20 Year High School Reunion Weekend

Aug. 25 2016

After months of debate, I finally decided to attend my 20 year high school reunion a little less than a month before the event. The last reunion was somewhat disappointing, and it sounded like this one might be similar, though it was really hard to say. I contacted Anne, who was basically putting it all together, and asked if there might be a tour of the school or something else in addition to the expensive, alcohol-heavy evening event. She was so gracious and hadn’t thought of that, but she immediately made it happen! I couldn’t NOT go after she organized that on my account, so I made some arrangements to attend with Heidi by way of visiting Jeanine in Chambana. How exciting!!

I was scheduled to leave mid-day on Thurs. the 25th. Nate came home from work early and toted me over to the airport. There was an accident on the expressway, so we got there later than hoped, so instead of coming in with me, they dropped me at departures. The kiddo wanted to ride the escalators, so I guess they did come in and even saw me at security, but I was so busy there that I didn’t notice. I made it to my gate and played on the internet until it was time to go. The flight to O’Hare was uneventful, luckily. I did talk to the gentleman next to me both upon takeoff and landing. He has a high-level position in security at O’Hare and was out at NM Tech for a conference. Once we landed he gave me his card and told me if I ever needed to get through O’Hare quickly to just give him a call. How nice!!

Once in the terminal, I made my way over to my next gate, which wasn’t too far, luckily. The gate was one of the hidden ones, located downstairs from the main terminal. It was a bit quieter down there. I just relaxed until it was time for my flight to Champaign. This plane is so small that the entire left side only has a single seat, so I opted to sit there. I relaxed and did my crossword puzzle (for the second time – ha!) and looked at the city through the clouds as we headed south. Before I knew it, I was gliding over cornfields and gently landing in my old college town.

Jeanine met me inside around 7pm and we headed out to Mahomet to drop off my luggage, get a tour of her new place, and hit the town, such as it was. We wandered through tiny downtown Mahomet, dodging the carnival workers who were setting up a midway down the street. I hoped to see it, but alas, it would be over by the time I’d get back. We headed to JT Walker’s for some dinner, as I hadn’t really eaten all day. I did a sampler of their beers, as well as a glass of Orange and Blue, their Belgian-style Witbier. I also had an Italian beef sandwich which was ok, but tasted good because I was so hungry. It was great to catch up with Jeanine. We wound up leaving when they closed (at 9). Then we went back to her house and tried some blueberry wine. I honestly don’t remember what else we did that night, though I do remember she wanted me to watch some trucking show, and I totally fell asleep. All that travel, wine, and beer was exhausting! Haha!

Aug. 26, 2016

We took it easy that morning, though we had a lot to do this day. Jeanine gave me an awesome manicure with blue holographic polish, topping the pinkies with little blue stars. In the right lighting it was spectacular. In less-than-ideal lighting, the blue was still pretty nice. We also took a short walk around her new neighborhood. It turns out she lives about 3 blocks away from my graduate advisor! Small world!

Then we headed into Chambana. We wanted to try the popular Black Dog Smoke and Ale House, since we’d heard such good things, though neither of us are huge BBQ fans. There was a new, less-busy location in downtown Champaign, so we opted for that. It took a while to actually find the place, as it’s hidden in an old train depot and not well-marked, at least not from the parking lot we used. I believe it was around 2 when we got there, so the restaurant was quite empty. I tried the catfish taco special with a side of twice baked potato casserole. The tacos were ok, but nothing to write home about, and the potato casserole was full of onions. It wasn’t unbearable, but still a bit off-putting to me. Jeanine thought her stuff was ok, but I don’t think she was thrilled, either. Now we know!

Jeanine had heard about a strange new ice cream place just down the street, so we headed there after lunch. Snow Meets Coffee is definitely different than what I’m used to. They have a fancy new technique of adding shaved ice to ice cream to give it an unusual and airy texture. Jeanine got the key lime snow cream, and I tried the chocolate with chocolate syrup, Oreo crumbles, and passion fruit popping boba balls. It was delicious! But the most striking thing was the appearance of each. Jeanine’s looked like shaved coconut, and mine looked like some sort of barbequed pork with beans. I’d have hesitated to try mine if I didn’t know what it was! Haha! Still, very cool. I wonder when we’ll get a place like that out in New Mexico!

From there, I had to rush to Fannie May to get some candy my mom had requested. Growing up, going to Fannie May and getting a bag of chocolates was always a treat. Since it’s really only easily available in Illinois, we have to get it while we can, so I stocked up! Next I rushed to find some flowers for Heidi’s mom, since she was letting me stay with her while in Chicagoland. I was immediately drawn to some fragrant lilies, and I hoped she would enjoy them, too.

