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!

Reunion Time

Picture: 1997...

• Titanic is #1 at the box office
• Michigan is the NCAA Football national champion
• The Hale-Bopp Comet prompts the Heaven's Gate cult to commit mass suicide
• The Detroit Red Wings defeat Philadelphia to win the Stanley Cup
• Brett Favre win his first and only Super Bowl
• O.J. Simpson is found liable in a civil suit
• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is released in the UK (it comes here a year later)
• Celine Dion and her smooth grooves take home the album of the year with Falling Into You
• Tony Blair becomes the Prime Minister of the UK (ironically, yesterday was his last day)
• I graduated from Concord Community High School

Yes, this Saturday is my 10-year high school reunion, and I'll admit that I'm approaching it with a little apprehension. My biggest fear is that no one's going to show up, and it will be like 10 losers and me. You know what that would make me, right? Oddly enough, it's being held at Covaleski Stadium (aka The Cove), home of the South Bend Silverhawks. We get to take over the meeting plaza thing and watch the epic showdown with the West Michigan Whitecaps, but all in all I think it would have been fun to hold it in the school gym, all decorated with streamers and stuff like a standard high school dance. I hope they'll at least play some good 1997-era music!

In all seriousness, I am looking forward to it. There are a lot of people I would like to catch up with, especially some of my friends that I haven't seen in years. Through the magic of MySpace I've been put in touch with a lot of folks, but there's nothing like getting everyone in one spot! It'll be fun to learn where everyone lives, interesting to hear what they do for a living, and terrifying to see pictures of their 8-year-old children. 10 years is a pretty long time!

But what about the main thing you go to a reunion for: to see what everyone looks like. I mean, I look in the mirror and think "I basically look the same, right?" But then I see a picture of myself from the late 90's and I think "Who's that kid?" Conversely, the other day I was looking at pictures from Carly's wedding, and I saw myself and thought "Who's that old man?" I have wrinkles around my eyes, for God's sake! Plus, back in high school I had hair, so that may throw people off. In a related note, as I was standing in the bathroom cutting my hair on Sunday about to finish up, I thought "Wait- this may be one of those times I should've sprung for an actual haircut."

Anyway, I'm going to keep a mental tally of the goods and bads from the reunion so I can recount them here. It should be a regular hootenanny! Then, since I'm going to be back in the Northern Indiana area, I'm going to take some time off work and head up to the cottage for a few days. Maybe if I take a week off now I won't have three weeks of vacation I have to burn at the holidays again! So you might not see anything from me for a while, but I'll be back eventually.