Rock On, Class of '87

I had the Best Weekend Ever, and I don't care who knows it.

This weekend was my 20 year reunion of our graduating class. And it was, in a word, AWESOME. As in "inspiring awe". You may recall that I've been working at it quite diligently for months now, and I'm here to tell you that the hard work really paid off, in spades.

The party started Friday night. It was supposed to be a casual gathering at the bar of whoever felt like popping in for a drink. We took the place over. There were so many of us in there that it got too hot and we all took our drinks out onto the front porch. I can't imagine what the people checking in must have thought.

That night was the first time in a long time I'd seen a lot of my classmates. And it would be amazing at little time it took for us to reconnect and loosen up with each other. Well, it would be amazing to anyone who didn't know us twenty years ago.

Someone made the observation that night that you could have gone from one end of the porch to the other and joined any of the pockets of conversation out there without a problem. We were never clique-y, and are even less now, if that's even possible. The groups of people chatting kept changing, as if an invisible hand kept hitting the shuffle button on the cosmic iPod. Mr. Poops and I left at 11:30. The bartender wanted to close at 12, but they convinced him to keep the bar open and the party didn't break up until 1:30. They ran out of beer. 'Nuff said.

The next day was "family day" at the pool. We got there at about quarter of 11, and were only the third family there. We had lunch off the grill and took over all the tables and chairs on one side of the pool area. Our kids swam together, we swam together...it was a really great time. Now, most of you don't know these people, but I'll introduce you.

This is our class president and his not-wife. They've been together for 18 years and have never married. They're the Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn of our class. I call him "Uncle Scotty" because his oldest brother married my aunt. He's not my uncle, his brother was, but I always called him that anyway. He lives on the same street as me, three doors up, and I hardly ever see him. He's stil one of my best friends anyway.
Speaking of best friends, that guy in the middle that looks like Fez from that 70's show is my friend Steve. I've had a crush on him since we were five and in kindergarten together. He sent me an email last night thanking me for all the work I did on the reunion committee and made me cry a little. He's the sweetest man ever. I still love him quite a lot.

Seated in front of him are two Marks. Well a Marc and a Mark. Though we call Marc "Geeta". I'm not sure why, but it's been his nickname since high school. The other Mark With a K married his high school sweetheart. They are the only two people from our class who married another person from our class, and they're still together now. How sweet is that ?

Off to the right of pic towards the back you can see Keet talking to my friend Polly's husband. Keet came out from AZ for the reunion. He was the life of the party and has one of those laughs that just makes you laugh too whether you want to or not. It's crazy, and so is he.

My camera sucks for inside shots anyway, and it appears that someone put their fingers on my lens, so this is murky, but bear with me. You can see me here with my head down working diligently on the class awards, ably assisted by the lovely Polly and John the CPA. Note the number of bottles before us on the table. I'm not sure if this is right before or right after I did a shot of Jack Daniels. I won the "Mary Tyler Moore Award for being voted Most Likely to Turn a World On With a Smile".

The Multimedia Extravaganza was a hit. I wish I could have seen people's expressions when they were watching it, but they were behind me. I got hugged a million times when it was all over, so I guess it was popular.

We had a DJ, but no one danced. But it didn't matter. We were too busy talking and drinking to dance.

I was gooned. Cocktailed. All fucked up. And it was great, because I wasn't alone. You could tell who was in our class and who were the spouses. The alumni were drunk, and the spouses were sober and looked like they wanted to leave. Mr. Poops was a champ. He kept fetching me drinks, though apparently lots of people bought them for me. I only wish I could remember who, exactly.

We left after they threw us out at 12 and we went home, though those people who didn't have to worry about sitters went up to the bar and closed them down there too. The ones that had rooms probably partied there too.

It was one of those parties you just didn't want to end. I laughed so much between Friday and Saturday that I was actually sore. I wound up staying up until two drinking water so that the bed wouldn't spin. I got up at 4:30 to pee and nearly fell down the stairs and/or pissed myself. I was still quite wasted.

Sunday we went to the Bakers for a birthday party. Polly was there with her hubby and kids and we were all looking a bit rough around the edges. Luckily Rachie wanted to hear every detail because we had such a good time we just wanted to talk about it.

The nice thing about my class, like I said before, is that there were no hard and fast groups of friends. You might have some friends that you played sports with, other friends from clubs or from work, and still others you ate lunch with every day. I realize now how rare and wonderful that was. And we really haven't changed a bit.

The other nice thing that I discovered is that it wasn't a weekend full of Glory Days Syndrome, where you have nothing in common now so all you do is talk about high school. There were quite a few of us that talked more about what's going on now, or what's been happening in our lives in the years since school. Which is great, because there are some good, strong connections being forged. It helps that a lot of us still live locally and have kids that go to school together--the next generation. Much in the same way a lot of our parents went to school together. You know, my kids will be the fourth generation of my family to go through our school system?

I know this is probably boring, so I'll wrap it up now. I wish I had some knitting content for you today, but it was a busy weekend. I'm working on a cotton sweater now that is uber-cute, and I hope to have it done today to show off tomorrow. This week is all about the knitting since Old Home Day is Saturday and I have booth at the church craft fair. And since the Canterbury Fair wiped out half my inventory, I've got some work to do this week!

Needles, don't fail me now!