Okay, maybe not today, but certainly 20 years ago. What happened two decades prior? Well, Operation Desert Storm, the morphing of The Comedy Channel into what is now Comedy Central, the discovery of Jeffrey Dahmer and his crimes, a bunch of Soviet republics declaring independence, and a little governor from Arkansas declaring his bid for presidency. But most importantly, I graduated from high school.
God, aren't senior photos awesome.
I hadn’t really thought much on my high school days recently, at least until the talk of a reunion came around. Granted, I had not attended any of the previous reunions (including the 5 year, when I was quite literally living three blocks away from the park where it was held, and still opted to stay home), but 20 years, that seems like something you should show up for.
I swear I no longer think that a necktie, oversized jacket, and hat are appropriate formal wear for a lady. Or me.
The reunion was this weekend, but I still did not attend, although I considered it. If it had been a different weekend, I may have tried to swing it, but I knew that I would be too knackered to give it a go. Because:
a. I now live 4 1/2 hours from the school, not right down the street.
b. At the time I found out the date, I already had a mid-morning doctor’s appointment scheduled in Omaha, which tacks another 50 minutes or so to drive-time, and meant that there would be no way for me to get there in time for the initial activities.
c. I have had the most stressful and busy work month of my entire career, which consisted of me organizing three different engagements, each two weeks apart. Which is bad enough, but on the weeks in between? One entailed a week-long conference in D.C., the other a week-long training in Dallas. I actually scheduled “nervous breakdown” on my calendar starting on September 22. As such, I just wanted to stay home.
d. Although I didn’t know this when I made my decision, the stress helped me catch a cold, and I have spent the past several days hacking, coughing, and blowing my nose, so I would have been no fun for anyone.
Which is a shame, because I could have really shown off how my dress sense has evolved.
What are you most jealous of: The Lost Boys t-shirt, the stylish oversized sweater, or the Def Leppard poster? It's hard to decide, I know.*
I am friends with many of my classmates on Facebook**; granted there were only 30 of us, so nobody was too hard to track down. Several of them posted about the goings on at the reunion, making me a little wistful, which is certainly not what I was expecting. I’ll definitely make the 25th. Or 30th. Maybe. We’ll see.
*What I am most jealous of? My size. I cannot believe that I thought I was overweight then. Sigh.
**When I let one of my classmates know that I wouldn’t be there, she tried to lure me down with promises of “play[ing] a lot of Duran Duran.” In perusing my memory book this afternoon, I was a little shocked at the sheer number of references to Duran Duran and Depeche Mode***. It’s almost as though I was a music geek who let everyone know who my favorite bands were.
***My favorite high school related Depeche Mode story: I was wearing the t-shirt I bought for their summer 1990 show at Red Rocks (which was flipping awesome and is what made me a convert to begin with), and was asked if DM meant Dungeon Master. I may be a nerd, but I’m not a D&D nerd.
When doing a image search for this shirt, I ran across an Etsy site that sells Depeche Mode baby clothes. That alone kicked my biological clock into overdrive.
EDITED TO ADD: I just realized that, although it has been more than 6 months since my last post, both this and the last one contain mentions of Depeche Mode. Perhaps I am still an obsessed music geek…
