Reuniony Interlude

I don't have the time or brain power to wrap everything up about the reunion but there are odds and ends that don't fit into the "Night Event" category that I can share.

First, an admission. I studied for my reunion. I made King Bee get out an old yearbook the night before so I could go through it and refresh my memory putting names to faces. After I pointed and cooed, "Oh _____, I hope s/he's there tomorrow!" and King Bee jumped up to see who I was talking about at least three times he skillfully ganked the book from me and hogged it for like an hour. Turns out he really liked my class and was kicking himself for not taking me up on my offer a month before to be my escort to the reunion. When I finally got the thing back I went through my class a couple of times trying to commit at least some of the class roster to memory.

Oh, shut it. It's not like it's a big secret that I'm a geek.

Anyway I forgot to tell you that one of my classmates has her own business helping people to live healthier through better food and better exercise. She occasionally goes into schools to talk to kids about healthier habits. She brings visual aids and among them is a Happy Meal. A Happy Meal she bought 5 years ago. She hasn't kept it in the freezer, she hasn't wrapped it in cellophane she hasn't altered it in any way and it still looks exactly the same. It doesn't even smell bad. She came up to talk to the guys who told the whale story during the day and talked about that. I cannot get that image out of my brain.

Before the daytime event I had 2 breakfast meetings. It was super Hollywood of me, I know, but I didn't plan it that way. I made a date to meet Suzanne and Chili at a place in town that Queen Bee loves at 9:30. Turns out that Queen Bee loves it so much she was meeting a friend at 9. So we carpooled and I sat with them while I waited for the girls.

I have known Suzanne since, I think, 4th grade. Maybe 5th. However, I've only laid eyes on her once, at a Boxing Day event at Chili's, in the last 20 years. So it was nice to see that nothing had really changed, still easy to talk. I know that we've revisited our friendship over the intarweb for the past few years but real life and the internet are different. Chili had warned us that she might be a little late because she was doing her first book club podcast so we got a table and chatted like we'd never left off. Chili showed up and that didn't change a thing, just made for more voices in the girly chatter. All in all an auspicious beginning to the day.

Suzanne had also set up an alternative reunion event since she wasn't attending the evening event. Given that I wanted to be sure that I wasn't the first person at the evening thing I was able to stop by the restaurant and hang out for a bit. One of our other classmates who was anti-reunion attended. During my geeky study session she'd been one of the "Oh!" people. She looks fabulous and we had a creepy 6 degrees moment. She has a part time office job in a marketing department and she's a freelance theatre technician. Stab in the dark I mentioned a friend of mine (and of the Media Guy and Miflohny) who has recently moved to the area and is doing freelance theatre work, too. They've totally met! Remember there are only 700 people in theatre so be really careful what you say to them.

Another bonus of the alternareunion was getting to sit next to Wayfarer and exchange the occasional snarky remark. Though he'd been at the beach in the afternoon there were so many people to see and he was taking charge of his chillun so Suzanne could mingle that we didn't get a chance to talk. I've only met him once before in person but have been talking to him via blog for a while now and he's been a great editor for me while I work on those short story goals. If reunion could be a 2 day event I'd have time to talk properly to everyone. (Heh, as she reads that sentence Chili's blood will run cold.)

My favorite single moment of that bit of the weekend was taking pictures. Wayfarer was trying to get a shot of we 4 classmates (The Actuary was also in attendance) and due to lighting problems we all squished into the one side of the booth where the kids, NiNi and SiSi were sitting. NiNi is 4 and I found her to be very friendly. She reached her arm around her sister and was just barely able to reach my shoulder. While her father set up the shot she kept telling us all, "Say Click! Say Click!" Cute overload.

The Actuary asked me if I wanted to carpool to the regular reunion and I was brutally honest, saying that I really needed to have my own avenue of escape, just in case. I wasn't, however, going to object to a caravaning situation since I didn't really have any idea where I was going despite having copied the directions from the web site. He totally didn't follow the directions that I showed him when we left the restaurant but we got there and got really simple parking, which is a requirement for me.

We met another classmate as we walked to the conference center. She introduced herself as S_____ and I went with the "Oh of course" face while thinking "S_____? We didn't have a S_____ in our class, did we?" This led to a rather uncomfortable silence as we continued to walk to the entrance until, on the approach ramp, The Actuary remarked on the odd shape of the building, "So that's why it looks funny on a map." and S_____'s husband explained that the center has 6 sides, one for each of the New England states. Fortunately before the uncomfortable silence grew exponentially we were in the conference room.

I'll leave it there, quite the cliffhanger, huh? While you wait feel free to pop on over here and check out what my classmates have been doing for the last 20 years. Please don't stalk them I didn't ask their permission to post that link.

Oh, and I didn't spend even one copper penny today.