Everyday I Write the Book

Say, “cheese!” Say, “class of 86!” Say, “Don’t you forget about me!”

Remember: I will post again later if you send me updates to share with everyone. Don’t be shy with the pictures and stories. I will still check my reunion email address and pass along your good news. See you in 2011!

Captured Here in My Quotation Marks

I received so many pictures of people who stopped to pose with each other that it made me wonder if that’s all some people had time to do: pause, group, smile, snap. Move to next formation, smile, snap. But I also value the photos of people who are so accustomed to the paparazzi that they don’t even bother to notice them.

You Were Up to Your Old Tricks in Chapters 4, 5, and 6

Did you know that our reunion had extra support from the classes of 85, 87, 88, and 89? I want to thank Sandy, Karla, Chantelle, and Frankie for working the doors on Saturday night so that our own classmates were free to drink so very, very much. No party ever had better looking bouncers, I mean, registrars. I wish I had pictures of all of them, but one of these does have Karla in it. Whatever this dance move, it was not part of the duties we asked her to fulfill, but that’s just Karla: going beyond the call of duty. A special woman indeed.

With My Pen and My Electric Typewriter

Thank you for making this blog such a success! You know I’ve enjoyed writing it and picking on people and posting those Grad Night and Sadie Hawkins pictures (among others). There were days over the last year when nothing made me giggle more than my own compositions, and that might sound a little pathetic, but, hey, entertaining oneself has its merits. But it’s your material that made the blog worth reading, your emails, your photos of your children, your own life updates, and your scans of old pictures from back in the day. Thank you for sending them.

I Want to Dive into Your Ocean

One of my favorite pictures from the entire reunion weekend shows two classmates who have stayed friends for these 20 years, strenthening their friendship, banding together to pick on others. It’s downright touching. I haven’t posted it yet because it’s in the memory book, but everyone deserves to see the color version. The risk I take is the publicity causing Lane to become too full of himself and Caroline to get arrested for that crime she fled in that other southern state. It’s a risk I’m willing to take in their behalf because of the love. Just look at the love.

Let’s Sway While Color Lights Up Your Face

You see, no one told Teri that it’s the left breast where you put the reunion name tag. Almost everybody knows that.

The way Tara is clinging to her purse makes me think she was storing stolen goods.

That night might be the only occasion this calendar year when I wore earrings like a real girl—on both left and right ears!

Such a Woman, You Got Style

I was feeling the love vibes of next year’s class reunion (those cuddly juniors!), so I looked up Meredith’s class photo to compare it with this one of her and Amy. Yep, she’s as lovely as she ever was, perhaps lovelier, albeit with hair less feathery.

And why did it take an anvil to fall on my head for it to occur to me that you might want to check out Northshore’s reunion blog for the class of 87? It’s not like Tiger-Panther intermarrying was against the law.

Heidi, Kim, and Rami are bloggers with spirit and style, so I encourage you to read them after I’m gone. I’m not dying as far as I know, but you know what I mean.

Passion Killer, You’re Too Much

Zeke doesn’t read this blog. It is a hurt I will carry with me FOREVER. He’s a busy man, I know, what with banking and parenting and Spinning. (Did he manage to tell you, too, that he’s a certified instructor?) But I cannot understand the people who did not make this blog a daily visit in their morning web perusal. You cannot tell me that Zeke and others immediately begin work tasks when they arrive at their offices, composing memos or adding up mortgage figures or whatnot. You cannot tell me that they don’t even stop to check the weather forecast, a moment that would easily transition into reading the magical prose written by a former lab partner for two solid years of science instruction. You cannot tell me any of that.

And yet, through the pain, I post the pictures of his precious face as my blogging career approaches retirement. Valerie, Lori, Doug, and Regina might be laughing, but I only grimace and turn my head to hide my tears.

All I’ve Got Is a Photograph

It’s a little blurry, but it’s the only picture I have that includes Shannon (along with the oft photographed Matt). You saw Shannon’s wife earlier.

Private Eyes: They’re Watching You

Pictures of couples who aren’t really couples: Kevin and Caroline; Gail and Billy with Billy’s wife, Barb, watching; and Joe and Barb with Billy making sure he’s not forgotten.

