Last night was an informal high school reunion-all grades. It was a blast. It started at 7:30, but I left as soon as the hubby got home from work and hit a few stores looking for some bookshelves to hold all of the new curriculum books we are ordering :-) Then, I met KOJ at a small cafe in the town we grew up in. We had a nice dinner and an awesome dessert (the place is known for its' desserts; I had S'mores pie which was A-mazing!) We chatted about our families and wondered who was going to show up at the reunion. We left the cafe and wandered over to the bar & grille at a time when we thought everyone would be there. (We met beforehand for the other 2 informal reunions and both times were among the first there which is awkward; we were trying to be fashionably late.)
We ran into a good friend in the parking lot, who informed us that several of her co-workers (surprises because they are not on facebook!) were coming! While we were hugging and catching up in the parking lot, this guy VF showed up. It has been 20 years since I saw him, but he dated one of my high school friends all through high school, they were always a really stable couple even then, and are married now with 2 kids. I thought it was VF, but wasn't sure and was afraid to say anything. But after seeing him sitting awkwardly alone at the bar, we waved him over and it was him! I had forgotten how nice and funny he was!! It was great to catch up! I love hearing how people's lives have changed and grown and evolved. I especially love to hear about their kids. It seems like such a gift to share this part of our lives with people we went to high school with. Our generation is so blessed to have facebook to reconnect us as often as we want to be reconnected with old high school pals and to share parenting stories with the people you knew when you were still BEING parented!!
Before long, everyone started pouring in...some I didn't know; some I would never have recognized; some who haven't changed a bit. We all got to talking about how some of the people - who were there - and thought they were so this or that in high school and would never have hung out with some of the other people, how that has changed, how it doesn't matter. At least not to the people that attend these things. The people that attend these things couldn't care less about being perceived as cool or whatever anymore, they are just friendly and out to have fun and reconnect and chat and hang out; and yes, they are curious, as we all are. Some people hang on to that "I have to be cool" thing and they don't show up; some are still hurt because they weren't cool and they don't show up. Sad for them, they are missing out.
I wasn't in the upper echelon of popularity in high school, nor was I in the lower echelon of unpopularity. I had a core group of friends and then had friends in different groups as well. I hung out with a lot of different people. I was on Student Council and Class Cabinet, P.U.S.H. and the school newspaper. I always liked boys that were in bands, skaters, bad boys, which was inconsistent with my preppy Student Council image. But there you have it. I don't think the "groups" mattered much to me then anyway.
I shared our decision to homeschool. Everyone was very supportive and excited, even people who were teachers. They thought it was great that I showed such an interest in my kids and completely understood why I hate standardized testing. I promised to share this blog with several.
I would say the highlight of my night may have been this guy RK, who I had not seen in years, but who I was friends with in high school. He is a passionate musician and we have a lot of the same taste in music. He has always listened to obscure stuff, a lot of punk, before alternative was even in anyone's vocabulary. He was still just as passionate, although he has a "real" job. We talked about music. He shared with me how analog recording is much better than digital and how you capture so much more of the sound on analog and it just is so much more rounded and fills the room and your head so much better. It made me want to dig out our record player and some vinyl! We talked about the movie "Suburbia" which many of us were obsessed with back in high school--yes, I dressed preppy but had a lot of skater-punk friends. I LOVED "Suburbia"! RK caught us up on some other friends, who are still in bands in Asbury Park (the paradise of all NJ rocker wannabes! Bruce showed up at the Pony last night--really!!) and friends who have been in movies, composed music and played with Yoko Ono! RK's band had a song on "The O.C." which impressed me!! RK and I reminisced about driving lessons and how creepy our teacher was and how we had back-to-back lessons and drove each other places in a little Chevelle with the creepy guy. We reminisced about this wacky friend of his who liked (the feeling was not mutual and RK understood that, even then!) and stalked me.
It was a GREAT night!!!
Now I have to get ready to bring the girls to tennis lessons and sign them up for swim class!
Have a great day!!
