master, professional mountain man, formerly of the FSF, first waltzed me off my feet at a contra dance.

Justin Werfel: juggler, unicyclist, magician, PhD, Princeton man, future college professor, Muppets expert, web comics aficionado, Star Wars fan, avid skiier, love of my life.

Ken Richmond, the once and future cantor, plays most instruments at least slightly but the violin -- classical as well as klezmer -- brilliantly. In summer 2000 he toured Poland, Ukraine, and Israel with the Klezmaniacs. Warning: Don't ever feed him peanuts.

Matthew Morse: [former] tenor backbone of the MITG&SP men's chorus; Mac geek; Nintendo master; pianist; juggler and unicyclist; Discordian; Jedi-in-training. Owns almost every piece of Star Wars LEGO on the market. Knows most of This Is Spinal Tap and much of UHF off by heart.

Mike Scarpellino (Scarp) owes me some e-mail.
... Also, in all fairness, he was the reason I first met Lance (q.v.); which gives me a good story to retell every time anyone says to me, "Wait -- *you* know Lance?!"

Scott Lefton & Rachel Silber drive a minivan and live on a quiet residential street, but don't be fooled: there's nothing suburban about them. They also have the three coolest kids in the world: Jacob, Talia, and Gabriel. They're a sustaining presence in my life, and I'm honored to have been embraced into the clan.

College Friends

Craig Artel has never read Portnoy's Complaint, okay? WHY are people always asking him that?!? He sublimates his passion for music to the more pragmatic legal profession, but it still rears its head nonetheless.

Jen (Pell) Gordon was my classmate at Brandeis, where as the resident Mad Chemist she was famous for blowing things up (sometimes by accident). She and Seth now have a homepage! Or, rather, they've had it for a while and I found out about it rather later. Admire their wedding pictures. And their house in Brighton. They also have three sons now, but it seems they don't merit any pictures. (Kaynahora. ;-)

Jessica Levine (of Manhattan) is probably the best friend I made at Brandeis, even though she didn't show up until my senior year. She's still in the process of discovering all the wonderful pieces of herself, and hopefully always will be.

Joshua Breindel is becoming a rabbi because it was the best way to combine his penchants for music and philosophy and his highly personable nature. In the meantime, he's making the world a better place through the proper care and feeding of computers.

Liam Feldman still loves the fickle goddess that is theater, but has largely forsaken her in favor of digital pursuits. He took me to my first two TMBG concerts, and is one of my all-around favorite people anywhere.

Ofer Inbar (Cos) ranks simultaneously as the most brilliant and the most disarmingly silly person I know. When not tethered to a computer, he can most often be found at small venues for live music (sometimes behind the sound board).

Sara Ravid is not a truck, nor a building. She was, however, a Muppet in a former life. Having escaped from both Newton and Waltham, she's now a school media specialist, Yiddishist, and devotee of the Moosewood Cookbook. Usually found in the very cool company of Lauren Smith.

High School Friends

Brent Addington, down-home Indiana boy, is either a chauvinist and misogynist to the core or a hopeless romantic pretending to be a chauvinist and misogynist. Either way, he can't understand why he's still single after all these years. And neither can I.

Chris Bradley's house is on Napoleon Street in Valparaiso, as any of my high school friends can still tell you. More recently, he writes, "You mentioned once that you don't know anyone else like me. [...] Really, how many redhead, sailor, law-student, ex-mechanics, who hate small dogs and mouthy children could you possibly know? Come to think of it, I can't think of one other person who would think to read St. Augustine while watching the Bears game on a Sunday afternoon. What a weirdo." And that's it exactly.

Hillary White is my best-friend-from-high-school. She was the first person I ever knew in the SCA, introduced me (with her family's help) to the joys of Tom Lehrer, and was High Queen of the creative domestic arts long before that Martha chick came around. Her current venture, set in the wilds of suburban Chicago, is Green Bird Studios, making gorgeous masks and other handcrafts.

Kara Nelson, DVM, used to long for the Big Sky and mountain men in flannel. Now she's happily doctoring cows in central Pennsylvania and scoping out Mennonite farmers. But the pickup truck comes in handier than ever.

Lisa (Cozza) Ferguson: My beloved Buttercup. I've actually known her since we were in second grade. Pretty soon her kids will be that old (yikes!)... but she is as zany and wonderful as ever.

Sierra Modro is among my oldest and dearest friends, even when I don't write to her for a year at a time. She's now a successful software engineer, remarried and living near Portland, Oregon -- but this picture was taken in her hometown of Kokomo, Indiana, when she was about 17. I hope she doesn't kill me for putting it up here.

Theresa Mercaldo has been by turns a Pennsylvanian, a Texan, and most recently an Indianian. She's an accomplished computer geek and, in her spare time, webmistress on such diverse topics as family genealogy and Andre Norton's Witchworld.

Family

Bobbie Roth is my mom. We get along famously. In fact, people who know me are astounded when they meet her, because our similarities are all right there on the surface. :-) Here's one picture of us together. Plus, she and my stepfather Ernie now have a bit of a homepage! Wonders never cease.

Richard J.G. Schultz, Jr. is my dad. He has worked for U.S. Steel (Gary Works) most of my life. Beyond that, he's artistic and bright and well-spoken; a fan of Thoreau, and of music ranging from Cat Stevens and Bob Seger to Rod Stewart and Stevie Nicks to Grieg and Wagner. He is married now to Vel, who loves him madly.

Rick Schultz is my brother. Lesley Devins Schultz is my sister-in-law. Eva Astrid Schultz is my niece. They finally relocated back to the States this year: from Belfast, Ireland, to San Jose, CA, putting them only 2 hours from Grandma Bobbie, who is ecstatic.

Kelly Wool is my cousin (I have only four, incidentally; two on each side, all girls). She currently lives and works in Chicago. So does her sister, Tracy Erkonen -- who doesn't have a Web page per se, though Kyle does!

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