Yesterday I dug up my senior HS yearbook. I've been free 10 years, so I figured I'm due for a reunion, and it might be useful to start refreshing my memory of names and faces (which I'm generally horrible at) for whenever it comes around. Amusingly, this afternoon I got e-mail announcing the reunion in November. It's on a Saturday, so fortunately I won't have a football conflict.
Ten years ago I swore I wouldn't waste my time going. But nowadays, there's quite a few people I'd be interested to see again. Mostly folks I should've hung around with at the time, but didn't because of my own distorted perspective and priorities. So I'm going, even if it is $80. Christ, prom bids were $80. (And I see they've gone up to $110 now.) Plus whatever the hell it costs to park (they booked the Rock Bottom on Grand and State.) Attire is "dressy casual". I have to ponder what I can do with that. Dan suggested dress slacks, a wife beater, and a fedora. I could go with cargos, an obnoxious T-shirt, and a sport coat over it, but I think that comes across as too dorky. Hmm... maybe I can find a suitably obnoxious polo shirt. Or create one.
A lot of the desire to go back and show off has worn off, mostly because my animosity for my classmates has dissipated. They really weren't abusive, not since junior high. I never felt particularly included--I really had no social life outside baseball and basketball, and that's really a result of my own poor choices and distorted perspective. If something's not working for you, you reassess what's out there and try something else. I finally learned that in college. That, and to really live the "what the fuck" mentality, rather than merely paying it lip service while thinking I was adhering to it. Like I said, there were people I should have hung out with but didn't. Read: I knew them, we were friendly, we talked in class, I just never sought them out outside. But getting back to the original point, I know that many of them will be just barely getting out from under their first years out of {law|medical} school, working 80-hour weeks, and I'll be obligated to mention what a slacker I am now... >:-)
At some later date I'll probably go on at length about how dumb I was in my mid teens. It'll wind up on my web page, though. Way, way too long to stash here...
