I went with my girlfriend Maria. I hadn't seen her in a long time and it was great to hang with her for a few hours. She was my date as her partner is currently in Italy and I had flown down solo. We were going to meet up with another friend, Christina, on the boat and hopefully we'd run in to some friends we were hoping to see.
The reunion was on the Queen Mary in Long Beach. I've been there before a few times, although not in a while; it's now a hotel/convention space permanently moored in Long Beach harbor. They have a Halloween event called Shipwreck-something-or-other, something for those who like to be scared, and there were lines of eventgoers trying to get in to the event. Plus on that night, the QM appeared to have wedding receptions and other events going on, so there were people everywhere. We made our way to the hotel concierge who gave us directions on where we needed to be. Just as we got there, we ran straight into Christina, so our threesome was complete. Dinner started at 8:00 p.m. (hey dinner was good, it wasn't rubber chicken!) and we wanted to have some time to mix before dinner so we got there around 7:00 p.m.
As we started running into people we knew, it was amazing to see how twenty years affects different people. Some people looked exactly the same, Dick Clark had nothing on some friends who looked like they hadn't aged a day in all that time. Then you had the other end of the spectrum, some people who looked so vastly different I had a hard time believing they were who they said they were. Everyone was dressed really nicely, mostly cocktail dresses for the women and suits for the men, a far cry from our plaid uniforms (twelve years of Catholic school, I still have a hard time wearing plaid!). Most came stag, the reason was the same -- the spouse stayed home to watch the kids, but lots brought their spouses and it was great to meet the person they had settled down with.
Now I expected most everyone to be on their best behavior. Most of us are parents with some having kids old enough to be freshmen at our old alma mater and some with little ones like me, and most responsible parents are always watchful of their actions, I wasn't expecting any fall down drunks. I wasn't expecting any melodramas resolving themselves twenty years later or settling of bets placed long ago. With the exception of a few people (there are always a few, aren't there?) who looked like they were still trying to work an inner circle kind of thing that night, everyone was really nice. The spouses were really nice. Pictures of kids looked really nice. Most everyone had nice lives, some a little nicer than others, but everyone seemed to be genuinely content with where they were with their lives on that particular night. And you can't help but be upbeat when surrounded with that much positive energy. Not that there weren't divorces, or deaths, or any of the other problems life can throw at you. But seeing how so many different paths converge on similar events yet still have different results is a fascinating study.
The room was full of teachers (preschool through university), accountants, policemen, lawyers, and trade workers. We've got some musicians, and doctors, a guy that owns some frozen yogurt stands, and a adult entertainment star. I am proud to say I was one of more than a few stay-at-home Moms (and Dads). Some of us have lots of kids and some have none. Some managed to get all their schooling and traveling done, and some are still wishing. Some are doing exactly what they want to do, what they have always wanted to do. And some are doing what they need to because they value the other things in their life more. And we have spread out all over the country.
Some great people I reconnected with that night--
- The guy who asked me to Prom junior year. Married with no kids, he's living in Texas now and happy with his life there.
- One of the class clowns, always a very sweet guy. He's married with a daughter, running his own private investigation firm, and still a very sweet guy.
- A friend who I haven't seen since graduation, still in love with Van Halen. She's married with kids and her best friend from high school is still her best friend.
- A friend I went to both grade school and high school with. He took over the family business, a mortuary. I've seen him over the years, but it seems like it always happens at a funeral. I told him it was nice to be able to chat with him at someplace other than a church or cemetery.
- The cheerleading guy I always suspected was gay before I had a clue about all that being gay entailed (and I am by no means an expert). A stay-at-home Dad with a daughter and a new baby on the way, he's been with his partner for nine years, living happily in San Francisco.
- A girl I always liked but didn't know real well in high school. She married her high school sweetheart and they are still together, raising their family.
As for my high school crush, he wasn't there for dinner (lots of people bypassed dinner and came later). He showed up in jeans and a loud Hawaiian shirt. And while I thought that the years had been extremely kind to him, the way he was dressed took him down a few pegs in my book, especially since everyone had made an effort to look nice that evening. Oh well.
I've got some street addresses and some email addresses, and I intend to try and keep in touch with some friends from that night. Hopefully I'll be able to bring the past into the present.
