Reunion Recap

We all had a great time!

It ended up being Steve and Steve, Kevin and his wife, Heather, Tom and his girlfriend, Stacy, Dawn, someone I used to work with that came to the diner with us on occasion back in the day, her fiance, Nelson, and myself. Lea ended up not making it; her car got sick, as she put it. We'll get together after the New Year instead.

The waitresses, namely Jackie and June, were so happy to see us. It's been about 7 years or so since Tom, Kevin, and I were all there together. They went on and on, telling everyone else at the table about how we practically lived at the diner when we were younger. It would have been funnier if it was actually an exaggeration. We really WERE there for hours on end.

We fell into quick conversation, practically talking over one another just to catch up on all that's gone on. Steve B has been out of work since the writer's strike began. He said he may have to actually go over to the dark side and work on... dun dun dun... REALITY TV PRODUCTION. Noooooooooo! Let's hope the writers get what they deserve soon so Steve doesn't have to sell his soul.

Everyone else is just truckin', workwise. We're all still at our respective companies, and we're all doing pretty well. We all talked about books, movies, our kids, television, new places to go in CT, the norm. We fell into our old patterns easily and comfortably.

With one exception.

We left the diner at 10pm instead of 5am. We were all kinda tired.

Reunion

I've managed to keep in touch with friends from high school over the years, either IRL or via email since some have moved across the country. It's always nice to see or hear from them.

There's Lea, who I've known since the 3rd grade (22 years ago!) and still lives in CT. We get together whenever we can for a little coffee talk. She's just bought her first house. I'm jealous (in a good kind of way). Lea and I are now the most alike, the "old married ladies" of the bunch (our own little joke).

There's Jess, who now lives in Oakland (San Francisco before that, LA before that, and Boston before that). We've known each other for 20 years now and manage to send emails a few times a month. We were VERY close in high school and kept in constant contact with each other through college and a few years after, as well. As time marched on, and we grew up, the calls became more infrequent until they pretty much stopped (mainly because I now loathe talking on the phone).

There's Kevin, who I've known for 18 years. We were lunch room friends in high school. We didn't hang out all that much outside of school, and we didn't have any classes together, so we sat together at lunch time. It's funny how you belong to all these different cliques, compartmentalizing all your friends during your formative years. After high school, we started hanging out more, and we ended up being inseparable for years after. We saw each other nearly everyday until we met our current spouses. Now we see each other a few times a year. He still lives in CT, about a 25 minute drive from our hometown.

Tom was also more of an "after high school" friend. We've known each other for 16 years, but we didnt' start a friendship until about a year after high school, even though we had classes together, mutual friends, AND we did theatre together. Kevin, Tom, and I spent pretty much every evening together for about 3 years during our college years. Tom and I made a miserable attempt at some form of a romantic relationship and ended up killing the trio.

I've known Steve A for 18 years. We had many classes together (we were honors geeks:) and we also did theatre together. Again, I didn't really hang out much with Steve, but we talked in class and at play practice. He's super smart and really funny. Last year, I found him on myspace, and we've actually been able to get together a couple of times this summer, which is pretty cool. He now lives in Mass., about 2 hours from our hometown.

Last, but not least, there's Steve B (and yes, the Steve's last name initials are actually A and B; it's not just like Steve #1 and Steve #2 - LOL), who I've known for a whopping 25 years. We met in kindergarten. We lived about 1/2 a mile away from each other growing up. We had LOTS of classes together (he's an honors geek, too). We even stayed in touch after high school. He graduated college a whole year early, spent the summer in CT (and hung out with Tom and I), then moved onto LA, where he's been working in TV production ever since. The last time I saw him was over 7 years ago, when I made a trip to LA to visit Jess.

We never had any high school reunions, so we haven't all gotten together in years.

That is, until tonight.

With the exception of Jess, who couldn't make it home for the holidays this year, we're all meeting tonight at our diner. Yep, OUR diner. The diner Kevin, Tom, Steve, and I spent many an evening downing cup after cup of coffee and stimulating our senses with interesting (and sometimes extremely wierd and/or disturbing, and occasionally mundane) conversation.

Steve B wrote me the beginning of this month to tell me he'd be home for about 2 weeks and asked if I could get everyone together. I immediately emailed everyone, and VOILA! We've got ourselves our own little reunion.

I'm so excited to see everyone again.

Favorite 2007 Christmas/Holiday Memories.

After the fiasco with my dad at my sister's house on the 23rd, the rest of the supper was a little walking-on-eggshells-like. EVERYONE was trying not to disagree or get my dad angry again. Easier said than done. He'll fight you tooth and nail when you say "the sky is blue" and he KNOWS it's actually green.

So we're all sitting and talking, and my dad raises his voice yet again about something that actually has nothing to do with the topic at hand (surprise, surprise). He's going on and on, and everyone else is just sitting there waiting for it to all be over. Suddenly Ellie pipes up and says, "Be quiet". Luckily, Dad didn't hear it. But Mom, myself, and my niece, Jes, sure did. And we laughed ourselves silly.

That's my favorite memory from this Christmas.