Some Things Never Change (And Some Do)

Last Saturday was my year high school reunion. Yup, I brought the wife, just to prove to everyone, that, I did eventually start dating (see pic below and you'll get a good idea why I didn't date in high school).

Out of a graduating class of 773, only about 60 showed. To be honest, it didn't matter for me as they coulda had 500 there and I still woulda ended up leaning against a wall, begging my wife to pretend she was a classmate, so I wasn't the dude just talking to his wife.

A few bullet points (without the bullets) -

- Though I didn't wanna wear a name tag, it soon became apparent that if I didn't, no one would recognize me (then again, based on the pic below, that's prolly a good thing), so I slapped one on.

- I got a lot of "Hmmm...Harris Bloom...the name rings a bell" - I interacted with so few people that few really remembered who I was

- When I informed people that I was, in fact, on the bowling team, the normal response was, "We had a bowling team?"

- My favorite story occurred on the way to the reunion. A former classmate who picked us up at the train station told us that she got kicked out of karate school cause she refused to bow to her teacher, who she thought was too young.

- Maybe I've seen too many sit-coms, but I was expecting to see all the popular kids fat and down on their luck, and the losers to be models and captains of industry. But everyone seemed to be doing well...normal jobs, raising kids, still living in the area (for the most part). Good for them, but lousy for my stand-up act.

- A few classmates gave me an across-the-room thumbs up. I looked behind me to make sure they weren't gesturing to someone behind me but unless they were impressed by the wall, it was me. I walked over. Seems as though I was voted (informally) "Most Improved" - Still not sure i if it means anything (I mean, have you seen the picture?!?).

- I had crushes on three girls during my high school years - one was the "non-attainable* rocker chick," who didn't show - one was the "semi-attainable* cool chick" who did show, but any crush I had was gone - and the third was the "more-attainable* cool-geek chick" who showed, and I still had trouble talking to. In fact, the first time I passed her, I smiled, and think I muttered, "Hi." I don't even remember cause I was so nervous.

When I decided to talk to her later, I nervously fidgeted while watching her out of the corner of my eye (good thing I still didn't look like my pic..I'd have looked like a stalker), waiting till she was alone. I finally made my way over, and once I did, I was fine, talking like a normal person**. Guess I have changed since high school.

btw - did you see that picture?!?

harris

* My definition of "attainability" would be as it relates to normal people, not me. None were even slightly attainable as far as I was concerned.

** This is also me performing - nervous beforehand, but fine once I hit the stage.