The last 20 years in New Jersey

Last night was my husbands 20th high school reunion. He promised a good friend that they would go together and despite having just moved into our house and a ton of other things happening right now (can I just have ONE night to chill out - I mean, we finally got our cable and it's calling me) and on Thursday, Paul was offered a backstage pass to one of the best music events to happen in decades but of course it was on reunion night. So, our friend Mike and his beautiful and very pregnant wife who now live 1.5 miles away, picked us up and we headed to Oakland New Jersey for the 20th Indian Hills High School reunion. We got to the door of the Marriot and was told it was $180/couple but there was an open bar (for another hour)... we obliged and went in. Paul's yearbook committee friend Leslie was there with album in hand waiting to show these guys images of their past. Hey, Paul had hair - and lots of it!! He looks better now, as does Mike. Both guys were good looking but their personalities made that somehow not important. Patty and I wanting to eat our penne pasta and mashed potatoes while the guys were at the bar, plopped down at a semi filled table. The guys met us and immediately leaned in to ask "how did you end up sitting at the blonde table?" I looked up to realize that these women coming up on middle age and showing too much cleavage were not making eye contact with anyone other than themselves and seemed OK with that. I had to wonder why they didn't just all go out to dinner instead of shelling out the money to not talk with anyone. Later, Paul told us they bought a page in the yearbook and called themselves the PIGS.. Pretty Intelligent Girls. I guess every school has them. Interestingly enough, quite a few people haven't left - at all - and some even lived in the homes they grew up in or bought homes from neighbors and live down the street from their childhood home. So, the night was something they looked forward to but ultimately, it was anticlimactic. Reunions are meant to reconnect people but it seems all they really do is make people either long for something that was fleeting in the first place or hopefully, realize how much they've done in their lives.

Tonight will be the first gathering of the high school youth group at FPC. It's an interesting juxtoposition to have a HS reunion smack up against a bunch of kids that think they are in the prime of their lives. I wonder, what is the best part of being in high school? The innocence of it all, or leaving it all behind?

Oh, and by the way, New Jersey WAS the opitime of 80s hairstyles gone big - it's all true.