20-year High School Reunion...

Friday night was my 20-year high school reunion. 20 years?! I don’t feel like I’m much older than 20 years, most of the time. But there I was, with fellow graduates, catching up on 10-20 years (some of us attended the 10-year reunion a decade ago) of memories. The best part of the evening was catching up with my best friend from Jr High and meeting her charming husband. I also enjoyed seeing faces I barely recognized and of course, hanging out with the friends I’ve stayed close to all these years. The worst part about the reunion was being one of the biggest girls there. What more can I say? Being over-weight is rarely fun….

Two things were remarkable to me as I scanned the crowd of familiar and not-so-familiar faces… The men, for the most part, looked really really old. Mostly because of bald heads. And the women, for the most part, had all dyed their hair blonde. It was actually difficult to recognize a lot of people because of their drastically different hair-do’s. Another remarkable thing (I guess there were more than 2…) was this: Jonah and Chris W. looked virtually unchanged and still cute (and completely aware of their affect on the ladies) as can be. Some things never change.

There was, as expected, a lot of drinking going on. As the evening wore on and I watched more and more people stagger and slur, I started to worry that there were not enough designated drivers in the group. I just don’t spend much time around people who drink too much. Most of my family is LDS, lots of friends don’t drink (Mormon and non) and my husband (I sure hope) has learned NOT to get drunk in my presence. The effects of alcohol on a person’s functioning can be startling. And sometimes amusing. But mostly just annoying. And sad.

The dinner was tasty. Standard buffet dinner. Rolls with butter, fruit, Caesar salad (with super yummy croutons), steamed veggies (I do not eat enough cauliflower), chicken breast with wild rice and prime rib. I took one plate of food, filled mostly with fruit and veggies. I ate every delicious bite and that was it. I was done after that. No second (or third) helpings. No dessert. 2 Pepsi’s and a virgin Mai Tai (okay, folks, I just had to look that up on the internet. I didn’t know how to spell Mai Tai). I also had 2 diet pills that day, so my drive home was effortless….

I made it home right after 2am. Everyone seemed quite shocked that I was driving home (2 hours away) that night. But when I spoke with my friends the next day, many of them stayed out until 1am or later, getting them to bed around the same time as me… Granted, they had less of a commute, so less chance of wrapping themselves around a tree. But I did fine. I rocked out on my iPod (no stereo in my Barneymobile) and actually had a little trouble winding down when I climbed into bed. My arrival woke Rick up, so we chatted for a few minutes. But then it still took my mind several minutes to shut down. The Pepsi and diet pills might have had something to do with that…

The next day, the family piled into the van and we drove back to Beaverton for my grade school reunion at Raleigh Park Elementary School. It was pretty darn fun. The school playground looks totally different… Go figure-it’s been 25 years! But there was still the metal jungle gym and monkey bars. Although, they were a lot taller when were in school there. A handful of Raleigh Park alumni showed up with their spouses and children.

A small group of us girls have stayed close all these years (we’re actually the ones who organized this event) and we frequently kid around about the boys we liked. TJ, the boy I had a massive crush on, was there. It was a little strange, but totally nice to chat with him on an adult level, without all the butterflies. Another heart throb from grade school, Troy, was also there. Both men were very friendly guys…. So much more approachable than they were in 6th grade!

It was fun to meet spouses, to hear what everyone has been up to, to watch our children play together in the same school yard we played together in. And it was awesome to see the walls come down. Even with all the drinking, there were still a lot of walls up at the high school reunion the night before. (Although, I am happy to report that the girl who was RUDE to me at the 10-year, for reasons unknown to me, actually said “hi” and hugged me at the 20-year) That wasn’t really the case at the grade school. We were just a group of old friends, getting together to chat and eat and enjoy one another. We were all grown ups. Weird!!

And the best part…. It won’t end there. We plan on making this reunion thing a regular event. Every summer. Reliving our youth. I’m curious to see how much more ‘blonde’ hair we will be seeing over the next decade, until we all meet up again for the 30-year high school reunion. But that’s a long way off…