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Sunday, June 17, 2007

30 year reunion

Yes. It is 1:15 in the morning and yes, I am here blogging. Just came back from my 30 year high school reunion. Amazing! It just doesn't feel like that long at all. It was only with some trepidation that I went. All those old feelings of being an outsider, not fitting wih any one group, insecurity, etc. came washing back at me . So much so that I didn't even want to think about it until today. So......I didn't go shopping for a dress, go to the salon for a pedicure or anythng. This morning, I just went shopping in my closet to find what fit and was somewhat fancy. Then, I had to dig around in my makeup to find some more dramatic eye shadow, lipstick and mascara that matched the dress - something more than my everyday 5 minute makeup job. Then, shoes. Tried on the fancy ones that matched the dress and then decided it would just have to be the comfy ones. They were still okay but a little less formal. The same with the purse. The fancy evening bags wouldn't hold my wallet so I went with a black leather one that would.

Finally, at 7:00, I was all showered, shampooed, made up and dressed in my fancy black and silver cocktail number with my silvery pink toenails, black hematite necklace, real pearl and diamond rings and faux diamond earrings and tennis bracelet, eye shadow, liner, mascara, blush, lipstick, etc, etc. The cocktail hour was at 7:00 so I knew that I could be fashionably late at 7:30.

I arrived, parked and forced myself to go in. The feelings were all washing in. I kept telling myself that I was a perfect human being and lovable, not that insecure 17 year old but here were those folks again.

I walked in, got my badge with my name and photo from the high school yearbook and walked into a room of strangers. Suddenly, right next to me was Reid Tanaka, my rival and number one competition in math. I am proud to say that he never managed to beat me though he gave it a valiant effort. He seemed much shorter than I remembered. Shorter than me in fact. I guess I got taller. We talked and he is a 26 year Navy veteran specializing in submarines. We discovered that another classmate, Arnie Brown was not there because he is now serving in Iraq (I thought we were too old for that). Next, I saw my friend, Bill Petrie, and met his wife again who I had met 20 years before. Things weren't so bad. I stood in line and got a drink at the bar and things got better. The reunion was a combination of the graduation class of our year and the year after ours. It was nice to see folks from the class of '77 that I hadn't seen in 30 years.

Many folks had become unrecognizable and we all spent a lot of time peering at each others name badges to figure out who they were. Many of the women had "rounded out" to middle age and the guys had paunches and bald heads. Many others still looked really good and some folks looked just like in High School. There were people that came looking for me that I didn't necessarily remember having a connection with in high school and there were those that I thought I had a connection with that just sort of said hi and didn't really remember me as anyone special. The nice thing was talking to folks that I hadn't really associated with and making a new connection. Interesting.

Some of the women had breasts way to big, solid and high and tummies too flat to not have had work done but they were in the minority. I have to say that I was proud of having my flat tummy and weight down (even with the extra 20) and thought I looked pretty good. From some of the looks I got, I guess that others thought I looked good too! Just had to throw that in from the insecure 17 year old inside of me.

Some of the personalities were the same. Sonia was there with all of her friendliness, good will and very short dress (as usual). When she danced, her dress crept up revealing her semi bare bottom (I do believe that she had underwear on but not sure). With my usual ability to blend into the wall and not be noticed, I was able to hear the cattiness of some of the women as they watched her and made comments about her perhaps forgetting to wear her pants that night. Sandy came in and just wanted to dance. Kristi looked wonderful as usual with only a few wrinkles to hint at her age. David, the class clown was wild and crazy and, as usual, the best dressed person in the room.

My old swim co-captain, Linda, very excitedly searched me out and we discovered that we both have two dogs and continue to love water. She also has a daughter and a husband but that is another story.

We all danced the night away and it turned out to be very fun. As we went to take the class photo, I ran into a guy that I had known but not well and he told me that he is now a fireman and had never been married or had any children. I mentioned that I hadn't either and he told me that was because I was always too picky. I was shocked and laughed and asked if that was what people really thought and he mentioned remembering Willy Thomas always pursuing me and me turning him down. That is not exactly the story but Willy and I were good friends. I laughed again and told him that I was much less picky now.

Then, it was off to the class photo and most people left. Some of us stayed and talked and danced and many stayed overnight at the hotel. It is fascinating to see how everyone ended up 30 years later. I think that, overall, everyone turned out fairly normal and were more relaxed and less pretentious than 30 years before. There were many folks that were divorced and joking about it. There were two friends, Kristi and Ramona, whose kids had met at high school, not knowing their moms were friends from high school and had hooked up and had a baby and now the two moms are friends and grandparents-in-law. The spouses or significant others also had badges letting you know who they were with and one female classmate had her wife with her - a big step for us oldies since that wasn't discussed in high school except for a few of the more open guys. Nobody cared or noticed and we all just kept on dancing.

I headed home feeling good and happy that I went after all.......

1 Comments:

At 5:41 PM, Blogger snarfdog said...

Sounds like a good time. I wish I had a high school that I felt connected to enough to go to a reunion.

 

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