Tuesday, May 8, 2007

I Thought We Were Meeting For Pancakes and Beer


Blackshirt High School Varsity Soccer Team - 1988
That's me #17.
We played 4 soccer matches that day.




Today, I was sitting here contemplating . . . . .

When I realized that I graduated high school 18-years ago this coming June. 18-years. Eighteenyears!

That's 1/2 my life!


Freshman Pom Pon Squad - 1985
I'm in the back row 4th from left.

This will certainly stop your brain. It did mine. In fact, I think mine started to actually melt in parts. Seriously. It hurt. I don't feel as if 18-years have passed. In fact, I don't feel much older; although I do feel wiser. Though I suppose that is entirely debatable at times, especially after sharing a bottle or two of wine with the husband. Take, for instance, last night but that is a whole other story for another time. Bringing you back to my limited lifespan . . . .

Every so often, my body physically feels older and it does carry a bit more of the cells that are related to the one known as the fat gene. I am working on that one - it takes time. Anyway, not going down that road either, I still don't feel as if my senior citizen status is approaching at break-neck speed. Which I am sure it is. Time sure isn't slowing down for my universe in my longhorn city.

Blackshirt High School Varsity Soccer Team - 1987
I'm in the back row 2nd from right (#17).
I know. I have big hair.


Engrossed in utter wonderment at how time passes so quickly, I managed to think about the people I knew back in high school. I wonder how they are? I wonder what they are doing? Do they have wee little one's? Do they have four-legged furry friends? Who do they love? What do they think now? Have some moved on or, like me, have they forgiven, but not necessarily forgotten? I want to know. Life is interesting on so many levels.

Finally, the whole origin of this post had begun approximately two weeks ago. I thought about a really good high school friend of mine. I wondered about her life and where it's taken her. I knew a little bit, for example, that she's been married 13-years [after all, I did set her up with her husband back in the day]. I knew they had 2 sons and had lived in Bermuda. After that we lost touch. So, I called her mom who had the same exact phone number from 18-years(+) ago - and grabbed her digits. After a little catching up with her mom, I made the phone call. It's as if we never lost a beat and it took me back to 1986 on down the road to graduation, college and a wedding. I missed her. I missed her friendship. At least she and her family are doing great. I love that! I love that she's still happy and still the same friend I remember. It was one of the greatest phone calls. I've been sparkly ever since we spoke.


Kristin's & Sean's Wedding - August 1994
That's me in the first row on the very right.
I don't know the dude behind me. He wasn't my date.


Some of the sparkly is due to the fact that she extended a "Girl's Weekend in South Beach" invitation my way. She didn't have to ask me twice! I fly out of the longhorn city next Thursday to see her and another high school friend. Three of us high school pals will be relaxing, hitting the sun, the spa, the pool (instructions call for no bikini's) and maybe the clubs. More importantly, we will be friends reuniting once more. Eighteen years later.


5 comments:

Ian said...

I'm not sure just "big" is sufficient to describe the enormity of that hair. We need mew wprd. How about gicantical?

Jen said...

Okay. I had gigantical hair. But in my defense - I had a perm during the 1980's (that should be enough said right there) - most likely one that was horrid; however, one I thought was pretty damn cool. Secondly, it was a really windy day that day too. Perm + wind = gigatical hair.

It earned me the nickname "hair" in high school. People used to put pens and pencils in my hair (art class) and it was hard to find them. I had to shake my head to fly them out. . .

< sigh > That's just sad.

Anonymous said...

Yikes, that's a lot of hairspray! So that's what happened to the ozone layer. Industrial revolution my @rse!

Jen said...

Um. . . I did start planting trees to make up for all the ecological damage [I have] done during the 80's. I promise! I have!

Allison Horner said...

How exciting!!! Have lots o' fun!

Funny, I have been thinking about one of my high school/college friends & would love to reconnect with her sometime.

It definitely seems a lot harder to find those kind of friends as I get older.

Reconnecting is fun!