Then ('86) and now ('06)

Then ('86) and now ('06)
Originally uploaded by ksteele2.

Last weekend was my husband's 20th high school reunion. At pretty much the last minute, we decided to go to two of the three events. Since both of them were parties less than a mile from our house, and a good friend of his (good in the "I haven't seen you since high school" sort of way) was coming all the way from Oregon, he felt a bit lame in staying home. So off we went.

Friday night was a check in / registration / say hi kinda thing, at the hotel. We walked into the hotel and checked all the conference rooms for a formal sign in, then saw a big posterboard written in marker, "EHS Sign in - room 505". We looked at each other, laughed, and headed for the elevator.

Room 505 had close to 40 people crammed into a 2 room hotel space. I spent about an hour staring at faces, trying to recognize someone, before it hit me - I'm NOT going to know anyone! Have another beer Karen.

We had fun playing 'then and now', and stories were told of skipping chapel for breakfast (that's what they called it anyway); being drug before the honor council, graduadion; parties where friends broke things or lost things or parents had to come pick up people that shouldn't have been driving. Groups broke off to go get dinner, and around 11pm I realized that hours had passed and we were still having fun. Whee ~

Saturday afternoon was the "official" event at the school, but we skipped out on that - Sean had a golf tournament. That night was a cookout at the house of an alumni - that was the big fun. Bar BQ on the beach, "awards" ceremonies for people who had traveled far or saved a life, and watermelon suffused with vodka. Ahhh, high school, you seem so close at times...

If the party had ended there, we would have probably just had fond memories of people then and now. But oh no, as midnight approached, the night seemed too young to let slip away. So we brought a few people back to the house (ack - a house that I had not! cleaned! I hate having people's first impression be of a messy house), sat out by the hot tub and had a few more drinks, and kept the neighbors awake laughing and talking for a few more hours.

And had the hang overs to tell us we weren't 17 (or 18) the next morning.

Maybe in 20 more years, we'll be smart enough not to think we have to relive high school by trying to prove we can drink as much as we want to and stay up until the sun is rising.

Or maybe we'll do it all again, just to show we're not that old - yet.