20th High School Reunion

Yikes! 20 years since graduating from high school?! It can't be.

High school was, of course, horrible for me. I had issues...self-esteem problems, unusual looks problems, opposite lunch from all of my friends all 4 years problems, no car problems, etc. Oh, I functioned. I functioned better with my swimming buddies at the pool than I did in the general population. But given all those unpleasant memories, I realized something this weekend. I really did have quite a few friends.

Ironically, what helped me realize this is finally joining Facebook--Uh, the Social Networking site. Okay, of course you know what Facebook is. But don't you see how funny that is...me, the one who wanted to hide from every person in high school, joins Facebook and finds many people--friends--from high school.

Anyway...

Rebecca, my best friend from high school, and I arranged to eat before the reunion at Las Ramblas where our dear friend, Brian West, is the chef. (Brian was a good swimming buddy of ours, but he is a couple of years younger so no reunion for him.) He prepared a four course meal for us with some of the most unusual things--unusual for me at least. I won't be able to recall the formal names of some of the items, but I can sure tell you in layman's terms. Here goes...First course: grilled goat cheese sandwich, fried avacado in jalepeno cream soup, salad. Second course: fried duck egg, duck meat on an apricot, some animal's liver...perhaps duck...do duck's have livers?? Wait! Brian called it "Duck, duck, goose." So it must have been goose liver. Only he called it some secret code word for liver--I think he used a pretty french word. Third course: ah...steak, mashed potatoes and asparagus. I never thought I'd be so happy to see asparagus in my life. Fourth course: Brian creatively called it "Peanut butter and Jelly." Two "slices" of chocolate cake with peanut butter mousse in the middle. Ganache drizzled on top and sweet "jelly reduction" around the plate. Oh my goodness, it was delicious!

Our hubbies were so great to treat us to this outrageously expensive fancy meal. We enjoyed our time sipping wine and catching up in a quiet environment (meaning no kids).

Then it was off to the reunion at The Spire at Sunset Station. Our husbands were troopers knowing that they would be hanging out on the side for a couple of hours while we circulated the room. Good thing they had a lot to talk about.

It was very impressive how well most people have taken care of themselves. Many classmates looked the same, if not better. We enjoyed laughing at our name tags with our senior pictures on them. I was very surprised to find out how many people are still married. In this day and age, you don't expect that, but very few people I visited with were divorced. I found it interesting to hear how many children people had. Many had three and four children. And it was fun to hear how old their children were. Many had young children like me, but several had teenagers. I just don't feel old enough to have teenagers. One person I went to high school with who had a baby our senior year is now a grandma! A grandma at 38, now that's crazy!

It was a good evening. Glad we went. I don't think I'll be ready to do it again in five years--every ten is good for me.