reunion! finally! settle in for a long one!

first off: oliver appears to be completely fine again. neither of the vets were ever able to diagnose whatever the eff he had that made him so sick - all the tests they did came back negative for everything on the planet - but he apparently got bored with the 24-hour IV fluids keeping him alive and spontaneously healed himself after two weeks. freaking dramacat. i'm really, REALLY happy he's back to normal though. and fingers crossed / knock on wood / anything else superstitious that he STAYS THIS WAY NOW, THANKS.

so now, onto the vaguely dreaded 10 year highschool reunion. as i said before, it wasn't the Big Anxiety Deal that typical highschool reunions can end up being, because i'd already attended our 5 year and knew more or less what to expect. which, in a nutshell, was that i knew that all the upper crust types still wouldn't be interested in talking to me or my friends. and i realized that by now, i had absolutely no interest in talking to any of them either. so instead, this was an excellent opportunity to see a lot of my highschool friends together in one place - which is no small feat, considering i went to a private boarding school, so it's not like these people are all around when i go home to visit my parents.

carrie: as promised, i took as many pictures as possible for you :-) full set is up on flickr!

some of our crew, our senior spring (thanks for uploading, yuni!)

10 years later, at reunion.

i just noticed that all three of us crouching in the front row 10 years ago are also crouching in the front row again here. CRAAAZY!

the first night was a sort of big group event for EVERY class back at reunion - they go in fives, so this year people came back for their five year, their ten year, their fifteen year, and so on - and it was AMAZING. crazy good food - fresh sushi, mediterrean dishes, cheese platters, grilled meats - and top shelf liquor in a vast, nicely decorated (and heated!) tent.

the next night was just for our class, and it was... um... lower key. they had some generic chicken, a caesar salad, and a keg. in a crappy, unheated tent. each night cost $50. WHATEVER.

i know i've probably mentioned how my highschool was sort of... ridiculous, before. like how it's the same size as some colleges. and how we needed a map to get around at first, because all the classes are in different buildings. it was an icky, grey, overcast day when i was there, unfortunately, but these should at least give you a sense of what they like to call The Lawrenceville Experience. this is the school library:

this is the view from the library to the math and science building:

this is our chapel and organ, which are national historic landmarks:

this is where we were supposed to eat lunch every day for sophomore and junior year. the dorms were called "houses" (sort of like harry potter!) and at one of the large dining halls, each house had its own room to eat in. (carrie - they totally moved kirby! instead of being off the center pod like it used to be, it was stuck waaay over on the left side now.)

this was the senior dorm i was affiliated with. even though i was a day student and didn't board, we were still assigned to a house each year:

the school prides itself on its small classes, which are traditionally held around these "harkness tables" - everyone, including the teacher, sits around a table like this, and it's meant to promote more discussion and less traditional lecturing:

these pictures kind of go on and on.. i'll let you peruse flickr if you really want to see them all :-)

there were some weird bits about being there... for example, i had originally planned to take karl, of course. i was excited to show him the full campus, and i was excited for him to meet all my highschool friends. and, to be honest, i was excited to have what i thought was going to be someone important with me, to hold up against all the wonderful spouses and fiances my friends have found. obviously it's way better that he got all the being-a-tool business out of the way BEFORE i brought him, but it was still a little wistful at times. like when i found myself walking back to my car alone after the first night's dinner: across the lower school area, through the football field, and around behind the field house, about a 10 minute walk. it was drizzling and very dark, and i kept finding myself thinking that it wasn't supposed to have ended up like this, i was supposed to have someone to walk me back to my car.

i should make it clear that if, at this juncture, he ever offered to walk me back to my car, i would throw my head back and cackle, because NO THANKS. it's not that i want karl to walk me to my car; it's that i'm still hurt by the fact that i so egregiously misplaced my trust and faith in someone who i thought would be around to walk me to my car at highschool reunions. there's a line from a fiona song that keeps popping up in my head: what wasted unconditional love / on somebody / who doesn't believe in the stuff... bah. really, at this point, what i hope is that he and the ex stay together this time and get married. honestly. then their toxic selves will be quarantined, away from the rest of society, and no other unsuspecting innocent people need to get ensnared in their little lives.

uh, hi! this post got off topic fast, didn't it? enough with the FEEEEELIINNNNNGS. reunion was, all in all, a complete blast. i'm thrilled i went. and i hope your highschool friends are as awesome as mine are.