I didn't get home 'til 4:00am!
My day started with a 3 hour lunch with my old friend, Meronea. We me at Max's Cafe in Palo Alto, ordered lunch, then talked, and talked, and talked. It was great - just like old times. It's wonderful to see an old friend after nearly 20 years, and have an instant connection with them again.
Meronea and I were best friends from 6th grade through 8th grade. We did everything together. Even in 8th grade, Meronea was beautiful and statuesque at 6'2". I of course, was considerably shorter at around 5'0. My algebra teacher, who was also the jr. high basketball coach used to call us Mutt and Jeff.
Meronea & Trina (I was standing on my toes in this photo!
After having lunch with Meronea, I drove back home to SF and had a little more than an hour to dress and get ready for the MHS Class of '87 20th Year reunion. I drove to Kimi's house first, to visit with her family and to pick her up.
Just as we always did when we were in high school, we took a picture of the two of us all dressed up before leaving.
all dressed up, and ready to go!
We made our way to the reunion around 6:45. (check-in and cocktails had started around 6:00.) We checked in and received our little badges with had our name, year that we graduated (there were two classes represented at the reunion) and our senior year picture. This was very smart on the reunion committee's part: it made it a heck of a lot easier to recognize people!
There was a lot of saying "hello" to people, then looking at their badges to read their name and their photo, then looking back at their faces. Usually, that was followed by, "Oh, yes! I remember you! How are you?". But I have to admit, occasionally, I had to say, "I'm sorry, I don't know if we've ever met..." We had a class of around 350 students, I think, so this isn't surprising. But, the best story out of all of this was when I met a guy named Mike who was (apparently) quite popular in school because he was a jock (he played football and basketball). For the life of me, I couldn't remember him, which was fine, because he couldn't remember me, either. We hung out a lot during the evening (with Kimi, too) which was pretty entertaining. He kept asking me what all kinds of questions that made me realize that I was pretty dorky in high school: What groups were you in? Who did you hang out with? What did you do on Friday and Saturday nights? Did you ever go to any parties? The answers: I was in band, I hung out with Kimi, I went to color guard practice on weekends, or played Trivial Pursuit at my parent's house, and I never went to any of the cool parties. Geez, what a square.
Some highlights of the evening included reconnecting with a few old friends who I've known since 5th grade: Jon Jon (who now, of course, goes by "Jon") and Steve (who was my square dance partner in 5th grade). I also had wonderful reconnections with Rolondo and Byron.
The evening was a lot of fun, but it was also very surreal and a little overwhelming. I realized that people's physical appearance change a lot more between the 10th and 20th reunion, than they did between graduation and the 10 year reunion. As Kimi said, it was actually fun to see everyone, though forced and awkward, but since everyone felt that way it didn't matter.
I also realized that everyone feels insecure in high school, and thinks that everyone else is much more cool and together than you ever felt yourself.
Rolo's wife, Rolondo (Rolo), Mike (my new high school friend) & Kimi
Trina & Jon Jon
The party ended at midnight, but a group of 30 or so hung out until they kicked us out of the ballroom at 1:00. A few people had rooms in the hotel, so we went up to hang out up there afterwards. Kimi and I left at 2:30am. That's probably the most "partying" we ever did with anyone in high school!
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