Party like it's 1999!

Saturday night was my ten year high school reunion. That means that I graduated high school ten years ago and that I am officially getting older. I didn’t really want to go, at least I told myself that, but I felt that I ought to, and maybe just maybe I would enjoy myself and see people that I used to love to hang out with.

You would think that I would see these people all the time. I live in my hometown, I teach at the high school I went to, and I am not the only one still around. There are tons of people that still live in the county, and if not in the county, then within an hour’s driving distance. Laura and the committee put together an update book of where people are and if they are married or have kids and stuff and it is kind of surprising that I don’t run into people more often.

I thought there were a lot of people in attendance. There were some people that stuck out in my mind as missing, but I thought the class of 1999 was well represented. Until I looked through that book. Then faces popped out at me, oh yeah, I remember them, wonder why they aren’t here, or oh yeah, I wonder what they’re doing. And then it was kind of frustrating seeing that they still live in the area and getting sort of mad at them because they live close- they should be here! I think everyone that came had a really good time. I wished more people had chosen to come.

I felt like I knew everyone there despite the fact I had not seen most of them since at least graduation day, if I even saw them then. There were a few people that I recognized and couldn’t put a name to a face, but for the most part I knew at least a first or last name. Most people seemed to know who I was too. Or if they didn’t, they asked someone other than me. I guess that’s a benefit of a small school in a rural community – you know people and most of them.

In high school, I was voted ‘most outgoing’ as a senior superlative. I didn’t remember this. I don’t feel like I was that outgoing in high school, but maybe the people who were more outgoing than me got voted in for something else (since you can only have one title). It was requested that John Chiles and I take a photo together – a sort of before and after, then and now. I am not sure when the last time John and I exchanged words, we weren’t really friends in high school, more like acquaintances, but we laughed it up and took some hilarious and probably risqué new ‘most outgoing’ photos.

A lot of people are married with kids. Most of them actually. And they came prepared with photos of their little ones and loved to talk about them. I listened to some, but I am so not ready for that yet. Most people seemed happily married and happy with the jobs that they have. Paul did point out to me that we now only have two years to find someone else. In high school, Paul and I made the “if-we’re-not-married-when-we’re-thirty” promise, and at that time it seemed so impossible and far away. And yet we are almost thirty. We laughed and then told each other to get busy.

As stated earlier, I spent a lot of time dancing around. I got to show off my stanky leg dancing skills – still the only white girl on the floor – but everyone was laughing it up, especially when I told them my eighth graders had taught me the dance.

At some point, someone asked who was the most changed or the most surprising. Candace Braxton got that vote and BJ Kennedy. My hair got a few votes since most of them have not seen me with short hair, they remember the bangs and the ponytail, but other than that to them I am the same. I am not sure how I feel with that same-ness because I certainly feel like I am a very different person, but I guess at heart, I am still that same red-haired, freckle-faced, loud, smart, crazy girl.

My favorite people to see were Becky Gammon and her husband and Jamie (Bubba) Taggart. I liked Becky in high school, and afterwards I felt regret for the way she was treated sometimes because I feel like some of the time she got unfairly picked on. I don’t think I was doing any of the picking, but I don’t think I was doing much to stop it. She looks beautiful and is happily married and loves her job… again what more could you wish for? Bubba looks awesome, has a cute wife, and has the same qualities that I remember. And as we all learned, he has a great set of pipes, so whenever he has a show with his lesbian bandmates, I am going.

Teresa and Robert Alley Jr and I made promises to hang out more often. Hopefully we will follow through because they were both a hoot. Robert proclaimed early in the evening that, “you don’t need shoes for bumping and grinding,” in reference to someone’s complaints of squished toes, and I made sure I repeated that quote back to him at least twice when he was sitting down and not dancing. Actually a lot of us made promises to try and keep up better, and I actually would like to hang out with them.

Plans for a 15 year reunion are already in the works which is hilarious to me, but at the same time… count me in.