Birthdays and Reunions

DATE: October 2004
Location: Seattle, Ramstein Miesenbach, Germany

As I'm by myself at this juncture in life, I flew home to Seattle for my birthday and my 10 year high school reunion. My birthday was great. It was mainly just family and close family friends. Somebody who shall remain nameless got me a singing telegram. It was a gorilla singing Elvis songs. When the gorilla first walked in, my little cousin yelled, “Hey, that’s my Daddy”. It wasn’t her dad, but what does that say about her dad? I actually thought it was her dad too; it is something he’d do. Since I don't love being the center of attention, the whole thing mortified me.

The 10 year reunion was a real disappointment. My estimate is that only 60 or so people out of a class of 325 showed up. Three of those 60 had done jail time. I know this since my sister is working in the prosecutors office. Despite disappointment with the poor turn out and stupid high price, I had a good time. Two of my best friends were there, and I got to catch up with people I’ve known since kindergarten. I was looking for it to be a “right of passage” sort of moment--like in the movies--and it just wasn’t. There weren't even any sort of formal presentation or funny awards. Even winning the “traveled furthest distance” award would have made it better. Oh well, if I hadn’t gone I would have wondered. It was also kind of funny listening to what people said to one another when they started getting drunk (the event was at a brewery).

The time I got to spend with my family was extra quality this time around with no other distractions, so that made the transatlantic/Transamerica flight worthwhile. Even Mt St. Helens was glad to have me back for a few days and sent up little love plumes in my honor.

Next week I’m off to San Angelo, Texas for a conference followed immediately by 6 weeks of class in good ole Montgomery Alabama. Oh joy, another 12 hours of flying. San Angelo is where I spent over a year at Intelligence school, and I had hoped to never go back. Oh well, I am excited in a strange sort of way. There are some great Mexican places on “the other side of the tracks”. As you can imagine, the Mexican over here in Germany is somewhat lacking.