4 October 2004
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KHS - Klein, Texas They say everything you need to know in life, you learned in kindergarten. If that's true, then you're reminded of everything you learned in kindergarten when you attend your high school reunion. Including myself, 11 out of the 26 kids in my kindergarten class all graduated high school together. (This number doesn't count the dozen or so other students who were in different K classes, but who remained with us in the same schools K-12, or the dozen or so other students who moved to KISD throughout elementary school, like T.) Out of those 11 students, seven were at our 10-year high school reunion on Sept. 18. It was one of the craziest nights of my life. I arrived in Houston on Thursday, Sept. 16, barely getting out of Atlanta before Hurricane Ivan came barreling through. My dad picked me up at the airport, and he stood outside security, waiting for me like he's done a million times since I moved away. The next two days were filled with shopping and phone calls and nostalgic drives around the area. I met up with my mom's best friend and her 23-year-old daughter who I haven't seen since she was in junior high. I've known this girl since forever. I remember standing in Miss Peggy's kitchen and putting my hand on her belly, only beginning to understand that there was a whole other life, another person, behind it. And now this girl was sitting next to me, drinking a Coors Light, telling me about teaching her kindergartners and her brothers' weddings and her apartment. It was surreal, like so many things about the weekend. I made a trip to James Avery on FM
1960, the only James Avery store I've ever shopped in, and when
I opened the heavy oak door, it smelled exactly the same. I bought
two new charms for my bracelet, and it's pretty special to see
the Georgia charm handing next to the state of Texas. I'm sure
the 14-year-old me wouldn't believe it. As they were soldering
on my new charms I chatted with one of the employees and I told
her how I was in town for my reunion and asked about some of my
other James Avery jewelry, most of which they don't make anymore.
"Sounds like you On Saturday, T's husband drove us around our old stomping grounds. We stopped at our high school, intermediate and elementary schools for pictures, like the big dorks we are. After working up an appetite stalking our childhood homes and schools, we went to Goodson's in Tomball for the hugest, best chicken fried steaks. For an appetizer they bring you gigantic yeast rolls and a BOWL full of gravy. It's awesome. And it costs like six bucks. God bless Texas.
The
cow in Goodson's Cafe in Tomball, Texas. In the weeks leading up to the reunion, there was a lot of furious e-mailing between myself and my friend Chrissy over what we were going to wear and what the plan would be post-reunion and it was decided that I would crash with her and some other girls in their hotel on Saturday night, and whatever went down after the reunion, we would stick together. On Saturday evening, my dad and his wife, V, drove me to the Magnolia Hotel on Texas Ave., to meet up with Chrissy. I was a nervous wreck. I sat in the lobby and waited for her, my overnight bag on my lap, my legs bouncing from jangly nerves. A herd of straight hair blondes waltzed past me, a drunken bride with a condom-laced veil and bachelorette gear, in the middle of the pack. And I said a quiet thanks that none of my friends would ever make me wear plastic penii.
Lobby of the Magnolia Hotel. Chrissy breezed through the doorway in all her radiant beauty and we dropped my bag off in the room, did a quick shot of Grey Goose and hopped back into the cab to go to the Downtown Club. The driver dropped us off, and as we searched for the correct elevator, three couples came walking up from the opposite direction. I recognized two of the girls instantly - they were popular and best friends all through high school. They were with their husbands and a third couple. The guy and I made eye contact and he said "Oh my god," before walking over to me to envelop me in a hug. James. The James. The most popular boy I ever knew - from kindergarten through graduation. One of the elementary school gang. James. I had heard that he had MLB hopes, but a shattered elbow during his college career shattered those. I also heard he had survived testicular cancer, and the Armstrong bracelet on his wrist was a clue those rumors might be true. "It's been a long time," he said. "Ten years," I replied. We all rode up in the elevator together, the Grey Goose finally calming my nerves. The doors opened and it was if they'd opened to 1994. Except all the girls had better hair and the boys had less on their heads and more on their faces. (It's not strange to see men with facial hair, but it IS strange to see boys you never even knew could grow any with goatees.) Chrissy and I took deep breaths and started our way over to the sign-in table when a woman came at us with her arms outstretched and pulled us into a hug. It happened so fast that it took me a second to process it, but there was Kim's mom, a woman I hadn't seen since about 1990, holding us in her arms. Not surprisingly, we all burst into tears. Her husband and son were there too, and it was so unexpected to see them, but so special. Chrissy was composing herself when some snotty girl, I don't even know who, said "Oh, did you just hear or something?" (That was probably the only example of rude behavior I encountered all weekend.) The Jones family gave us their information and Kim's DVD and urged us to go into the party and enjoy ourselves. We did exactly that. After checking in and getting my nametag, complete with yearbook photo, I went into the party to find T and our friend Jo. She looked exactly the same! It was amazing to me how many people looked the same, myself included. JO, T and I were in color guard together, and were great friends. The morning of our graduation JO volunteered to drive us all down to the University of Houston where our ceremony was being held. Of course we got lost. So lost, that had we been five minutes later we would've missed the entire thing. As it was, we barely got our robes on in time to for the procession.
