I survived my 20th high school reunion. Part 2
After my man-sized pull on my Jack
and Coke, I looked around and recognized quite a few classmates… Angela, Matt,
Chalisa, Dan, Julie, Abby, Megan, Bryon, Tricia, Erin, Stacy, Amanda, etc… Now I will say right now, that this is not
everyone that was there, this is just a quick list of who I remembered seeing
at the beginning, and I could have very well missed some, and added some that
were not there until later. I wondered
over and said hello to Bryon, attempted to firm up some plans for crashing at
his place that night, etc… I then went
and chatted with Dan for a bit, asked about how his daughter was doing, if he’d
been shooting lately, etc. I spoke with
Matt and his wife quite a bit. They are
very good, down to earth, normal people.
I will say that Matt’s lovely wife Leah, has done a great job of calming
Matt down! Or at least I’m assuming it
was her! LOL, just pokin’ a little fun
Matt, you are a great guy. One of my
larger surprises for the evening arrived about 30 minutes after I had; Mike
flew in from, I believe it was AZ, with his wife. The surprise was that not only did Mike
remember me, he was quite happy to talk and hang out with me. Now, you have to understand, Mike and I were
on polar opposites of our high school class, in fact I can remember a number of
times where we exchanged some heated, very unkind words. Now I’m not trying to paint myself as some
poor hapless victim in this relationship, quite the contrary I definitely gave
as good as I got! I was, to say the
least, completely taken aback. Here was
a guy that arguably disliked me as much as I disliked him, and here we were
talking amongst ourselves and the others in attendance. I’m sure that the judicious amounts of social
lubrication imbibed by both of us played a part in our amicable conversing, but
none the less, we did more than co-exist in a small shared space without
resorting to yelling. There were more
pleasant surprises in store for me, Kathleen coming up and saying hello and
asking how I was, what I was doing, etc... was unexpected, pleasantly
unexpected, but unexpected none the less.
Jim, who I swear has a portrait of himself 20 years older locked up in a
closet a la Dorian Gray, was happy to shoot the shit, and chat.
During
this time I was marveling at some of these surprises with Missy and Chalisa,
and was informed that I had missed an entire group of people in our high school
on my preliminary Blog concerning the 20th reunion I was now
enjoying(?!). Both Chalisa and Missy
were part of a group of people that I will now dub The Floaters. The Floaters have an uncanny ability to
seemingly effortlessly float between the many different socio-economic groups
of high school. To the members of this
group, I wish to offer my apologizes for leaving you out of the earlier post,
it was not intentional… it is just that I view your remarkable ability to float
with such amazement that I tend to block it out! :)
One of
the other earlier arrivals at the reunion was Bill and his wife. Bill was as pleasant as he has always been,
but now sports a rather dazzling mustache!
I was very surprised to learn that after his stint with the USMC (Thank
you for your service Bill! And all the
other members of PHS 1993 who served in the Military, I appreciate your
services and salute you all!) Bill was in an IT field like me…. At some point
after that, Bill did what I think many of us would like to do and just said
Fuck it, quit the job, the rat race, etc. and became a Farrier (Horse-shoe’er)
Now this floored me, as I would have never pegged Bill for the type to say fuck
it, not that I have any issues with it, hell I envy him! I just didn’t expect
it of him. Bill is a great
conversationalist, and I enjoyed our time chatting.
There
were, sadly, still a few classmates that seem to hold to the old “rules” Angela
said almost nothing to me until after, or at least I assume after, multiple
drinks, not great, but still better than Jodi, who the entire evening never
said one word to me. Then of course
there was Steve, who I didn’t recognize, so I made no attempt to speak with,
but, neither did he. To them, I say… Oh
well, you didn’t hurt my feelings any… sorry you couldn’t have grown up after
20 years.
Tammy
arrived at some point, it was great to talk to her and once again remind her,
that yes, we are all getting to be middle-aged!
;) Sorry Tammy, but you know it’s true!
I also got to talk briefly with Julie, Abby, and Amanda…. Amanda was,
well, she was Amanda! I don’t think she
will ever be able to sit still for more than a few minutes where there are
other people about! I briefly spoke with
Erin, not much more than a hello, but that was through no fault of either of
us, as we were both in the middle of talking to others and doing the quick walk
to the bar.
Tricia
was at our reunion as well, and I got the opportunity to talk with her and apologize
for not stopping in and saying hello when I was dropping off Cushla after our
visit. I explained, honestly even, that
I didn’t want to intrude, and that in the past we hadn’t exactly been
friends! It was very nice getting the
opportunity to talk with her, catch up, and realize that she is the epitome of
people growing up, and becoming wiser, more tolerant and generally pleasant people! Tricia, if you read this, I just want to say
thank you for re-affirming my beliefs that humanity can evolve, and people can
change! I mean no disrespect, nor am I
being snarky, you are a wonderful person, and I look forward to talking with
you on FB, and at the next reunion.