Then we tried to find Heidi’s house. For some reason, the Garmin kept wanting to bring us to a busy intersection with no homes nearby, but after some confusion, we were able to zero in on her place. Jeanine dropped me off, and Heidi greeted me at the door. It was so good to see her again! We never seem to have enough time to catch up, but now we’d have a few days to do so! Her husband Luke was just leaving, so we said goodbye and loaded her car for the weekend. She asked that I drive, so I got acclimated to her vehicle, and before we knew it, we were on the road, heading north on I-57!

The drive up was so much fun! We had a great time talking and catching up. Heidi is one of those friends that, even after not seeing each other for years, it’s just like old times. The traffic was light, the conversation was good, and we made it up to Park Ridge in record time! We were greeted by her mom, Sandi, whom I haven’t seen in probably a decade. She hadn’t aged a day in all that time! She was so happy to see us, and very welcoming. She set us up with a room and loft area upstairs, and we got unpacked and settled before coming back down for dinner. We had a lovely evening with nice conversation. Oh, and she really loved the flowers! Yay!! It was a perfect end to a great day!

Aug. 27 2016

This was it! The big day had arrived! We were both a bit apprehensive, as we didn’t know what to expect or whom we’d see today, after all these years. The tour of the school wasn’t until 11, so I got ready and we enjoyed breakfast with Sandi before heading out to get my eyebrows threaded, a tradition whenever I come back to the area. Heidi wanted to get hers done, too, but she wasn’t too sure about the threading technique, so she opted to make an appointment with her hairdresser for a waxing later that day. Honestly, I’d rather have dental floss near my eyes than hot wax, but I understand threading can look a bit daunting at first. Anyway, I only had to wait for about 3 people (no appointment necessary!) and once I was in the chair it only took about 2 minutes before I was done! Woo hoo! And in case anyone is wondering, Meera’s in Park Ridge is the place to go. They’re fast, good at what they do, and only $5!

Once done there, we still had some time before the tour. We really had nowhere else to go, and there wasn’t enough time to do anything really major, so we just drove over and sat in the school parking lot, eagerly talking about what to expect. Eventually we decided we should probably get over to the meeting spot, so we walked along the familiar sidewalks of Maine South High School, feeling our youth come back to us more and more with every step. From outside, everything looked pretty much the same, from the pond to the circle drive to the building itself. They did add on to the 3-storey A Wing quite a while back, but that was really the only thing that was different from our days there, at least from the outside.

Inside we met up with the rest of our former classmates. Only about 10 people (plus 1 spouse) showed up. I suspect the word hadn’t really gotten out to the people who’d opted out of going to the evening event due to price, but oh well. Before the tour, I managed to talk with former Constitution Team and Science Olympiad member and classmate Tim P. for a bit. I was excited to do so because he and his wife Jessica, who was also there, but whom I didn’t know as well, had moved to Albuquerque, and I wanted to know more! Of course, wouldn’t you know it, they’d moved to Tucson a mere two weeks prior! What timing! Anyway, it was good to catch up a bit.

Other people on the tour included Adam, an old friend of Heidi’s whom I didn’t really know well, but he was really nice, and Lisa K. who was all, “You’re Jessica, right?” I hardly knew her in school, and I got sidetracked, but I would have liked to have talked to her more, too. Eve and Nora, neither of whom I knew very well, were also on the tour. Then there was Pierre. I never knew him in school other than from his yearbook photo, but he asked who I was and claimed he recognized my name. He was on the tour with his wife, and they were both very nice. It turned out that he is a horror author living in Michigan now. How cool! The last guy on the tour was Angelo. I definitely don’t remember him from high school, even from the yearbook (and believe me, I memorized that yearbook when I was a student), but I’ve gotten several Facebook friend requests from him over the years, which I’ve ignored since I hardly have time for the people I DO know on it. Anyway, I don’t know what it is about me – I’ve always thought I came across as the goody-two-shoes who always follows the rules, but often times the troublemakers (who would have picked on me had they known me in days gone by) like to tell me about all the bad things they did like they think I’m going to be all, “Oh, that’s so cool!” Well, that’s what this guy did. We passed some bathroom, and he was all, “That’s where [so and so and so and so – two guys who picked on me in grade school, though I doubt he knew it] and I would smoke! You wouldn’t believe all the stuff we got away with at this school!” Um, yeah, great. Craziness!