JO, H and T It was amazing to me how friendly everyone was, and how it didn't seem like any time had passed since we were all together. A girl I was close with in junior high, but only peripherally knew in high school, linked her arm through mine as we walked over to the buffet and said, "I already know all about you!" I asked her if she been speaking with T and she laughed and said yes. T is like my mother hen, bragging on me to everyone, and I love her for it.
Chrissy
and me. The party was a mess of photos and hugs and whispers. At one point, all the kindergartners were standing there together and we had to take a moment. There was an official photographer there who gathered all the alumni to take a group photo. Because I'm a sucker I bought one. Mostly because I'm right in the middle of the photo and I was drunk when they were selling them. Eventually they announced last call and it was decided that a group of people were going to make their way over to Whiskey Bar. We found a van cab outside of a neighboring hotel and squeezed about 12 people into it. Because I evidently can't think to myself when I'm drunk, I yelled out : "I can't believe I'm in a cab with Miss Popularity and Chemistry Guy!" (Obviously I used their real names, but it might've been funnier if I'd called them that.) Our debauchery at Whiskey Bar is a blur, but there were many beers bought for each other, and apologies and hugs and some tears. And I may or may not have felt my first pair of fake boobs, but I wouldn't testify to that in a court of law.
Whiskey Bar. Somehow our group grew to over a dozen or so people by the time we got back to the hotel. At some point in the eight walk block, I had to take my shoes off, my feet hurt so badly. Which meant once we got back to the hotel, I stood in the shower, full dressed but barefoot, and washed my feet. Even drunk, I know to wash my feet. There was talk of a hot tub and more drinking, but Cara and I opted instead to sleep. "Don't put my bra in the freezer!" Cara yelled out as she crawled into bed, a shout-out to our childhood sleepover pranks. One girl in our girl scout troop, Laura, was the first to fall asleep at every.single.party. No matter how hard she tried to stay up, she was out before midnight every time. Laura had a lot of training bras frozen between 1987 and 1990, I'll tell you that for free. We won't talk about the amount of toothpaste, shaving cream and syrup she had poured on her either. I have no idea how long the rest of them were gone, but I do remember someone opening the door and yelling, "Hannah Merri11, get your ass out of that bed and into the hottub!" At some point in the night Chrissy and our friend Tom (who is in looooooooove with her), came back into the room, and I'm sure they only slept for an hour or two as we all woke up ungodly early, and proceeded to lay in bed and laugh and make fun of each other for hours. "Tom, can I ask you a question?" "What, are you going to ask my why I haven't had a date in two years and then four weeks before my reunion I fall for this girl who was my girlfriend in the fifth grade and I can't stop thinking about her and how awesome she is?" Cara replied, "No - we were just wondering if you wear boxers or briefs." The whole morning was spent vehemently saying "What? Are you going to ask my why I haven't had a date in two years...?" There were jokes about swim team and about how Tom's late father was worried when Tom would put on his dad's work loafers and do a dance for his mom that included the song "Mom! You're my mom!" Not to mention the jazz hands that accompanied the routine and his retelling. Cara played the Cheshire Cat in our 4th grade production of Alice in Wonderland and she sang the entire song for us while we all laid there and cried with laughter. Those few hours were so special - to be almost 30 and hungover in a hotel room with two people who stood on either side of me in our kindergarten class photo. I felt incredibly lucky. So what did I learn from attending my 10-year high school reunion? 1. Memory is a funny thing. There were people I could barely recall who had vivid memories of me. For some strange reason, this mostly happened with guys. I think I was so focused on being accepted and liked by the girls, that I sort of tuned out my male classmates. Which I realize NOW, of course, could be why I never had a date. 2. When I was in school, I shouldn't have worried so much about whether or not people liked me. Had I given them a chance, they would have. There was a girl at the reunion who I was incredibly intimidated by in high school. Even though we had mutual friends, I never, ever, EVER would've thought she'd want to be friends with me. I can't tell you how many times over the course of the night she complimented me, or hugged me, or said things like "This girl is awesome!" Granted, we're all a lot more confident and relaxed about ourselves now, and you don't focus on the petty at 28 like you do at 18, so maybe we wouldn't have been BFFE in high school, but she certainly wouldn't have snubbed me like I was always convinced that she would. 3. EVERYone spent high school just wanting to be liked. And if you give people a chance, they'll usually surprise you. Not once during the reunion did I experience any major cliquishness. Most people were just happy to see everyone. I know I certainly was. I went to a pretty snobby school where there were very distinct social groups, yet I saw none of that during the reunion. Perhaps it was just the specific people who attended that night, or maybe we all are just grateful for the time we got to spend together, and for our lives now. Pretty much everyone just seemed happy and in tune with their lives, and that made me happy. In short, it was worth it. I would never go back to being that 17-year-old girl, and I would never, ever want to redo high school. But reliving it for a night wasn't so bad.
The notify knows about Weight Challenged.
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