Reunion

Half of the 1992 grads. I failed to get a picture of the other half. Or a picture that didn't chop off the heads of the top two rows.

So Brett and I recently went back to the Chicago area for our 15 year college reunion. My writing about the weekend has been a bit delayed because of a work trip last week that immediately followed the reunion. One would think that one would have more time to write while on the road, but my work trip involved long hours as a booth babe at an executive offsite meeting. There are many perks to being a booth babe – like the all you can eat mints and not having to decide what to wear (the up side of the company sweater) – but extra free time is generally not one of those perks. So when off the booth clock, I was either catching up on my day job, hanging out with my fellow booth compatriots, or sleeping (quite well I might add) in my heavenly bed.

The reunion was a blast. Brett and I had a fabulous time seeing old friends, making new ones, and traversing the paths where our love first bloomed. (I can’t wait until Brett reads that line.) So by all accounts it was a complete success, but here are a few of the things that didn’t happen:

1) I did not get mistaken for a student. And for the record, neither did my youthful looking husband. Not that I expected that to be the case, but I also didn’t think that the college students would look so shockingly close in age to my nine year old son. I know the math suggests that college students are in fact closer in age to my son than to me, but he is still my baby and not able to walk more than three blocks away by himself yet. Naturally, the thought of him thousands of miles away living in dorm squalor with a mind entirely his own is much more than I can bear at this moment.

2) I did not feel guilty about leaving my children at home. They were happy, we were happy. We were actually deliriously happy. We had no one tugging on our sleeves to hurry up a conversation, no one asking us when we could go play baseball, and only one person who still wanted more real food after the dinner was over.

3) I did not run. Though I did bring three running outfits anticipating a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday early morning run. I love the hope that I had in myself that without a child waking me up at 6:30am that I would actually choose to get up out of bed and start my day before I had to. Instead, I got up at 10am every morning and felt completely at peace with my slothfulness.

4) I did not revert back to my freshmen year habit of ordering the chili and cheese nachos followed by the mint chip ice cream as my afternoon snack. My roommate Julie and I are still recovering from the horror of hearing that the basketball team used to call us the “freshmen fifteen duo.” We know this to be factual because Brett was on the basketball team and because we spent large amounts of time in the cafeteria lamenting the fact that nobody was asking us out.



Brett and Julie talking over the "freshmen fifteen duo" comments.

5) I was at the football game, but never actually saw the football field. The infield was buzzing with people to talk to that by the 4th quarter I was all done talking and needed someone to start tugging on my sleeve so that I could go take a people break. Thankfully, my friend Sarah came to the rescue and we ventured to the bookstore to use the new 20% discount we were now eligible for as fifteen year grads. So although I didn’t see any of the football game, I did see the $400,000 new video scoreboard that was apparently funded by some generous parents. These must have been the same parents who had missed the fact that the crumbling down football field restrooms looked to be months away from mandatory closure due to hazardous conditions. The Wheaton THUNDER sound effects sure did sound sweet on the video scoreboard, just plan to hold your pee.

6) I did not call anyone by the wrong name or make any known inappropriate comments. I had a doozey of an inappropriate comment at the ten year reunion which I was intent on not repeating. It turns out that bringing the eight pound yearbook along with us (me) to study before the Friday night event paid off well in the name department. I did accidentally mistake one women’s daughter for a boy, but it was from the back and so by all accounts would not be deemed a faux pax.

7) I did not even try to compete. You hear that people are often trying to one up each other during reunions with their personal and professional accomplishments. Yeah, well, given that some of my classmates are CEOs, others are championing causes around the world, and others are doing things like giving a year out of their lives to work as a nurse in Iraq – you start to understand just how small your own contribution is. While in some situations that realization might discourage me, I actually felt energized just hearing people humbly share about their life’s work. Besides there was probably only a handful of people that wouldn’t have fled the scene immediately had I started the conversation with this, “Well, I recently put together a really great marketing plan for a new wireless product ….”

8) I did not scold my husband for being a lame Reunion committee member. Turns out he wasn’t the only one. The Reunion committee was actually two women – Shayne and Katie – who managed to pull off the entire weekend without a hitch and without much help. I did however scold my husband when he failed to remember that not only was I involved in an on campus organization during our senior year, but that I was actually the Chairwoman of the organization. “Ohh, sorry, he said … I guess you were.” I wonder how that would play if I told him I momentarily forgot that he was on the basketball team. I got over it quickly though because we were enjoying rekindling our college romance.



Brett and his basketball coach, Coach Harris, and friend Nate

9) I did not get any good pictures. For as much as I love taking pictures, I completely failed in capturing the moments of the weekend. And not for lack of having my camera handy – I lugged that thing around with me the entire weekend, but I rarely used it and when I did, I seemed to miss the whole idea of candid shots. But for the record, here are the few photos I did get …



Becky thinking about whether her tube top needs to be pulled up again or not



Tess, Sarah, and Steph at dinner looking radiant



Me, Steph, and her new son Johnny!



Crowd of people + Steph who sees my camera!



Me, Janna (who had just done a triatholon!), and Julie at dinner



A good shot of the backs of people + Carolyn listening intently



Me and Julie + Katie and daughter Phoebe in the background