10 Years and Counting

So I got up at 3:00 a.m. on Saturday, left for the airport right around 4:00, and got there in plenty of time for my 6:45 flight. I slept all the way through that bad boy and landed in Cincinnati at 8 something. I had 4 hours to kill, so I tried to sleep, but couldn’t because the CNN airport network was absolutely blaring at every gate. So I kind of sat there with my eyes closed, until about 11:00 when I wandered back to see if the Gold Star chili was open yet. It was, and it was spectacular!

Eventually I got on my flight to South Bend, slept from wheels up to touchdown, and ta-dah, back home again in Indiana! Only a scant 41 hours later than planned. I made my way to the baggage claim, waited, and here’s the shocker: my bag never showed up. I went to the baggage counter and asked about it. The lady types a whole bunch and says “Oh, here they are. We have them right…in…Baltimore.” That’s right- they never left. I even mentioned it when I checked in, and they said it was all taken care of. So I give her my address, blah blah. I went home, took about an hour nap, showered, put my same clothes back on and headed to the reunion.

It was much more fun than I expected! The club-room thing at the Cove was actually pretty nice- there was plenty of space for tables and chairs, and there was even some stadium seating where all the significant others could watch the ballgame. We had a decent turnout- I’d estimate there were about 50 or 60 classmates there, which is significantly better than the 20 or 30 Howard said came to his. And for a class of 240 people, a fifth to a quarter is not bad. My friend/sophmore year at Purdue roommate James was there, but other than him, there weren’t really any first-tier people there that I wanted to see. No Andrew, no Brad, Jamie, Chris- pretty much no band or tech crew people. Nonetheless, there were still plenty of people that I really enjoyed catching up with.

So how did everyone look? In a word, old. It was actually much harder to recognize people than I thought it was going to be! Some people looked the same, but most had put on at least 20 pounds. I think I was about the only person who had lost weight since high school, which leads to the next thought- They had a little contest where you could vote for who had changed the most or least in the last 10 years. Well, I placed second in the “changed the most” category! Martin Bohman was #1, but he earned it- I would not have been able to pick him out of a lineup. So after they announced that, I asked a few people if I really looked that different. They always answered something like “Oh God yes!” or “I didn’t realize it was you until you started talking!” I asked what’s so different, and they all said “You’re so skinny!” I’ve made the conscious decision to take this as a compliment.

The other interesting note was that I seemed to be the only person who came from more than about an hour away. People would ask where I was living, and I’d say Maryland. They’d say “And you flew all the way out here for this?” Well, no it was kind of a stop on my trip. But nonetheless, it was worth it. I stayed until 11ish, declined going out for drinks after it broke up (I did get up at 3:00) and headed for home.

So yeah, I got to see pictures of classmates’s 8 & 9 year old kids, hear some stories (some people are doing great, some people have had it rough), and generally reminisce about the old days. Since it’s coming up for a lot of us, I definitely recommend attending the 10-year reunion. I can’t wait to see what’s happening at the 20!

Now I’m at the cottage, where I’ll be kickin’ it with various family members for the next few days, and then I head back to the LP Saturday. I might not do too many updates, because it is a pain on this dial-up connection. Oh yeah, and my luggage finally showed up Sunday night. It was nice to have deodorant and new underwear. Have a great week everyone!