Update from Lynn Mack-Costello

This came from Lynn Mack-Costello:

I am delighted to hear people are finding out in the nick of time about potentially devastating conditions and correcting them. No near deaths here yet, just a new pair of hips 7 years ago and trying to save the knees.

So Carl, about that mass 60th birthday party this summer - I suggest we line up a 320 slicer and a gastroenterologist instead of pin the tail on the donkey and beer pong! (No, we'll want the beer pong for after the colonoscopies!) Perhaps we can get a group rate. I'll be in Erie for a bit toward the end of June for a niece's wedding, so that timing would work for me. Tho its just a plane trip away if the planning is different.

Joe and I finally get to 27 years this summer (right Irene!?); our older daughter graduated Penn State last spring with a handful of degrees and is now finishing her 1L year at Pepperdine University School of Law. How one studies first year law with the Pacific
Ocean as a backdrop I'll never know (Joe and I didn't move to the Malibu campus intil our 2nd year - before they even had glass in the windows!). The younger one is finishing her sophomore year at UC Santa Barbara and considering cultural anthropology. No grandkids yet - that's what we get for being such "old farts" when we got married! Joe is looking at early retirement from Northrop Grumman when they move the corporate headquarters & law department next year - his job is moving but we don't think we want to spend 3 years in DC, unless the offer is right. I stopped practicing law about 10 years ago. I can do my current job from anywhere with internet service - after teaching at PSU's University Park for the fall semester '08, the "commute" to California got a bit rough, so to keep me, they now have me teaching online with their World Campus, which has been quite an interesting challenge. It keeps me off the streets anyway!

Our excitement for the spring was Joe had an arbitration in Cairo, Egypt and with no kids at home, I was able to join him on the traveling squad! Definitely the trip of a lifetime! Almost made it inside the "Great Pyramid" but seeing how low people had to stoop on the decline and my knees being what they are, I have to admit claustrophobia kicked in and I went out! If you ever plan to go, do not attempt to drive yourself - they take dodge cars to a whole new level! They turn every 3-lane road into at least 5 lanes, and if that's not enough, they drive on the sidewalks. Of course, you never know when a water buffalo will pull up beside you - literally. But it was fabulous - through mutual contacts and Northrop expats, we were able to spend a lot of time with locals and learn a great deal about the local culture and I even figured out how to write from 0-10 in Arabic! No matter where you are, you can hear the call to prayers the 5 times a day and the horizon is "littered" with minarets; it was kind of funny when we asked about the different amounts of coverage women would wear and what it represented - from full burqa, including hands in gloves and just a slit for eyes to just a head scarf to western wear - the response was it is more of a status symbol - the more one wants to "prove" they are faithful, the more coverage they wear. I suspect in other Middle Eastern countries it is different, but that was the view of the couple of Coptic women I spoke with.

But I digress. Carl - I am thankful you set this up as I have loved hearing updates from everyone - such interesting things we have all gotten ourselves into over the past 42 years! And Janelle, thank you for the Facebook postings of our Brookside class photos - what a trip!

To our mutual good health until we all get together again!

Lynn Mack-Costello