R.A.bies**

My attitude towards my pending High School Gleeunion is a Double Rainbow of anticipation/ambivalence. I was what's (now) referred to as a "floater" -- I skated lazy circles around the circumferences of a few cliques without charging for the creamy center(s). I was shy, I took all of the APs, I liked music a lot, and I was silly. I had a few passed-out-in-bathtubs nights out with the leggy, glamorous geldings, but I was best friends with a boy who wore a pocket watch and worshiped The Human Torch and Einsturzende Neubauten.

When I snagged an excellent boyfriend my senior year, the girls I'd been hanging out with (clean-scrubbed, a little sub-cool) shunned me quickly, claiming that I was acting "all married." Although hindsight reveals that young luv may have thickened my heart-shaped blinders a bit, I also distinctly remember hosting a ginormous post-Senior Prom party for these very girls and their dates (legendary because my little brother a) got torqued for the first time and b) ended up in bed napping with one of my guypals). Basically, I got eyeroll'ed because they likely feared I'd team up with my new beauhunk and beat them to it. Mean Girls certainly weren't invented in 2004. Truth is, I'd found someone to french in front of them, and it cast a spell of real teen power.

So, now. How do I feel about seeing these ladybirds soon?

Not surprisingly, it's the boys I'm a little excited about. Human Torch rose from the ashes and sent me a dark/dorkwave mix circa '99, and we've kept in touch. A few of my other favorites from honors PhyzJams have gone on to become engineers, economists, a water polo coach, and a roaming folk artist. I want to see if they have little paunchy bellies I can punch. I want to meet the little punchy wives I...shouldn't punch them in front of.

It's no secret that I love the stuff of youth, the nervy joy as well as the big bundles of ouch. The aforementioned accidentally-bedding-my-bro friend recently posted something about the reunion: "I'm there only if there's a fight in the back of Ashton Park before the dance." I instantly placed my hand over my heart and remembered many Honda Preluded trips to this spot after boring varsity soccer games and float-building parties. Happy and sad. Old and young. Fledgling combovers and "who came out of the closet?" and probably dancing to The Soup Dragons. Pencil me in, but don't be surprised if I end up eating Cool Ranch Doritos in the darkroom.

** used to be a pic here of the actual/older graduating class from my h.s., circa '93. A few of these Boyz II Men gave me the hottts.

fell on 2005-08-20 at 4:58 p.m.

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