Anyway, the tour was given by Dave Berendt, the assistant principal for students. What a great guide! So down to earth and eager to answer any and all questions. While we were still congregating, the door opened and the Italian teacher, Ms. Weber, walked in. I’m not sure if she’d planned it that way, but a couple of her former students were in our group, and they went up to her room for a quick mini tour with her. The rest of us just wandered around with Dave. He took us into all sorts of rooms, opening up the chorus room and labs and gyms and the cafeteria. Other than having more computers (each student is issued one these days!), and a little updating to the bleachers in the main gym, everything really looked pretty much the same!

One fun thing was when we got to the pool, Tim, who was a star swimmer, still was featured as a top record holder! It was neat to see all the old pictures of former classmates displayed all around. As we looked at one that featured a recently deceased classmate, Nora piped up that she had fallen while hiking. I had been wondering what happened. How sad.

Once we had seen just about everything, Dave said he had to get to a meeting, but that we were welcome to wander on our own if we’d like. I was surprised they’d let us do that, but Heidi and I took him up on that, and we wandered all around, taking pictures, and only being stopped by one person who, after telling him we were on the tour, let us go on our way. We went to the 3rd floor of the A-wing, my science floor, took pictures of the wall of fame (Hillary Clinton is probably our most famous graduate), and went out to visit my wonderful pond.

Eventually we had to get over to Heidi’s eyebrow appointment. That went pretty quickly, too, and we were happy to be set for this evening! Then we headed over to Uptown for old times’ sake. I got some more Fannie May (they didn’t have everything I needed down in Champaign) and just wandered around a bit. What fun! Finally, we made our way back to Heidi’s mom’s where she treated us to some wonderful Portillo’s! So nice!! Then we got ready for the evening’s big event!

Heidi was nice enough to curl my hair a bit. I have an irrational fear of curling irons. I mean, they’re super hot! Luckily, she didn’t get it too near to me. I wasn’t convinced the curl would hold (it never does, and we didn’t even use hairspray), but it looked kinda neat anyway. (It turns out it held so well that, even after my shower the next morning, the curl was still there – she worked some magic!) Before we knew it, it was time to head out.

The reunion was held at Fairway Banquets in Niles. We weren’t really familiar with it, but it wasn’t too hard to find. There were a ton of cars, even though we were pretty early, but it turns out that, other than Anne and Claire, who were running the show, we were the first people there! The two of them were so awesome and greeted us so warmly! They showed us where to get our name tags and told us we could go in whenever we were ready. We stopped a while to gawk at the nametags to see who was coming, and before we knew it, a few more people trickled in. First up were Pierre and his wife, and then came Cyrus, who was also a former Constitution Team and Science Olympiad member. We caught up for a while – I always remember him telling me he wanted to be a surgeon (heart or brain, I forget), and he laughed when I told him that. Turns out he’s working on animation at Activision now! Amazing where our paths take us.

Before I knew it, the banquet hall was filling up! Alexandra and her date showed up, so we got to meet him. He seemed pretty nice and was very interested in all of us, asking lots of questions. I ran into Pam and Amanda. I didn’t really know Amanda very well in school, but Pam was a friend of mine back then. It was nice to catch up with them both. A lot of people I wasn’t so sure about came over and were so approachable and nice. One girl came up to us and was all, “I’m Jamaica!” Ok, you don’t forget a name like that. I didn’t know her very well, but we had talked a bit in school. Turns out she’s a lawyer in CA. While we were talking, a guy in an Air Force uniform came up. It was Tim M., yet another person I only knew from the yearbook. Anyway, it turns out he lives in Alamogordo now! What a small world! It’s funny that the four people from my high school that have moved to NM are named either Jessica or Tim. Too crazy!

Before long, we were ushered outside to take a group photo. That was a nice touch from the last reunion. This reunion was nicer, overall, than the last one, and I’m so glad I decided to go. There was more elbow room, the DJ didn’t drown everyone out (though it was still plenty loud), and it just seemed to have a better vibe.

Once inside, I had a rush of confidence, since everyone had been so awesome up until now. Then I saw her in front of me: my enemy since 3rd grade or thereabouts. I never really knew what her problem was, but she had been a royal snot to me all these years. I saw and ignored her at the last reunion, but I figured it’s been all these years, and I don’t like disliking anyone, so I’m going to approach her and be kind. Well, she saw me, and I said, “Hi, [name withheld]! How are you? You look great!” I think she mumbled something at me, turned tail and bolted…right into a block of people who wouldn’t let her through. She couldn’t get away from me fast enough! It was literally like mixing oil and water. I let her go, kind of shocked that she’d react that way after all this time. I’m glad I didn’t have to waste any time on her, if that was how it was going to be. If anything, the encounter just boosted my confidence because, heck, I just approached a major adversary, and as far as I was concerned, I came out on top with that interaction. I was kind and open minded, and she was insecure and obviously never matured. I felt sad for her, more than anything. Oh well, her loss.