Traditions I Can Trace Against the Child in Your Face

Two other people we missed last month were Missy B. and Mark P., both classmates from 86 who married each other. They live in Arizona now, and you know it’s not always easy to make the trip home. Believe me: it couldn’t have been any easier for Missy to endure Valerie’s begging and cajoling. I think that by the time June came around, Missy would answer the phone with, “You’re not calling again to pick on me, are you?”

This picture is probably a year old, but I have it and I want to use it. In addition to Valerie’s three children, who are described here, you see Missy and Mark’s daughters, Shana and Jenna.

Falling on My Head Like a New Emotion

Wendy H-K sent me these pictures and then later sent me her reflections on reuniting. The rest of this post is from her email:

I found the below discussion on the NHS blog site from Rami via the SHS 87 site (having a kidless moment at 10:15 PM): I thought it was very thoughtful.

The below paragraph puts it all into perspective.

I think reunions are about celebrating one’s happiness with old classmates. Celebrating the fact that as adults we’ve matured to the level where there are no more “labels” that divide us in the commons area. And that we can see that the once so called “head” just may have turned in the Ted Nugget shoes for a court room suit, that the once so called “jock” vows each new year to loose his/her love handles, and that the “geek” you once cheated off of in Science should be on the cover of GQ or Vogue Magazine. Regardless of who we are and how we look when we reunite, let’s just be happy with the fact that we are no longer 15 years old in high school. I mean ...come on now! We are almost 40!

Things it brought back to me: How many of us were dragging our feet because we thought the same old stuff would be there? I was definitely one of them. I decided to go, make the most of it, and had a wonderful time (Friday through Sunday). My only regret was not talking to everyone I wanted to have time to talk to. I needed one more night, or an all night babysitter! There were people I did not get a chance to talk to that I knew were there (Mrs. Manetta being one of them; I will never forget coming home in college and finding my letter from myself/to myself in my mailbox telling me what I thought I would be doing 5? years from sophomore year), people I did not know were there at all and would have died to have talked to (found out about later that they were at the Gallery), and others that I did not get to finish conversations with.

As an adult, I don’t care what people think about me any more vs. having been 15. Now in my present home in Florida, I am friends with a great deal of people. I look at them and think, I am sure we all encompass all the groups/high school cliques from around the country, but as adults we all are completely comfortable with each other, and never find the need to discuss our high school class level. It is so great to be able to be adults and to have this burden lifted. It is so great to be able to go back to your 20th reunion feeling that we are all on equal playing fields, and just having a really relaxing time, being totally confident in who we are as adults (whether it encompasses having made mistakes along the way or not)—and not the completely self-conscious teen, who is needing or wanting to be accepted at the age of 15-16 years and hiding our true selves. I truly had a great time.

When I Saw All the Pictures of the Jockeys That Were There Before Me

This photo collection will seem random because it is. The accompanying text will seem unimaginative and rushed because it is. You will assume I am distracted as if I’m hopping up from the desk every 3 minutes to check on a dog who is still lethargic from surgery.

There is better discussion over at the juniors’ blog, so click on the link to your right. Oh, and make sure you nag anyone you know from the class of 87 to mail in his or her contact information. Oh, and have a nice weekend!

Riding on the Chuck Wagon, Following My Man

I am a feminist. You might have gathered it from some of the text I’ve written; I don’t know. Little things bother me, such as an envelope addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Alan, so you know it pains me to identify women in these terms. But here are Steve’s wife, Kelly, and Shannon’s wife, Rebecca, lovely ladies both!

All the Bad Boys Are Standing in the Shadows

When I first received this picture of Samantha, Yvette, Rick, and Amy, I emailed it to all the husbands and asked about the bottle of water. I wrote, “That won’t enhance your hell-raiser reputations.” Bob is the only one who responded to insist that the water was not his.

No Wedding Saturday Within the Month of June

Witness a chummy moment between Joanne’s husband, Jeff, and David L. I don’t know why I don’t have a photo of Dave next to a woman since he said he was coming to the reunion to look for the next ex Mrs L.

I’m the Smiling Face on Your TV

For a while, I wasn’t posting all of the pictures that I put in the memory book, and that’s why you haven’t seen Jolie and Chris before today. However, the booklet was printed in black and white, so the blog might be the best way to see the details of Chris’s facial hair.

A Body Like Yours Oughta Be in Jail

I think you can tell that Susan, Joanne, Lorine, and Ray were having a serious discussion right before this picture was snapped. It concerned Ray’s muscles. For more about Lorine and Ray, you can click to an earlier post.

