Claire Turner

About Me!

   I can't believe I'm writing an update on what I've been doing for the last TEN years - has it really been that long since we were absorbing Mr. Willis's gory tales of European history, or frantically trying to finish our anthologies for Mrs. Young - or putting marshmallows into the principal's hand before walking across that stage?

But I guess it really has been that long! Well, I've been keeping pretty busy for the last decade - after graduating from Woodham, I moved to Gainesville and settled in at UF. Four years and about six internships later, I graduated with a dual major in magazine journalism and advertising, and realized I didn't want to work in either field. So I packed up for DC, where I worked virtually around the clock for an entire year planning events in the White House Social Office during the Clinton Administration. (No cigar jokes, please.)

Then I decided I was too young to be working 80- and 90-hour weeks, so I packed up once again and hopped on a train to New York City, where I've been living for the last 4 1/2 years. I spent my first year in New York in a horrid little mauve-carpeted apartment in Queens, with a crazy Italian landlady named Fortunata.

As soon as that lease was up, I hastily escaped to the East Village in Manhattan for 2 very fun but exorbitantly expensive years. One night I actually tallied up my annual rent, and quickly thereafter moved to Park Slope, Brooklyn, where I currently live with my boyfriend Jack (we've been together for 3 1/2 years) and our roommate Neil - both Florida boys. Yes, it's a small world - I've met more Floridians up here than I knew when I was down there!

I've been working at the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (www.ddcf.org) since I moved to New York, primarily doing communications work (maintaining our websites, writing, graphic design) - and really adore my job. I'm also on the board of the Cleo Mack Dance Project, a small modern dance company that I fell in love with about 4 years ago. Whew. That's probably more than anyone wanted to know about me, so I'll sign off now. I'm looking forward to the reunion and would love to hear from anyone who'd like to catch up!