10-year High School Reunion

Last weekend was our 10-year high school reunion. It was held at a small bar in downtown Iowa City. One of my co-workers in MN had hers this past summer and said it was really a lot of fun so that helped me work up the nerve to go. Plus a lot of my 'crowd' from high school was there including several people I haven't seen in a long time (one of which just moved to Minneapolis and missed us by a day when we moved out to Seattle!). So having them there was very protective. And it did end up being a lot of fun. The unfortunate thing was that the bar was really really crowded (we had about 150 people in a bar that has only 20 tables) and they kept turning the music up so we were all losing our voices after only a few conversations. We finally took the whole party to a bigger bar across the street. Every time I moved through the crowd I saw all kinds of familiar faces and had to stop and talk to everyone. After the second bar filled up and got too loud, we attempted to take the party to yet another bar but everyone got snagged in the crowd by familiar faces.

In addition to connecting with everyone I knew, I connected with quite a few people I never knew. Conversations with, say, the high school football star are a lot easier when you see he now has a potbelly and is losing his hair. Several of the hotties from back then are still hotties now and we dared each other to talk to them while we swooned distractedly at their closeness. My Studly Hubby, I must add, is one of the ones that got even HOTTER.

While we were all originally living in Iowa City and going to the same high school, we are now living all over the world doing all sorts of interesting things. One of the best parts of the night was simply finding out where everyone ended up. I heard some pretty strange things, too. I found out that a high proportion of my classmates became lawyers (and they all promised to defend me if I ever get sued for sexual harassment, so I think I'm covered). One is a stripper, one is a professor, one of the smarty-pants science geeks (a friend of mine) ended up in drug rehab, lots have kids, and a few have died (!!). Plus a number of people from my class ended up marrying each other (including my Studly Hubby and I!). One guy lost his thumb in a freak accident (it got sewed back on, he showed us) and several people have been all around the world (one response to the question 'what are you doing now' was: 'I'm waiting for a visa so I can go to Timbuktu').

I managed to stay out until 2 am (this is VERY late for me) but my brother still beat me - he was out until 4.