This morning I picked up the printed souvenir reunion booklets (memory books, gossip notes, glamour shots, bragerrifics, show-em-if-you-got-ems). The first batch is going in the mail today, whatever I can carry to the post office on Dearborn, which is one block from McDonald’s and two blocks from Cold Stone Creamery. Incidentally.

Where Can I Find a Woman Like That?

I received an email from Jake this weekend. As you’ll learn in the memory book where this same photo appears, he wanted to join us last month but instead had back surgery! He wrote me then that he was thinking about us as we reunited, and now we can think about him as he concentrates on recovering:

“Can you do me a favor before you end the blog? Please post the picture of my family. I have received some emails from people wanting to see a picture of my family. It is also fun to get all of the questions as to which one is my wife in the picture. It is nice to show off my wife and step-daughter. Thanks. I’m going to miss the blog. Hopefully, we can have a 25 year so I can make it.”

You might remark that Jake didn’t write, “Oh, and add a picture of me from Grad Night 20 years ago,” but was that going to stop me?

My Fantasy Has Turned to Madness

Every time I look at the first picture, I think Caroline and Rolando are naked. I know they aren’t really; I can spot the strap on Caroline’s shoulder, and I remember the brown shirt Ro wore that night. But the picture is so close that it gives the wrong sexy impression.

The one of Georgina and her husband, Al, is off center, but I love their smiles. Once again, I don’t know whether this shot was created by arm-length self-photography or a photographer who’s feeling a little dizzy, wavering on her feet, holding the camera in one hand and a drink in the other.

The last one is just a good picture! It is Laura’s husband, Keith, who was probably abandoned while she socialized, so he made good use of his time by chatting with Leslie.

What a Way to Make a Livin’

I do not have a picture of Dennis (that I haven’t already used), so I’m posting a scene in which he might have participated had he attended the reunion (and moved on to Chuck’s house). I giggled like a schoolgirl when I got Dennis’s email this week (the rest of this post):

Thanks for keeping the blog up (ends this month? Say it isn’t so. I don’t think 10 years is too much to ask.) I’m finally getting to check it out. I can’t wait to see the book since I didn’t get to attend.

In the meantime, please keep posting those pictures. I’m playing this game of trying to see whose name I can guess before scrolling down and reading it. (I won’t tell you my score.) What is amazing to me is how good everyone looks.

On the last leg of my trip that week which happened to end on June 10, I kept thinking about the reunion. As the lady next to me coughed some nasty Asian flu all over me, I thought about relaxing at the picnic and catching up with everyone. I was landing in Dallas about the time you all were taking showers to get the picnic dust off and the party started. Trust me, in between nodding off and waking up to sound of the “giving” lady next to me, I was thinking about the fun you all must be having.

But now that I think about it, I actually had a much better time than you guys partying at the reunion:

I got 25,000 FF miles in one week.

My body is building up resistance to who knows what kind of Asian bugs.

I was reminded that many people who live near the hot, sticky equator do NOT like deodorant.

I did find my passport, wallet, paper plane tickets, and new computer right where I left them on the train 1.2 hours earlier at Ueno station in Tokyo. (Good thing that train travels in a circle and no one was curious about the goodies inside. Maybe it was a good thing I was in Japan at the time.) Good thing those Rolaids were inside my bag. I needed them after that gut wrenching hour and half.

I also learned new ways in and out of my hotel in Tokyo to avoid the Indian prostitute who chased me all over the place. (That was a bug I didn’t want to catch.) It’s not often you see a 6' tall 200lb man run from a 5'2", 100lb woman.

So when is the next reunion?

Dennis

Try to Catch the Deluge in a Paper Cup

I don’t suppose this photograph needs explaining (except to Mom: sorry*). The third person is my best friend from junior high in WV, Kirsten. I remember that she loved Teri and Lynette, a hurricane sisterhood of sorts. This also happens to be a great picture of four people who weren’t at the reunion: Sara, Tim, Sonja, and Lacy. I hope we can get all of them to join us at the 25th.

You might not believe it from the cup count, but I have vivid memories of this night. I was wearing a black mini-skirt, a white tank top, and large, red hoop earrings. I used to joke about whether they were wide enough to hook my ankles in: a crude joke for an innocent virgin to make. Look at how I draped myself on poor Tim. I think that later, he held my hair back when I threw up in the grass by the police station. (I miss him. I wonder how California is treating him.)

