Reunion '98

Tinytin's recent post about her 10th high school reunion resonates with me right now; I just received an Evite for my 10th year reunion, which is happening over Thanksgiving. Fancy that!

In addition to telling J that high school isn't the be all end all in life, we had another discussion on that TAASC trip about high school. Friends of mine who are married started TAASC in 2006 and both of them were on the paddling part of the TAASC trip with me. Husband is from South Africa and thinks that folks from the US are a bit ridiculous with all of the graduations and proms and whatnot. Wife is from Michigan, blonde, beautiful, funny, and was a gymnast growing up.

We were talking about high school on that course and Michigan said casually, "I was the Prom Queen, " and motioned while saying, "Elbow, elbow. Wrist, wrist. Touch the pearls. Blow a kiss."

The story went on. "So of all the possible boys who were on the court, who ended up being Prom King?"

Pause.

"My twin brother!"

She went on, "And not only that, but we had to have the first slow dance together. Take My Breath Away will always make me shiver a little bit. As we were dancing, everyone started chanting, 'Kiss kiss kiss kiss!' I was mortified."

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My friend from high school lives in my same town now; we spoke about the reunion yesterday while going for a walk. He's going to be in NJ for Thanksgiving and several of our friends are going. Some of my friends are actually organizing it, which is weird because I can't bash the idea as I normally would; one actually quipped, "When I ran for Class Historian at the age of 17, I didn't think that I'd be locked into organizing these things!" I didn't hate high school, but I don't really want to go to the reunion. We walked and went back and forth:

Pros:

See what people look like

See who has spouses or babies

Gossip

Cons:

Ego enhancer (obviously, because my life is so much more exciting than most of their lives)

Cost (obviously, because with that interesting life comes a salary equivalent to my classmates' end-of-year bonuses)

Gossip (I don't want to waste energy on it)

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I finally told my friend, "I think that I'll just stay in our little city for Thanksgiving. I'll go to the 20th when we're all 38 years old."

He said, "I bet that we'll be walking down the street and having this same conversation in another 10 years."

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Maybe. Or maybe we'll be gossiping with the others. Or maybe we'll be targets for gossip. Let's hope that we have wonderful and juicy things happen between now and then!

Livin' on a Prayer

This morning in the office Roomie was singing, "Oh, we're halfway there. Oh oh! Livin' on a prayer," when she quickly said, "I don't want to be singing Bon Jovi right now."

I had a flashback to around the time of that Meadowbrook '91 photo.

Being from NJ and being so hip (like Blondish, I also sported leggings with my oversized tee shirts and added some wigwam socks thanks to seeing my older sister with that fashion choice), I clearly loved Bon Jovi.

The flashback is audible. Yes, I used a mini recorder to record my voice singing that very song. Yes, I bet I can find that mini tape and play it once again. Yes, I have a high pitch voice and a thick Jersey accent.

Teenage Fashion and Literary Cannon Review: Summer 2008

We were playing "Twenty Questions: Literary Character Edition" while hiking on my last trip. One of the girls had a character in mind, and we asked questions like:

"Is it a man or woman?"

"Is the character older than us?"

"Older than Katie?"

This continued until we got to J, who is a sometimes surly/sometimes funny rising sophomore in the city high school.

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SIDENOTE: Here's a little background on J:

Despite being in TAASC for over two years and knowing the discomfort and danger of wearing cotton on a backpacking trip (annoying because it never dries if it gets wet and risky because of getting hypothermia in the rain...), this kid chooses to hike in blue jeans.

Every summer he wears a pair (and somehow doesn't get heat stroke either) and then cuts them with the first aid kit's trauma shears into his leisure wear around camp on the river section of the trip. Luckily, he now brings a pair of synthetic shorts as well for paddling.

Along with these jeans is a tee shirt (also cotton and usually filthy by day 2), long hair (this year with a bandana), and sideburns. I felt like I was in an episode of The Wonder Years. See below for a sliver of two boys sporting the 1973 look:

Also, J forgot his spoon so the pocket that wasn't occupied by a toothbrush carried one of the cooking spoons as his new personal spoon.

When he isn't complaining, I think he's hilarious.

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So we were going down the line with questions when J deadpans, "Is this character from a book I would actually know, or is it one of those horsey girl books?"

I laughed because I knew those horsey girls who would read books like this:

No one else thought it was as funny as I did.

When I got home, I thought about J's surliness and sarcasm. I secretly know that J is hiding in his jeans and jokes like Judy in the Belle and Sebastian Song who reads books about horses under her covers because "The best looking boys are taken. The best looking boys are staying inside."

This 15 year old probably doesn't ask people on dates. He is cool now, but needs to get out of high school to know it. Until then he'll play video games; complain about hiking, paddling, backpacking, cooking, cleaning pots, sitting, and breathing; and carry his toothbrush in his dirty pocket.