10 year reunion
I'm thinking of moving my blog over to Wordpress. I would like to set this thing up like kind of a website of my own, but Livejournal doesn't really have that many features in its free version, at least not as far as I can tell.
My ten-year high school reunion would be the weekend after next (I think). Presumably, anyway, I haven't gotten any invitation or anything, but I did graduate in 1999, so it seems likely. Reunions are always held on the weekend of the Firemen's Picnic, which is a two-day party back in my home town. There's a parade in the late afternoon, featuring virtually anyone who wants to be in it, but certainly the High School and Jr. High marching bands, some classic cars, some tractors pulling wagons of employees sitting on hay bales and throwing candy to advertise local businesses, and of course, all the shiny fire trucks with lights flashing and sirens howling. And who could forget the shriners, who dress up in gorilla suits and are towed along in a wagon that looks like a cage, but with the bars plenty wide for them to get in and out. As a child, I was terrified of them getting out and eating the spectators! This being our reunion year, I would be sitting on a scratchy hay bale with people I never got along with in school, people I did get along with but haven't kept in touch with, and pretty much no one else. We would politely trading pleasantries and the abridged version of "my life since high school", and wave to people we know (in this town, everyone who isn't in the parade, is sitting on the curb or in lawn chairs, watching the parade).
After the parade, everyone wanders up town. The main street is closed to traffic and they have rickety carnival rides, cotton candy stands, etc. set up. Every year since I was a kid, I have been sure that the rides have reached the most rickety condition possible without failing inspection, but every following year disproves that theory. The fire department sells beer and hot dogs (I first mistyped that as "hot gods", which would be very interesting indeed!), which, considering the volumes of both commodities sold, should provide a pretty comfortable budget for the rest of the year. There's a live band playing cover versions of oldies. The main attraction is accumulating as tall a stack of empty plastic beer cups as possible while maintaining a vertical position.
Anyway, I'm going to be missing it, since I'm out of the country. I'm not too broken up about it, seeing as I'm only mildly curious about what people have been up to. The Picnic is a good time though, in general, so I look forward to the next time we're home in the summer.