There was one person I really wanted to talk to, but I wasn’t sure how I’d get my opportunity. Luckily, I didn’t have to worry about that because he approached me. Bob C., whom I’ve known since kindergarten, came up and started talking right away. He was always the “cool” kid in grade school – friendly, good at P.E., really likeable to everyone. He was one of the few people I grew up with that didn’t give me a hard time, and I was so glad to have the chance to talk with him. He asked about my mom, and we caught up a bit, and it was probably one of the highlights of my evening.

At one point, I saw Pierre’s wife sitting alone at a table, so I went over to see how she was doing. She said she was having such a great time meeting everyone. I must admit, our high school vibe was always very good – the “cool” kids were never jerks, and most people have always been nice. I hung out with her and Pierre for a while – Pierre even brought over Kevin, an old tennis partner of mine (I always kind of assumed most people didn’t remember me, but he totally did). He always had the most epic fro, and, dressed in our red and white gym clothes, I’ll never forget how he said he looked like the Greatest American Hero. I told him about that and we laughed. Good times.

The rest of the evening was kind of a blur, thanks probably to the open bar. There were several people I’d have liked to have talked a little more to, but it’s so hard when you have 150 people to catch up with. I really am looking forward to the next one, and I hope that more people I knew better show up for it. Before I knew it, it was almost 11, and we made our way out to the car for the drive back to Heidi’s mom’s.

I woke up around 3am in a panic because I realized I never took out my contacts. Luckily they didn’t fuse to my eyeballs (biggest nightmare!), and I crawled back to bed.

Aug. 28, 2016

I woke up feeling much better than I would have expected, though as the day went on, I sort of deteriorated. Heidi wasn’t feeling so hot either. We had plans to go visit my good friend Jenny and see her brand new daughter, but we ended up cancelling, which I hate to do. We were just not in a good way that morning. We took it very easy, since we had to get back to Champaign later that day. I tried to eat breakfast, but I think I only got through about 1/3 of it. Then I laid down for about 2 more hours. Eventually, we packed up and hit the road. I thanked Heidi’s mom (and Jake, her husband) for a wonderful time. They had been so nice!! We made the drive back down, in average time. I was feeling better, but I’m not so sure about Heidi! We met Jeanine at a parking lot, and I said goodbye to Heidi. It had been a fun trip! And I’m so glad we did it! Hopefully we’ll make it to the next one!

From there, Jeanine and I got dinner at Minneci’s, an Italian restaurant suggested by Heidi. We’d discussed how few nice restaurants there are in Chambana. Well, this one was located in a brand new strip mall I’d never seen before. The food and service were great! The atmosphere was nice, too, though Jeanine thought it looked like we were eating inside a tomato, thanks to the reddish paint job. Ha! I had a nice spaghetti which hit the spot after an exhausting day. Then we headed back to Mahomet to watch “Room on the Broom,” do facials, and just relax. Jeanine had saved that blueberry wine for me, but at this point, I didn’t think I’d ever drink again!

29 Aug. 2016

We took it easy this morning…mostly. After sleeping in until about 10:30 (unheard of!), we headed out to her garage so I could pay for my room and board. Jeanine had a number of boxes of clothing she wanted brought into the house, but there were spiders and cobwebs all over everything, so we set to work cleaning cobwebs, removing egg sacs and hatching spiderlings, shooing away adult spiders, and rearranging things. Then we started to work on 3 large clothing boxes. The first one had huge cobwebs all over it. They looked like the webs the daddy longlegs were making, so I let my guard down, expecting that to be the only spider we might encounter. We started placing the clothes in bags to be transferred to her washing machine. She pointed out one tan suit and said, “We’ll stop there. That needs dry cleaning.” Well, little did we expect that very suit to be the one with a huge wolf spider, just hanging out. Gaaa! I tried to grab the thing with the fancy spider catcher I’d just ordered for Jeanine, but the thing escaped far into her garage before I ever had a chance. We were a lot more careful after that! Luckily, none of the other boxes had any surprises. We bagged up what we could and left everything on her back patio to be dealt with later. What an adventure!

