The crane room of RIT's building 7B set the scene for Erick's and Kristin's budding romance. She was the hot TA that instructed his class on the precise workings of the animation crane and he was the cute boy with the adorable hair that paid surprisingly close attention to her lesson. It wasn't until a crisp September night at Lethworth State Park that they began to build their strong bond. They sat and talked for what seemed like hours about music, art, life, and just everything until Kristin was snatched away for the night. Their love continued to grow as they spent day and night in the animation lab. Sometimes, one would stay just to keep the other company as they worked through the night to the sounds of Oingo Boingo, Suicide Machines and Streetlight Manifesto.

After months of planning, I had successfully convinced Kristin that I was completely incapable of being romantic or even making the best of romantic scenarios. We decided to take a cruise in the southern Caribbean to mark the near completion of my thesis project from RIT and my 25th birthday. In the meantime I had told my parents of my plan and also asked her parents for their blessing and their vowed secrecy. After the first six amazing days of our beautiful vacation, Kristin had started losing faith in what she expected to be a setup for my proposal. Trying to help me out, since she truly thought I was struggling to make the mood just right, she was going out of her way to point out how romantic the previous days had been and how special these moments were. I’m pretty sure that since I didn’t drop to one knee right then, she had lost all hope in me ever popping the question.

We spent an unforgettable week on Puerto Rico, St Thomas, Dominica, Barbados and Aruba, but what Kristin didn’t expect was the final day that we spent at sea on route back to San Juan, Puerto Rico. We spent the day relaxing on the ship, experiencing our first art auction where we got to study some of the greatest artists’ work in person as well as get introduced to some works of contemporary artists on the verge of fame. The day was relaxing as well as heart-racing, due to the speed at which the auctioneer conducted the auction and the amount of money some of the artwork was going for. We retired to the room after the auction to enjoy some room service and a nap. While Kristin slept, I snuck out to see what was happening on the pool deck above and to set my plan into motion.

 

On my way back to the room, I stopped off at guest services and ordered a single long-stemmed rose, 6 chocolate covered strawberries and a bottle of Martini and Rossi Asti Spumante Champagne to be delivered promptly at 7. Now I just had to get Kristin out of the room. A walk around the pool deck to watch the sunset was what I had in mind. What I didn’t find out from my preliminary walkthrough of the pool deck, was that they were going to “swab” the deck and had roped nearly the entire deck off so no one could get through.

Thinking quickly, as the sun was setting fast; we walked around the perimeter of the deck taking pictures of each other and ourselves and headed back to the room. Luckily for me, it was about a quarter to 7 and I still had time to salvage the busted plan. I went out onto our private balcony and watched the moon rise as the sun set on the other side of the ship. It was an absolutely breath-taking sight and I knew this was it. I called Kristin out onto the balcony and I held her close as we looked out over the sea at the moon rising into the night sky. I bent down to my knee and pulled out the ring box that had been waiting in my pocket for over an hour. I opened the box which held the original wedding set of my Aunt Fae and Uncle Bob which was bequeathed to me on the condition that I give it to the woman I chose to spend my life with. It was a small, modest set of gold bands, but I knew that the sentiment and the symbolism was more important than the “4 C’s” and asked Kristin to marry me. I think she was stunned that I actually pulled it off all by myself and eventually said “Yes!” Just then, there was a knock at the door with my delivery. Kristin put her rose in water while we shared the strawberries and a glass of champagne in celebration and headed off to dinner at 8.

Danielle Campabello~
Danielle and I met in high school after I dropped countless books on her head from my top locker. She made high school so much more bearable and actually a lot of fun. Even though she didn't share most of my interests, she was always willing to try things with me and didn't really complain when I subjected her to my music.

After high school we went to different schools and didn't see much of each other except for weekends. It wasn't until my junior year that she decided to join me at Northern Illinois University. I was so happy, she made my college experience complete.

Danielle is so great to just "be" with. We never really had to do anything, just sit and talk. She has always been there to listen and give me perspective on my problems, life and just things.

Andrew Lasko~

Stephanie Benvenuto~

Mary Beesley~

Nicole Jacksetich~

Dusty Rabjohn~
Dusty and I have always had one major thing in common; our artwork. From making posters for class projects in middle school to sharing the display case in our Senior Art Exhibition, we spent more time hanging out in the art classroom than we did outside of school for the first couple years. Then one day in art class, Dusty asked if I would wear a hotdog costume and dance for the crowd at the Halloween debut of his band “Sausage Infection.”

I dressed up as the hotdog, while Dusty was a pink elephant, the guitarist Brian was a punk rocker (not much of a stretch), the drummer Ben was a cuddly teddy bear (again, not much of a stretch) and Bill the on-again-off-again trombonist was Ace Ventura, Pet Detective. Little did I know that this would become a recurring gig for me who became somewhat of the mascot of the band, dancing at nearly every concert to follow. This became my identity throughout the last year of high school and the band photo even made the high school yearbook our senior year. Continued Below...

This identity followed me to college where Dusty and I were roommates freshmen year at Columbus College of Art & Design and played a couple of shows at a Columbus club for our new friends and classmates. Then one fateful night, dressed in the hotdog costume at Bernie’s Distillery, the crowd got a little excitable resulting in the bun being nearly ripped off of my body as I danced around the floor. A very brief bar room scuffle ensued and that was the end of the “dancing wiener,” everyone knew and loved. Since then, Dusty and I have pursued other venues for our creativity, but stay good friends.

Ferris Webby~
Ferris and I met the first day of graduate school at RIT.  The upperclassmen had a weekend camping trip at Letchworth State Park set up for that first weekend to get to know everyone.  The long drive out there was one of the first times we got to talk.  We were crammed into Jeremy’s Ford Ranger for the long drive and naturally as guys would, we talked about the girls in our department and who would be dating who by the year’s end.  Ferris, being the modest gentleman he is, refrained from most of this conversation stating only “she’s not my type” for each girl.  I pointed out that I thought he and Stephanie would make for a good couple, but he denied it. 

Later that night in a rain soaked tent, flooding with cold water; Ferris and I, again being gentlemen, soaked up most of the cold water leaking in from the edges, while Stephanie slept high and dry between us.  Their love wouldn’t blossom until later that year, but I think the seed was planted that night.  It was also this same magical night that Kristin and I sat around the campfire and got to know each other better.

Michael Callahan~