(My Les Paul/Google effort. It was either that, Jingle Bells or Three Blind Mice.)
Spring is the new summer here. Although I'm not sure what that makes summer. And because I spend way too much time looking at the weather almanac online, I know that today was our eighteenth day in a row over 90 degrees. I have managed to golf a couple of times during the oppression. Nearly shot the temperature one day, so... I guess that's something.
I missed my 20-year high school reunion Saturday. Is missed the right word, if you skip it intentionally?
You know how these things can be. I just didn't want it to turn into the 20-year Bone love fest, celebrating my wit and all my accomplishments in.... blogging and, uh, other as-yet-to-be-determined areas.
There was a picnic in the park for lunch, then dinner at a tavern in the evening. One of my classmates called in between the two -- the girl who once nominated me for Best Dressed, which I always found ironic as on the day she did I was wearing a shirt Mom had bought at a yard sale, which was where I got probably half my clothes then.
"We missed you at the picnic. A couple of people asked about you."
"Thanks."
"So what have you done today?"
"Not much." (Translation: Woke up about 9:30, ate some Cap'n Crunch, a couple of hours just disappeared, fixed a frozen pizza for lunch.)
Wow. Even for me, that was a complete cringe moment. I didn't have a good reason for not going. I didn't even have a bad reason for not going. I'm not one of these people who had a horrible high school experience. Au contraire, I ruled the school, in my own mind.
The best reason I can come up with is that I despise those two-minute conversations where you "catch up" with people you haven't seen in years and may never see again by asking where do you live, what do you do, and how many kids do you have.
But that's weak. The bottom line is it was just easier not to. Story of my life. Or at least a few chapters.
Maybe I'll go to my 25th. Or 30th. Or whatever comes next. I could do some impromptu stand-up so hilarious people will pee their pants and kick themselves because they didn't vote for me for Wittiest in 12th grade. It's quite easy to say that now and have it seem like a very real possibility. The attending, I mean, not the peeing.
So it's not that I regret not going, to this one, or my five-year, or my ten-year. It's just that I'm really not sure what it is that makes me not do these things.
And all this to say nothing of the light-speed at which the time has moved. Realizing I have been out of school for twenty years, hearing that kids who graduated high school this year were born in 1993 -- it's almost incomprehensible.
Years are funny things. When you stand them up next to hours, minutes, or seconds, they appear to be much longer than they really are. But it's just an illusion. Anyone who has ever stopped to look back on ten, twenty, thirty or more can attest to that.
"And there's the old movie house, they finally closed it down. You could find me there every Friday night, twenty years ago..."
Wistful you are. I think the word is disregard, you disregarded your class reunion, and for the same reason most people with any sense disregard them. I hear a lot of people go to their 55th class reunion though. ;)
ReplyDeleteI had a great time playing Googles Les Paul.
I didn't go to mine either- my friends from highschool and I all collectively decided to skip. So it was like we had our own rebellious reunion :)
ReplyDeleteEnjoy the years. Live them up. You don't get them back!
I think you probably would've cared more about your reunion if you didn't still live close to most of the folks with whom you went to high school.
ReplyDeleteI've never been to mine, either...it's the introvert in me. Like you, I would have definitely preferred the Cap'N'Crunch and pizza gathering. :~)
ReplyDeleteI think by your 40th you'll want to go and insist on a vote for wittiest, not speaking from personal experience--I lost class individualist by 3 votes and am thinking of demanding a recount or new vote at the next. I go because a high school class is a good platform for writers, and many in my class are surprisingly supportive. But I didn't go to the tenth, etc
ReplyDeleteLoved the writing in this. Expectedly hilarious
I haven't gone for any of my reunions either. I think the first one was busy in college. The second one I had too much on my plate and they just had my 25th reunion last summer...July on the beach in FL when I had just been in June. My body doesn't do hot very well.
ReplyDeleteIt's all okay, I don't really keep in touch with anyone I went to high school with I tried to friend some of them on Facebook and it just didn't work out...one by one I've hid them all except for my best friend from back then and she never posts anything, I just get to see her kids from other people's pictures.
Cooper - Well, that gives me thirty-five years to come up with some stand-up material. Surely that's enough time. Although keeping it under an hour might be a problem.
ReplyDeleteCami - That's a good idea. I should have my own UN-reunion next time. Or would it be disunion? Non-union? Whatever, we must deunionize!
Xinh - That's possible. Though I never see more than like two of them anyway.
Sweetest In The Gale - According to the official Wikipedia definition: "Introversion does not describe social discomfort but rather social preference: an introvert may not be shy but may merely prefer less social activities."
Hmm, that all sounds a bit too familiar :)
Pia - Expectedly hilarious
Don't think I've ever seen those two words put together. Love it. If I ever write... anything, I'm using that as a tagline: "Pia Savage of Psychology Today calls it expectedly hilarious."
Renee - OK, if they ever have one of mine on the beach, I'm there! Yeah, several of my classmates have friended me on Facebook, but there's almost never any interaction.
Somehow I was nominated to plan ours which is just two weeks away and I still haven't done more than send out an email asking for suggestions. I'm thinking about just winging it. Perhaps we will just sit around a computer and learn to play Amazing Grace on the guitar.
ReplyDeleteI like "Amazing Grace" I'm so glad to know someone I know made a recording yippeee!!! (as you know I'm easily excitable)
ReplyDeleteI went to my reunion and highlights included being hated, and questioned if I was a stripper, and confessions about lovers that should have been kept secret. it would have made good tabloid gossip.
Are you a party person? I'm not at all - I can't bear having the same conversation 25 times with people I know I'm never going to see again - and I recognised something of that in your post.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, I didn't graduate (in the official way, I mean) and I can't say for sure why I didn't do that either. There's a certain amount of regret there for me, but if the chance came round again, I still wouldn't do it. Sometimes I guess we just don't want to do things... maybe we don't have to know why.
PS Do you know if TC's OK? She seems to have disappeared off the face of the Virtual Earth...
I don't attend HS reunions either. Well, I've only had one, but it's safe to save to say I won't attend my 20 year.
ReplyDeleteI didn't go to my 10 year reunion...don't plan on going to my 20....who knows.
ReplyDeleteI do think you could do quite the stand-up bit. . .