10 Year Reunion

We went to my 10 year high school reunion Saturday night with my friend "Momo" and her husband. It was sort of like being back in high school for a few hours. The reunion was at Olamendi's in Dana Point. A strange choice, but the food was great...and that's about all that was great during the evening. The restaurant is small, but my graduating class had fewer than 70 people in it...and there were probably only 50 people there including spouses/dates. There is a small room in the back of the restaurant that's used for private parties. We were back there. The moment we walked in we were absorbed into sweltering heat.

After walking in and saying hi to the people we passed as we went to our table, we weren't easily able to talk to anyone other than the people at our table. It didn't help either that I pretty quickly slipped back into the extremely anti-social person I was back in high school. 'Chung knows I don't really like those types of social gatherings, but I think even he was surprised at how uncomfortable it made me. As luck would have it, who would sit next to me but a guy, "Bob" who spent several months a few years after high school semi-stalking Momo. He's always made her extremely uncomfortable because he tends to say inappropriate things and also since he's met her husband a number of times, but still refuses to acknowledge him. Well, now Bob's engaged, so his fiance sat with us too. She seemed pretty nice, but talking to her was like pulling teeth...Momo and I kept trying to ask different questions about herself, but all we got were one-word answers. Then his best friend, "Will" came over with his wife and another friend, "Tom". That was our table, so with a few exceptions, that's who we were able to talk to for the evening.

Will was always a really nice guy, one of the few people at our school who smoothly crossed the barriers of most of the groups. It was fun to catch up a little with him, meet his wife and see pictures of their 16 month old son. Tom, on the other hand, was a different story. He was messed up. He grew up an army brat and after many different schools in different cities, he joined our school halfway through our junior year. He was always the life of the party, a sweet guy with a very playful nature and light demeanor. He went to West Point after graduation and joined the army. He's in the army still and has been in Iraq for the past several months and has 8 more months to go. As of yesterday he had been home from Iraq for 4 days of a 2 week leave. After getting fairly drunk, he started ranting about how joining the army was the worst decision of his life...though he did say that when he'd had the chance to leave after his last term of duty was over he signed up to go to Iraq instead, telling gory stories of stuff he's seen in the war, and criticizing everyone in the room for not having been through the horrors he's experienced in the war. It was so sad to see what it's done to him. I was also really frustrated with Bob because while Will was trying to get Tom to stop drinking, Bob kept bringing him more.

It was interesting to see how little people had changed. Aside from Tom, only one person seemed to have changed significantly. She looked so different that I didn't recognize her...I asked another person who she was, and looking back I think she must have had some "work" done on her face. Everyone else looked basically the same. I would have liked to talk to more people and see what they're doing these days, but it didn't work out that way. I was also sad that a lot of the people I would have liked to catch up with didn't come. I don't think I want to go to the 20 year when it comes around, but we'll see. Curiosity will probably get the better of me again.