It was twenty years ago today…

It was twenty years ago today…

O.K., not exactly twenty years ago TODAY, but this weekend is when my twenty-year high school reunion is taking place. Kind of mind-blowing, huh? Especially if you know me. Most people have a hard time believing I’m not IN my twenties, much less than I graduated from high school two decades ago.

I went to my ten-year reunion and it was pretty much what I expected, almost cartoonishly so. The jocks looked like miserable inflated balloons and everyone that had been picked on had fabulous jobs and looked great. Oh, and the DJ sucked. In the end I was glad I went because I did get to touch base with a few folks I hadn’t seen in, well, ten years, and I certainly got my fill of the open bar so I counted the whole experience in the win column.

This time around I’m skipping the actual reunion. Primarily this is because there’s not that many folks attending that I really feel that strongly about seeing. Plus, there’s a certain amount of “competition” at these things when the room is sparsely filled and you have a little too much time to gauge other’s lives in relation to your own. I’m old enough at this point to not want to attend simply to rub the nose of folks that gave me a hard time so long ago in just how well I’m doing now. I was a real weirdo back then – literally spending my senior year trying not to get beaten to a pulp by the football team -- and it would seem like the ultimate revenge to show up good looking and fit, professionally successful, with super cool hobbies and an ultra-hot girlfriend … but really, now, what’s the point?

Instead I’m going to attend a little get-together in a Palatine bar tomorrow night. It’s my high school’s homecoming weekend and this place is sort of the informal meeting place for al alumni, so some of the girls arranging the reunion thoughtfully reserved a section of the bar early in the evening for the class of 1990 to congregate in. It’s more informal, there’s no admission price for an open bar, and it’ll afford me the chance to see the few folks I might want to catch up with along with some other old high school acquaintances that graduated in years other than mine. There’s less pressure and there’s more of a chance that I, and my old classmates, might actual find we enjoy spending some time together n a less formal setting.

So I guess in a weird way I’m actually looking forward to not attending my twenty-year high school reunion, but I am kind of excited about seeing some high school classmates after twenty years.

Click the picture to embiggen and see if you can find me!