Zeke might not remember this, but he teased me for flirting with the balding singer who stood between the two pianos. You might see the coaster in my hand on which I’d written yet another song request. At one point, I wrote, “Sing a song that you like,” and he serenaded me with “Separate Lives.” When he stepped down from the stage to take his break, he leaned over and said into my ear, “If only I were a few years younger and you were a few inches shorter....”

Oh, for crying out loud.

*To set the record straight, I don’t think it was long before Mom did learn about this night. She saw the white plastic bag containing a souvenir glass that I’d brilliantly hidden under my car seat.

Take Your Baby by the Hand

Back when I was sending three emails a day about what to wear to the reunion, I did suspect a gender divide in this area. I think it was Melissa who told me that when she asked her husband, Ken, whether he had thought about what he was going to wear, he simply chuckled.

That’s just a random recent memory to accompany these pictures of Michael, Rebecca, Ken, Regina, Zeke, and Valerie, who looks like some kind of Greek goddess!

Saving It Up for Friday Night

I present some touching moments from the Friday night preunion. Can I just tell you that I didn’t stop sweating the whole night? You wouldn’t know it was so hot from the closeness documented here.

I Said, “Mom, What Are You Doing, You’re Ruining My Rep”

I bet you remember Roseanne Fouts! We were in touch via email a few months ago, not too long after her mom was diagnosed with cancer. I got to thinking about Roseanne’s family, so I dropped her a line this week.

Thanks for checking in on me. My mom is doing okay. She’s almost done with her chemotherapy. She’ll have surgery in September, followed by radiation. As tough as this whole experience has been, she’s handled every day with grace and style.

My boys are doing very well. I’ve included a picture of them at Epcot. John David is the one in the white shirt. He’s 12 and Jacob is 10. They really were having a good time; you just can’t tell by the expressions on their faces. What you can tell, though, is that they are pure country boys, from head to toe. Like most moms, I’m usually the one behind the camera, so I don’t have a recent photo of all of us together. But I have included a picture of me and my mom out on the town with friends prior to her illness. The quality is not the best, but hopefully you can still see what a classy lady she is.

Thank you for all of the work you’ve done on the blog. I’ve really enjoyed it, to the point that I’ve laughed out loud! I regret that I missed the reunion and agree that a 25-year party is something we should plan to do. From the pictures, it looks as if all of the planning for the 20th was well worth it. You can count me in on the planning committee for the next one.

I did not post this just so we could make a mental note that Roseanne is up for some party planning. I wanted to share her news and also remind everyone that I would love to post your own family updates. I also welcome essays, short or long, about the reunion itself. Did you have fun? Did it make you philosophical and reflective? Do you just want to publish some shoutouts to old friends?

I know that I wrote I am going to stop updating at the end of this month, but if you send me material, why shouldn’t we keeping going?

Dark in the City, Night Is a Wire

Susan Bosch is one of my favorite wives. I don’t have many pictures that include her, but this is one of the best (from the Friday night thing). Meredith Carroll, with whom I did not get to chat at all, a tremendous regret of mine, is another favorite wife simply because she hosted us at her home after the Gallery party. I wasn’t invited per se; I just heard about it, stopped at a store on the way (and bought Piper Sonoma Brut, Susan Whelan’s suggestion), parked the car on the Carroll’s street (or, rather, asked Alan to park there), and walked in the door without knocking. Yep, felt like high school all over again.

But I should be more thorough in my identification: Melissa Williams Collier, Susan, Meredith, Raymond Horvath, and Lynnwood Bosch.

I’ll Be Upon You by the Moonlight Side

People have emailed me, “You’d better post every photo from the reunion weekend.” I’m not saying I respond well to threats, but why not? These are from the Friday night gathering.

Smell Like I Sound, I’m Lost in a Crowd

Do you think the tiara made me stand out too much?

It’s not the first time I’ve wondered why I have so many small friends.

You’ve Got the Brawn, I’ve Got the Brains

Since sending the group email on Friday, I’ve heard from Karen, who gave me permission to share her web site here: http://www.shaklee.net/builder. You’ll read more about Karen’s life and work in the memory book. In the meantime, we can enjoy the beauty of these pictures she emailed. I guess the one shows us what Stacey would have looked like if she’d attended the Saturday night event! I was happy to give her a hug at the picnic earlier in the day, so I shouldn’t be selfish.