(Wrong) Class Reunion

Megan and I had pretty eventful weekend. We were able to finally make it to the movies to catch a flick together and saw Friends With Money. The movie addresses a multitude of issues stemming from marriage and the relationships that married couples have within their own families and with others. It was a nice ensemble piece that was funny and bittersweet. My brother was in town and when Megan went to work on Sunday, we checked out Ed Norton's new flick Down In The Valley. It was...Interesting. It had some great moments, and Ed Norton was great as always, but the film never achieved the sort of fantastic realism I think it was trying for and actually needed to work. It's worth seeing, yet I can't see myself recommending it either. As a quick aside, after we left, my film student brother declared a better title would have been "Downer In The Valley." Takes after his brother, that one.

Anyhow, the major event of this weekend was not in fact my two trips to the multiplex, but Megan's Class of '96 high school reunion. An event made even all the more dramatic by the fact that on Friday afternoon, the day of the reunion, Megan developed an almost debilitating bladder infection. Now, I've never had one of these myself, but I can tell from witnessing them that they are not only uncomfortable, but searingly painful at times. So, Megan left work early, took some prescribed drugs, forced water, and once again proved what a total badass she is. For as I was content to beg off for a quiet evening at home, Megan was intent on sucking it up and going to her damned reunion. Hey, if she wanted to go that bad I wasn't going to stop her, and since the drugs had finally started to work their magic, it seemed like she would hold up long enough to at least make an appearance. Granted, Megan wasn't in the best mood (as was evidenced by her admonishment of my attire for the evening), but I think we both thought her mood would change for the better and once we got to the party, especially now that she wasn't in agony.

As it happened, I think that Megan later regretted her decision. A lot of our friends were there (Boyd and Emily, Katie and Josh, Mike and Melissa, Mike and Tracey, etc.), but we see them on a regular basis anyway. Her friends aside, I think Megan felt something akin to, "I'm going through all of this for these people?"

I, on the other hand, had a great time (despite the fact that I didn't bring any cash and had to bum money from Josh to buy a beer). Since these people weren't in my graduating class, I didn't feel like anyone was judging me, and the experience was quite freeing. It was also like having another reunion of my own, as the people there were all people I went to school with as well. Granted, there were a lot of unfamiliar faces, but I was surprised by how many people were there that I not only recognized, but actually knew. Here's a brief summary of conversations that evening:

- Caught up with Jay Saunders and met his fiance. Jay looks great, is still in the TV News biz (like me) and is a producer for a CBS affiliate in Columbus, OH. I'm looking forward to seeing them both again at Nate's wedding in October.

-Talked to Genelle Wilson Gerthoffer. I knew that she had gotten married to one of the three Gerthoffer boys (all of whom I worked with at Baker's in high school) but wasn't sure which one, a case made all the more confusing considering two of them are identical twins. Finally, found out it was Zach (one of the twins) that she was married to, not Joe (the other twin), and that she has only confused the two of them 3 times, and she was drunk each time. They're happy and have two kids. Genelle's a great person and was generally excited when she asked why I was there, since it wasn't my class reunion, and I told her that I had married Megan. It was a nice moment.

-While talking to Genelle, I was also engaged by Tiffany Pfeiffer. I know that I look a lot different than I did in high school, but I was wearing a freakin' nametag, so maybe you can understand why the following conversation was little annoying:

Tiffany: "You seem familiar. Were you on student council or something?"

Me (deadpan): "We were on the paper together."
In my head I'm screaming "WE WERE ON THE PAPER TOGETHER FOR TWO YEARS! I SAW YOU EVERYDAY AT SCHOOL FOR AT LEAST TWO HOURS!

Tiffany (still not making the connection): "Who did you hang out with?"

Me (not really understanding if she means on the paper or in general): "Max Riffner, Tristan Dalley, Ben Schick..."
In my head I'm screaming "ESSENTIALLY ANYONE WHO WAS ON THE PAPER, INCLUDING YOU! WHAT ELSE DID WE DO?!?!"

Tiffany (finally recognizing me): "Oh, yeah! But you were kinda..." Tiffany then puffs out her cheeks, leans back in her chair, and sticks out her arms from her sides and makes a sort of circle with her arms around her midsection as though she was carrying a large pot. I assume she was indicating that I was fat, but then again, maybe she had me confused with someone who was taking pottery...

Me: "Um, yeah..."

Anyhow, all I got from Tiffany was that she was "singing in a band." I asked her if she had heard Nick's CD, and she said that yes she had, it was good, and that she and Nick had "hung out" when he was living in NYC where she lives. I know it may not sound like it, but our conversation didn't make me mad, it was actually kind of amusing, and to be fair, even though I was wearing a nametag, I was a bit huskier in high school. Speaking of which, Tiffany, if you're reading this, try eating something with calories in it. You could stand to be a little more... (I know that you can't see it, but I'm puffing out my cheeks and making a circle with my arms around my midsection.)

-After talking with Josh about Zinedine Zidane and Fever Pitch (the Nick Hornby book and the Jimmy Fallon/Drew Barrymore movie), I had a nice conversion with Yolanda Johnson and LaSharah Bunting. I was really hoping that I would see Yolanda (or Yo as our journalism teacher Mr. Krainak called her). She was definitely one of my favorite people in journalism. She's doing well, and is an opera singer living in NYC. Mr. K would be proud of LaSharah as she is now working for New York Times and is also, obviously, living in NYC. We talked at length about Mr. K and the circumstances surrounding his retirement, as well as busing in Omaha, and Ernie Chambers' ridiculous OPS redistricting plan. When Yolanda asked what I was up to, I told I was an art director at a local TV station and she said "Of course you are." We ended our conversation with the two of them promising to check out Max's website and to keep an eye out for Goldenboy.

-Later, I had a long coversation with Sarah Reisinger. Sarah and I go way back, having grown up going to church together. Sarah's father Frank was our church's pastor, her older brother Scot was a youth group leader, Scot's wife Heather was used to babysit me (as did Scot) back in the day before they wre married, and Heather's sister Jessie is an old friend and former classmate. I got the scoop on all of them, Scot and Heather are expecting their first child, Jessie and her husband are expecting their second, and Frank, unfortunately, has was recently diagnosed with early onset, rapid Alzheimers. Sarah, though, is doing well, is married, and is teaching at Skinner Magnet, which is right across the street from North.

Finally, Megan and her bladder decided that they had had all they could take and we left for home. I was left with a couple of different thoughts about the whole experience. The first thought is how high school reunions don't really make for true reunions. Sure, you get to catch up with people from your graduating class, but you really went to school with 6 other classes during your tenure in high school. I had kind of forgotten that I went to school with thousands of other people, not just the 300 or so I actually graduated with. It makes the whole reunion thing ring all the more false. But as Megan pointed out, that's why they created homecoming. So, maybe I should actually start going to that one of these days...

The second and most important thing I took from the reunion is how glad I am that I have been accepted by Megan's group of former high school friends, and that they have truly become my friends as well. I really feel at ease when we're all together. I know that even if I didn't run into anyone else I wanted to see, I would have had a great time nonetheless, just hanging out with Mike, Melissa, Boyd, Emily, Katie, Josh, Mike, and Tracey.

It's nice to be accepted, even if it's from the wrong class...