The Class of '82

I can honestly say I had a good time at my 25th class reunion last night. I was a little apprehensive going into this thing, and I never could pinpoint why. Probably just a few of those old teenage insecurities bubbling to the surface. I even panicked a little yesterday morning when I thought a big zit had surfaced overnight on my nose. It hadn't, but how ironic would a zit have been? The nerves disappeared pretty quickly last night because it didn't take long to settle into some good conversation and wander through pleasant memories. Hubby and I stayed late.

I wasn't surprised by the number of folks who turned out, but I was definately surprised at how hard it was to recognize a lot of my old classmates, especially the men. I spent two hours trying to figure out who one guy was, only to learn that it was a boy that I went to school with all through elementary and high school. He had a crush on me in 6th grade, and left a sweetheart note in my desk every day for months. What little hair he has now is so gray that he didn't look like his old self. Another guy went unrecognized by just about everyone for the first hour because he was missing his fluffy trademark curls. We had so much hair back in the 70's and 80's it apparantly defined us more than we realized.

I was also stunned at how some folks turned out. One of our biggest partiers in high school is now a Sunday school teacher and a member of his church choir. Another wild one is now a part-time pastor. Who would have thunk? Remember that Garth Brooks song about unanswered prayers? That song drifted through my mind after I spent time talking to an old crush. Sometimes we don't know how lucky we are. A couple of the mean girls aren't mean anymore. Several of the partiers are still crawling around in the bottom of a bottle looking for the key to happiness. They were the ones still lingering over the bar when I left. Hubby had never seen most of my old classmates before but was able to tag which ones were the wild children in high school based on their behavior in the first hour of the reunion. He also shared my suspicions that an old buddy of mine has had a boob job. I hope she didn't notice me eyeballing her chest out of the corner of my eyes in an attempt to assess their perkiness and size.

I'm pleased that so many folks are leading very successful lives and have beautiful children. It was great catching up with them and spending lots of time with my old BFF E. She and I have been buddies since kindergarten. I don't get to see her enough these days. I was a little disappointed that a few people were still obviously trying too hard to impress each other and to climb the slippery rungs of an old social ladder. Some folks don't seem to have changed at all, and that's a shame. They're still living in the past. What's that saying? The more things change, the more they stay the same. We've all grown older, but not everyone has grown up. Wait a minute. Isn't that the name of my blog.

PS..Hubby and I went to the nearby casino after we left the party. We're not big gamblers so we usually blow $25 apiece and leave. Within an hour he won $155 and I won $100. We knew it wouldn't get any better than that so we cashed in our winnings and hit our hotel room. It was the first time in years we've had a date that involved romance, alcohol, rock n' roll and gambling. We didn't get to bed until 2am. My overriding thought while we were squinting at each other at breakfast (um, brunch) this morning? We are getting too old for this.