The
evening progressed with more social lubrication, a couple of quick trips to the
“buffet” I will say the meatballs were rather tasty, but they removed the food
a little quickly for my taste, but that’s why I stopped at Penguin Point beforehand! The music selection was, surprisingly, quite
diverse and pretty good. I will say that
the DJ didn’t seem to get the fact that we all were attempting to talk… the
music was far too loud, and numerous people, including myself had asked them to
turn it down. Apparently the DJ’s idea
of turning it down was to nudge the slider down about 1/16th of an
inch, and then turn it back up even higher after a few minutes! Annoying, but not the end of the world; most
of us just went outside and talked on the balcony. After a while, it was determined that the
reunion should move from the Country Club, to the Eagles lodge, as another of
our classmates was in the process of playing a gig, and the atmosphere, and the
drink prices, are much better at the lodge.
I would
estimate that about 95% of those in attendance migrated to the Eagles
Lodge. It was very, very loud upstairs,
but downstairs was much more conducive to conversation! This is where I spent about 85% of my time at
the Eagles, talking with Matt, Chalisa, Chalisa’s Husband, Julie, Bryon and his
wife, Mike and his wife, and various others as they drifted in and out. It was a great time. I saw many people that I know, and quite a
few that I did not. There were many
conversations had, and far too many laughs to remember. During one of these many conversations, I
lost track of Bryon and his wife… I was mildly concerned, as he was my lodging
for the night. After a few minutes I
wandered upstairs to see if I could find them.
Still no luck, I wandered outside in time to see their car pulling
out. Oh well, I send a couple quick text
messages to see what the deal is, and find out that they are running for
food. Later on I find out that Bryon
ate, and then promptly passed out! LOL
:D I was not really concerned, as I knew
I could make do regardless. About this
same time the party was beginning to disperse.
I said my good byes and went to my car, where I sat for a bit. I jumped on FB and saw that a couple of my favorite
people in Plymouth were still up and going strong. Don and Kathy are the Mother and Step-father
of a good friend from days past, Chris.
I posted a quick follow up message, and to my delight was invited
over. I headed over to their place, to
find them all on the back porch bar. At
this point Don, Kathy, Kathy’s daughter Heather; who I also know from days
past, and another of their friends our outside hanging out, drinking and
generally having a good time. I bellied
up to the bar, had a drink or two and proceeded to spend a couple more hours
catching up with good friends. Around
0330 I think it was, everyone was beat, and started to turn in. I was offered any place in the house I could
crash, but politely declined, as they already had a full house with Heather,
her husband, and her children there. The
last thing they needed was a large, snoring guy waking everyone up! I said my goodbyes and headed to the
car.
I decided at this point, as any
middle-aged madman would, that crashing in the car for a couple of hours would
be a good idea. I choose to park close
by in the Penguin Point parking lot, it’s fairly quiet, and secluded
there. Unfortunately I made the mistake
of parking too close to the street light.
I reclined my seat, cracked the windows, and proceeded to attempt to
nap. It was not easy, it was bright, and
though exhausted, sleep was elusive. I
grabbed my tee-shirt that I had worn earlier in the day and used that as a face
cover to assist in sleeping, it was just beginning to work, when I heard the
rather distinctive crackle of a police radio; Great, just what I need hassled
by my hometown PD for trying to be good and not driving after drinking. I popped my head up enough to see the cruiser
and the officer approaching my car. I
sat back up in the seat and rolled the window down a little farther and
prepared for harassment. To my delight
the officer, who appeared to be very young but that could just be my middle age’edness
peeking through, was just wanting to know what I was doing and make sure there
was no distress, I wasn’t dead, etc… He asked if I had been drinking, and I responded
that yes I had, it had been a few hours by this time, but yes I had. I offered to move along, but he stated that
it was OK, and to stay safe and have a good evening. Wow, so much win on this trip I could barely believe
it! I reclined my seat back again and
had a fitful nap until around 0500. At
that point I gave up and headed out of town.
I stopped off at the gas station as I was heading out and grabbed some caffeine,
and off I went. After about an hour or so
of driving… well, more of madly trying to keep myself awake through various
methods, I gave up and pulled into a Travel Plaza/truck stop. I went in, used the facilities, grabbed
additional sustenance and went to the car.
This time I left it running with the AC on so I wasn’t sweltering, and actually
got a couple hours of sleep! Once I woke
up and got back on the road, it was a long, but un-eventful trip. I will say that next time I hope that our
reunion is on a different weekend than the BBF, as attempted to find a place to
stay, that isn’t over $200/night, is near impossible!
I am glad I finally decided to
attend, and that I didn’t wimp out at the end and just head home. I learned a lot about those that I shared my
middle and late teens with, and even learned a little more about myself. All in all it was a wonderful, if exhausting,
time.
Stay safe my friends, and live your
life like you stole it, ‘cause no one is getting outta here alive!
