Wild weekend

My 30th class reunion was this weekend. I went with my sister to the Friday night mixer at a bar downtown. I was a little intimidated by the crowd so I had a couple of drinks on the balcony above the fray before venturing down the stairs into the big group. T and I were dressed in casual nice clothes. Showing off the fact that we have aged well in 30 years. T's class was three years before mine. I thought she might enjoy partying with me and I needed a date. Tom being out of town. I hosted T. bought all our drinks and we took a taxi. so we wouldn't have to worry about the end of the night, who had to drive home.

That was both a curse and a blessing that Taxi. It gave us free rein to get carried away. WE were in the last group to leave, as a result we were invited up to an old building around the corner from the bar, to an unfinished old office space for an after after party. The group was passing  around Whiskey Firewall, which I don't care for, so I opted out. T, on the other hand was very much into the spirit of the evening. She had no rings on her fingers, where I had made sure to wear all my rings so there would be no doubt as to my unavailability.  She had let it be known she was free of any spouse or significant other. Three men had shown interest, but from their histories they were either married in an open marriage, or separated, or I didn't catch the story on the third guy. T was enjoying herself and that made me happy .

 As the bottle of Firewall was killed the party broke up. We headed back to the street. I was going to call a taxi, when T did a little fancy foot work and ended up lying on her back in the middle of the street, bumping her head on the asphalt. Giving us all a little scare.  One of the Gentlemen helped us to the doorway stoop of a close building and told us to wait while he went to get his car and proceeded to drive us home. He thoughtfully did not want to leave two women on the street probably thoroughly intoxicated, though I was planning to call a cab.

The next morning we were both feeling a little worse for where. I took some pepto and aspirin and around 2:00 pm began to rally. T on the other hand was not rallying. She was still prone an hour before we were to head out to the fancy night event. She made the call not to go. It just wasn't going to happen . She was afraid to still sit upright. I wasn't going to go without her. I still don't know who we were hanging with the night before even though they were my classmates.

I met two people I knew from high school that whole evening. The one person I had wanted to see was a friend I had gone out with my final week of  my senior year. A really nice guy. I was curious to see where he had ended up. He had become a radiologist with a brilliant beautiful science researcher as his wife and three children. even younger than my boys by 10 years. They started really late with children.. And I thought I had been old popping out my first at 30. He has an 11, 8 and 4 year old.  T loved his wife as they talked the science of research studies.

The other was a woman I occasionally run into around town as her family has social circles that overlap my family's social circles. In other words our moms know each other. I probably would have seen a few more people I knew the second night, but without T with me I didn't want to go. I needed the crutch of my sister to broach  that intimidating crowd. My graduating class was 450 graduating of a class closer to 650 . I have to say though that the one guy I found at all interesting in high school went on to become a doctor. I did have good taste in intelligent men.

I drove home Saturday night feeling a little blue and disappointed about not braving my reunion without a date, but there is always the 40th to attend.

Sunday morning, Trevor reminded me he had been invited to a scout event. He thought he had heard 11:00 am pick up but  it was an 11:00 performance with pick up at 8:30 am. We arrived at the pick up at what I thought was on time, only to find out we were over 2 hours late. Trevor!!!

Riley was with me and he asked me not to yell at Trevor again with him in the car, so I restrained myself. The event was a civil war reenactment and encampment. It was 30 minutes away. I had thought it would be fun for Riley and I to go also, which was why Riley was with me. I had given both boys $20 each for food and stuff. WE were late but there was also an afternoon show.

I ended up buying the entrance tickets and we shared fair food and wandered the camps, much like our trip to Gettysburg in 2010. The nice thing about smaller venues are that they are sometimes more intimate than the big shows. You can get up close and personal. WE were less than 20 feet from the cannons and the performers were right in front of us. WE could hear the commands and see them fall and fake their injuries as if really hit. Then ten minutes later they are not wounded and another fake firing and another injury brings them down. One guy was a fantastic wailer, as if really injured and screaming in pain. The reenactment went on for a good hour. Until there were many fallen in the battle field. It was hot in those wool uniforms. I am sure the ones playing dead appreciated being able to lay down.

Afterwards we passed the soldiers in line for pickles and lemonade and watermelon. WE were told if the dill pickle tastes sweet, then the soldier is dehydrated and needs attention. It is a quick and brilliant  method to culling out the sick and sun stroke, dill pickles.

Trevor and I went hunting for a belt in the historic tent store. He had of course forgotten his belt as usual. He had to use his hands to hold up his pants. WE have been giving him a hard time about exposing his underwear all the time. We ended up buying a leather lace for $1 for shoe lacing to tie up his loose shorts. It was just long enough. The belts were too wide for his belt loops. Which was a disappointment as we have been trying to find a nice decent belt and these were lovely. The belts were real leather with fancy civil war buckles. They started at $60 . So it was a good thing that they didn't fit. It left a lot of money for more fair food.

WE bought a sampling of barbecue sauces, hand made. Two rounds of spicy hot dogs and hamburgers and drinks to wash it all down. a frozen strawberry dessert with cream cheese between layers then dipped in chocolate with nuts. a couple of snow cones of different flavors. Riley bought an elephant ear, but dropped half of it, before he could share with everyone. WE talked to wonderfully colorful characters. The weather was glorious. Now if I had attended my big class reunion party I would not have had such a wonderful quality day with my boys. In the grand scheme of my life, a good day with my boys has more value than one night of partying with a group of people I hadn't thought about in 30 years.

Meanwhile my sister got a text from one of the gentlemen saying he missed the " Shirley girls" at the big shindig.  That definitely cheered  T up . I got a text from the photographer for the event through the invitation e mail connection . She had taken many pictures of us Friday night. We are very photogenic and having a good time as you can imagine. She wanted to let me know she was going to be posting the pictures and also wanted to know if T was alright as we did not make the second night. Wanted to know if the head bump was serious. Which meant the tale of our end of the night stumble had made the rounds of the reunion. It was too bad T couldn't rally because I know we could have had another wild night. Or at least killed any rumors. We never really partied in high school. My brother was the high school partier. Both T and I have close college friends.


T and I were looking hot Friday night. I think we disappointed a few by our no show the next night. I was going to look even hotter. I had a black cocktail dress to wear. But there is that old saying about leaving them wanting more. I told Tom I was going to my reunion just to let all those boys know what they missed by not seeing me in High school. I was a late bloomer. I think that was why Tom was all a twitch about us going, and underneath just a little pleased we missed the next night. Though he did a poor job of hiding it.  He can be very possessive and this tended to push a few of his buttons. I made sure to wear my wedding rings, that sign of ownership.

It is all good in the end. I did have one of those wonderful weekends full of adventure and family and love with my sister and then my boys. I was  blessed with the way the weekend turned out. As my Sunday adventure would not have happened if things had been different on Saturday. With any luck perhaps T will connect with one of those interesting men who were checking her out Friday night. I haven't a clue who they were even though they were class mates of mine. Or maybe they were spouses of classmates, or just crashed the party. I leave it to T to try and figure out who those handsome men were who invited us to that After party in that loft, and the one that drove us home. It was truly an interesting night for a girl who did not really enjoy those four years in high school, that  shadow who roamed the halls of school  unnoticed.