Reunion Countdown

The big night is almost here. Friday night I'll be transported into the hell of high school cliques again, or magically and wonderfully, the lines of social stratas will fade and people will just be who they are and I'll enjoy talking to people who wouldn't have given me the time of day in high school. Which do you think it will be?

That's right bloggin' buddies - I'm off to my 20 year reunion on Friday night. I have such mixed feelings about the whole thing. I did go to my 10 and enjoyed it, but for some reason this one seems more intimidating to me. Maybe it's because I don't have a really cool and important job title to throw out there to the inevitable question, "What do you do?" It surely has something to do with the 30+ extra pounds I'm carrying since I walked down that aisle in my polyester gown during our graduation ceremony. The hardest part will be crossing that threshold by myself and walking into the no-man's land without someone by my side. (The cost was so high for the night, we decided I would go by myself.)

One of the blessings in this event already is that I have been able to reconnect with one of my best friends that I had lost touch with since the 10 year. He was my prom date and saw my name in the "slacker email" that one of the coordinators sent out to remind those of us lazy ones to get our registrations in. He promptly emailed me and said, "Is that really you?" and we exchanged a few emails catching up on our lives and showing off pictures of our families. He sadly won't be at the reunion, but his parents still live in town and I made him promise to call me next time they were in town so I could meet his lovely wife and beautiful little girls. If nothing else, the whole thing has been worth it for just that.

Who do I want to see? The boy who I had a huge crush on in Junior High who deliberately sought me out at the 10 and was so nice and had a blooming career in nuclear medicine. My dear friend who lived up the street from me and whose mom taught us all the old dances of the 60's in their living room. My friend who basically made some bad choices and wound up an unwed mother at 19 and broke contact with me over the years. I think it bothered her that I had done things in the "right" order, college, marriage, kids. (Not that I think that this is the right order for everyone - but she grew up in a very religious home and I think that my life was just another reminder of the poor choices she had made.) I'm hoping she's there and we can try again to resume some form of the friendship we once had.

Then there's just the curiosity of what happened to some of the more colorful characters. Are the slutty girls still going to look and act slutty? Or will they be dowdy housewives now? Will the chubby, homely, nerdy kids still be that way? Or will they look like movie stars? Will the athletes be carrying around spare tires instead of six-packs?

I'll take my camera and report back to you all after the big day!

Pimp time: The competitive monster in me wants to keep this to myself, but far be it from me to deny a published author a request. Check out Joshilyn Jackson's website and her lil' old contest - B4B - Blogging 4 Books. But watch out, I'm workin' to try to win one of the great prizes she's offering this month.

PS - Thanks to those of you who took the time to read the "Hotel" post and leave such nice comments. Ya'll do my heart good! Someday I need to update that story because since I wrote it, we took the kids there for brunch one Christmas and it was truly a lovely experience. Anyway - thanks again for plodding through it!