Saturday, December 27, 2008

HIgh School People

There is a great song "High School Never Ends" that makes me laugh.  It was on the radio a lot two years ago when I drove back and forth from Fredricksburg several times between Thanksgiving and Christmas to check on my suicidal sister.
Anyway - last night was an unofficial Highs School reunion night - everybody in for the Holidays got together at Paul's Deli for drinks anytime after 7 PM.  It is funny to me.  I vaguely remember High School and I have pretty much avoided going back to "hang out" because there haven't been too many people I want to "hang out" with.  Lucky for me, enter Facebook, and I can now reconnect with people who either were interesting but not people I saw much then or are interesting now.  So I went.
We arrived fairly early by Paul's standards and did a breeze through.  I saw nobody I recognized off the bat and I hate that whole, stand in a bar and look around thing.  I always feel like I have a neon sign flashing over my head "looser" if I don't immediately see somebody I recognize.  So we found a table and grabbed a "hot holly" {famous sandwich you really need to try} and waited.
Eventually people came in.  SAP Geek saw a local I'll call Mouse at a table behind me.  So I got up to say hi to her and ask about her family and the business and the baby.  The baby was there so she sent me off to see her.  Baby was with Papa, Papa's common-law wife and Mouse's husband.  Mouse's husband has seen me around enough to know who I am, Papa used to date my mother maybe eight years ago, and Papa's common-law wife I'd yet to bump into.  But I said "hello" and gushed over the baby.  Papa being a true southern gentleman asked about my siblings and about my mother.  Later on he {Papa} stopped by our table to say hello to my husband.
Hippie Chick's husband came in.  I asked him where his wife was and he pointed her out.  Went and said hey.  Hippie Chick and I were friends in High School.  She was one of two people I was actually hoping to see.  At some point she introduced me to her brother-in-law who is one of my high school heros.  No way!  So I sat down and talked to him.  Luckily I was spared having to explain who the heck I was, he remembered me,  but he didn't remember being in class together:
I moved here sophomore year and my last class of the day was with him, "Mohawk" and "Music Man."  They sat together and cut up  the whole hour and I just spent the time laughing.  I loved being in that class with those guys; they were hysterically funny.  
I learned a lot from him, High School Hero.  Stuff I'd forgotten.  Stuff I need to remember in dealing with my son.  It is okay to cut up.  It is okay to spend the day in the hallway.  Maybe you even fail a class.  

It is your life.  

I need to let go of my need to "make" my kids do and be.  They will do and be what they will do and be and that is okay.  I adored him.  Granted, he doesn't live a life my parents or my husband's parents would call "successful."  But he is happy with it.  Isn't that success?


2 comments:

Suburbia Steph said...

I would say so, Kitty!

Tiff said...

Yea it is....success is what you want out of life and you get it...BTW I am not a huge fan of high school reunions either...there are sooo many people I just don't care to see now a days...I am on facebook and myspace and chat with those people just enough..you know...lol...I am not sure if I will ever make it to a class reunion...but who knows...my mom went to one of hers and met her now husband at it...funny...they never dated in school, but both liked one another...so like 30 years later they meet at the reunion and hit it off....crazy how life works :)