It's been 10 years...

Over this past weekend, I had my 10 year high school reunion. Unlike my sister (and my husband) I was one of those people that LOVED high school. Aside from the classes and homework, I adored it. I had many friends - many of whom were in several different "social circles." My parents used to call me a little "social butterfly" - within my little group of friends, I was the one that would always coordinate what we were all going to do on any given Friday and Saturday night. I remember one summer, there wasn't one night where I wasn't with my friends (yes, I kept track). My parents were awesome in terms of letting me have friends over, letting me use the car (oh, remember that little red Honda?!), and allowing me to go places as long as I was home by curfew (and most of the time, I was... really.). My best memories were the times where all of my friends and I would congregate at my house on the deck on a summer night... Ben Olson would get out his guitar and we'd just "hang out", be goofy... and stay up LATE - my parents did not care how late people stayed - they always said that they'd rather have me at home with friends anyways. Perhaps this was a perk of being the youngest child of 3... They had been through 2 teenagers before me and they knew what things to be more leineant on.
Most of my high school friends and I have stayed in touch... we certainly aren't as close as we once were, with the exception of maybe a couple, but since the invention of Facebook and MySpace, it's been alot easier to stay in touch, without doing a whole lot of work.

I must admit that I was really looking forward to this reunion. Most of my close friends couldn't make it, but I knew I'd see a lot of people that I hadn't seen in person in ten years. Drew and I met my close high school friend, Lindsey, and her fiance, Eric out beforehand for some cocktails(or mocktails, for me.) We got Drew and Eric all "up to speed" on who did what, and who was who in the Southwest High School Class of 2000. Once we got to the reunion, it's almost as if those 10 years hadn't gone by at all. How many times did I walk into a football game, prom, a party, or the school commons and see these exact same faces all grouped together? It was all really strange. There was lots of reminiscing going on... good, bad, funny.... my Senior Ball date even filled Drew in on how he "slapped my @ss" right as the professional photographer snapped our posed picture. (hence the slightly funny look on my face). Drew wasn't too amused, but does want the guy to help us with some of our house projects since he lives in Milwaukee and fixes properties for a living. What can I say, my hubby is always looking for a deal :-)

When the night ended, they bid us farwell - for the next 10 years. Next time I see most of those people, we'll be 38 - that's almost 40. Holy crap.

Here's a picture of Drew, Matthew and I before we headed out to the reunion. Next time, we'll have a picture of a 14 year old, a 10 year old and "?" year old next to us.... When I say all that, and then think back about how fast the last 10 years went...WOW, these next 10 are going to fly.