Reunion

Oh boy. This weekend should be interesting. It's my 20-year high school reunion.

First off, I can't get my head around the fact that it's my 20th reunion. That suggests that it's been 20 years since I graduated from high school. It practically says it positively. And that just can't be right.

Second, there's the matter of humiliating myself at my five-year reunion. "Five-year reunion?" you ask. Yes, we had one at five years. No one does that. They all wait until 10 years. That's the reasonable approach. By the 10th year, your lives have begun to settle down a bit into something resembling one another. At the 5-year mark, you're all in different places. Some people are still in college, others have just graduated, some never went and have been working all that time, some are married, some have kids, some haven't even considered a family yet, some are already divorced - you're all over the map.

So, the five-year thing is stupid to begin with. I was one of the folks just out of college and still in party mode - no spouse, no kids, no job, barely employed. Add a wee bit too much alcohol and a dance floor to the mix and you have the disaster of my first reunion. As I tentatively approach my 20-year, it weighs on me that I must live that down as part of the bargain.

Thirdly, there's the marital status thing. I'm considering keeping count of how many times I have to announce that "No, I've never been married" to the incredulity of whoever is asking. Because it's simply inconceivable (yes, you can say that like the guy in Princess Bride) that anyone, particularly female, could reach the age of 38 without having walked down the aisle at least once. The friend I'm going with assures me that she'll be equally chagrined to keep sharing the news that she's divorced, but I figure half the people there will be divorced, so that won't be awkward for long.

Fourthly, there's the question of whether anyone good will actually be there. Yeah, I know how that sounds, but it's true. If it's just all the old cheerleaders and jocks, still hangin' in their little cliques and trying to recapture the glory of some long-forgotten past of superiority...ick.

On the upside, I have a good career, look good for my age and haven't been to jail (narrow miss with that traffic ticket thing a couple of weeks ago - dodged the bullet!), so I should be able to hold my head up high. And it's going to be in a really nice hotel in downtown Houston, so it's a good venue (the 5-year was at some kind of VFW thing). And I think I'll have a lot of fun with the friend I'm going with. We were only acquaintances in high school, but we got to be friends in college and were actually roommates for a year. When we weren't having some kind of 20-year-old female spat, we laughed ALOT, so I think we'll have a blast now that we're grownups.

So, wish me luck. I'm giving myself a drink limit. That'll be a good start.