Once we were done, we retreated to the house to bask in the air conditioning. It was so hot outside!! We took showers, and then we headed into town to visit Curtis Orchard. I hadn’t been there since I was an undergrad. The one thing I always remembered about that place were the apple slushies. They exceeded expectations, and I was excited when Heidi told me they still made them! So we HAD to go back!

I was surprised they were open on a weekday, since they really had very little business. We toured the gift shop, got a few little items (a roaring triceratops stuffed animal and a frog-themed candy for my daughter), grabbed some slushies, and toured the grounds, visiting with goats, chickens, and a cardinal. It was a nice, relaxing time, and I’m glad we checked it out.

Before we knew it, we had to head south to grab dinner. Jeanine had been wanting to try the Firefly Grill in Effingham for years, and we decided now was the time. We hit the road for the drive down. I wasn’t sure what to expect from a restaurant in Effingham, but it did have good reviews. I was intrigued.

We got to Effingham around 6. Being the crossroads of two major interstates, it has a lot of business dedicated to the traveler. It’s quite the spectacle, actually. We pulled off at a main exit and followed the signs to the restaurant. It sounded like it would be located in a rural area, thanks to the website, but in actuality, it’s less than a half mile down the road from the main strip. It is surrounded by farm fields, however. Housed in a huge old barn, the grounds are scattered with vegetable plots, growing items used in many of their dishes. Despite the rustic setting, the inside is very modern and trendy. I particularly enjoyed their use of blue glassware – it was my favorite shade of sapphire blue.

Much of the menu was quite pricy, so we decided to share two appetizers and a pizza. We ordered the fried green tomatoes, crab cakes, and a shrimp and pesto pizza, which sounded interesting. The two appetizers were delicious (though the crab cakes were small for the price). The pizza, however, was quite the experience. We should have been concerned when the waiter told us the ingredient “nduja” was essentially like the spreadable inside of a Slim Jim. We figured, being such a nice restaurant, it surely couldn’t be that bad. When the pizza arrived, Jeanine tasted it and said it reminded her of something she couldn’t quite place. Then it occurred to her: Chili dogs! I paused at that and realized that, yes, yes it did! Seriously, even the texture resembled a chili dog. The shrimp was the hot dog, the crust was the bun, and the rest of it was the chili. Gross! I couldn’t really get past the thought of that, and when we left, I felt like I had just eaten three chili dogs. Needless to say, it wasn’t the best feeling. I decided to walk around the pond and through the cornfields to work off the feeling (plus, the grounds were pretty, and I wanted to see more of them), but really it lasted well into the evening.

We made the long drive back to Mahomet, arriving just after dark. We stopped at Dairy Queen to get something to offset our current palate. That place was a mess, too – horribly understaffed and doling out sub-par desserts, as was evidenced by people bringing back their orders for improvements. I decided to try the new royal Blizzard (Oreo with fudge inside). There was barely any fudge, but what fudge there was was rather unpleasant, so perhaps it was for the best. Anyway, we went back to Jeanine’s to watch Napoleon Dynamite and do more facials. I also had to pack. I couldn’t believe the trip was nearly over! Oh, Jeanine asked me to bring in those bags of clothes from her patio, too. There were orb weaver spiders all over her back porch, as well as earwigs. I did my best to shake out the bags before bringing them in – hopefully most of the critters stayed outside. Haha!

30 Aug. 2016

My alarm went off sometime around 5, I think, and I rushed to get all my things together. Jeanine was kind enough to get me to the Champaign Airport by 6 for my 7 am flight. On our way, we saw some guy drive off the road, tires sparking. Scary! She said he wasn’t there on her return trip, so that’s good (maybe).

Anyway, I was in for a long day of travels: 13 hours! My first flight to Dallas wasn’t bad, but I had a 3 hour layover once I got there. I didn’t realize until that last half hour that DFW has free internet! I spent most of my time lost in my thoughts, though. Good times.

From there, I flew to LAX and had to transfer to one of the smallest terminals. You have to catch a rather sketchy bus to get to it, and many of us were unsure we were in the right place, but we got there with no problems. I was hoping to maybe get something to eat at LAX, but this terminal had hardly anything! So I made do by eating some of my Fannie May Pixies, which hit the spot. Eventually, after another 3 hour layover, I was soaring over the Pacific before rounding back to the east and heading home. It was so good to get back to Albuquerque and see Nate and my kiddo. She was so happy to see me! She couldn’t stop talking to me about everything and anything. I loved it! We picked up some Taco Cabana for dinner, and came home. What an adventure! It’s good to be home, though!