November 9, 2005

• Pinecrest Class of '85 Reunion

  
  

   

  
  

  Talk about surreal situations, a classmate from my elementary school named Jennifer Thuma had the idea of organizing a 20 yr elementary school reunion.  It actually came to fruition this past Saturday!!!  Some people came from far away places including Texas, Atlanta, and Philly to go to this thing.  Most of us haven't seen each other since graduating the sixth grade, but we all had fond memories of a more innocent time in our lives together.  It was held at a bowling alley in Montrose (the city, not the rock band).  I got to the area early, but I was really nervous that it was going to be really weird so I parked my car in a residential street and paced around and talked on my cell to try to pass the time. 

  
  

  

  
  

  Well, it was extremely weird, but in the best way.  I can't even explain how good it felt to see everyone there.  After seeing the name tags,  you could easily tell how the person standing in front of you used to be your 6th grade classmate, but all grown up.  Everyone was really happy to be there, and there was kind of a euphoria in the air (or maybe that's cause I had a couple of beers).  From what I could tell, everyone turned out to be an amazing grown-up and they were just cool to talk to and catch up with.  None of the kind of baggage that you would deal with like say, in a highschool reunion. 

  
  

   

  
  

  Here's just a few of my interesting encounters of the day.  The girl on the left is Jennifer Thuma, the organizer.  I wonder what was really going on in her brain that triggered this plan.  Whatever it is I'm glad she went through tracking as many of us down that she could.  The picture on the right kinda represents a fantasy come true (no joke).  One of my closest friends during elementary school was as some of you already know, a tomboy named Amanda Kraus.  We used to play dungeons and dragons all day, and she would occasionally kick me in the balls.  During college I wrote a song about her and performed it in my pathetic little punk band (Turner Burner Band).  To the song's credit, people seemed to like it a lot, and Amanda Kraus became somewhat of a legend amongst those who heard it (alright maybe I'm exaggerating, but it did happen somewhat like that).  Pictured on the right is the real life AMANDA KRAUS!!!  Holy crap, I never thought I would ever see her again, it was a total trip.  Well Kraus isn't really a tomboy anymore, she's got long hair and a boyfriend.  However she is still into reading fantasy books and her job is a professional videogame tester (Kraus and I won an award from Jenn for being the two people that ended up with the careers that we said we wanted to have in our 6th grade yearbook blurbs). 

  
  

   

  
  

  Before we showed up, Jenn (and friends), had us fill out a questionaire.  One question asked us to fess up to who our secret elementary school crushes were.  I wrote down Micky Weil whom I had a crush on in the 6th grade.  She was only at Pinecrest for one year, but I clearly remember losing it (mentally) if my arm brushed up against hers in Spanish class.  I used to think about her anytime I heard Madonna's song Crazy For You.  She wasn't on the invitee list at the time I filled out the questionaire.  Much to my horror/embarassment, I saw her name on the e-vite the week before the event.  It didn't end up too embarssing in real life though.  Obviously she turned out to be extremely good-looking (that's her picture on the left).  Out of all the people at the reunion she looked the most similar to her 6th grade self.  I also enjoyed talking to her husband with new baby in tow.  Mixygirl made me take a picture with her and preface it by saying "My wife wants to know what my 6th grade crush looks like".   On the right is our principal Mrs. Bailey.  She was really fun to talk to as well.  It was good to talk to her without having to get into trouble in order to do it.  Everyone commented on how great she looked 20 yrs later.

  
  

  

  
  

  Mrs. Bailey did seem to have somewhat of a bitter edge to her these days though, and we think it's due to her divorce that she kept alluding to.  She was married to GW Bailey of Police Academy Fame (the hated Captain Harris).  I guess she was probably upset that we kept calling her Mrs. Bailey, when she probably uses a different last name now. 

  
  

   

  
  

  After the reunion there was still a group of us (those without kids), that wanted to hang out, so we chilled at Jenn's parents' house.  It was a beautiful place with lots of British flavor (her stepdad is from London).  We had drinks at their very cool bar which felt like being in a London pub.  The bar was made from an actual piece of an English church.

  
  

   

  
  

  We passed the rest of the night, singing our school song, reminiscing, and watching videos of our graduation and sixth grade Christmas play (I had a very limited role, merely chorus member for final song).  On the right's our final group picture, a good cap to a surreal, beautiful day. 

  
  

  P.S. Happy 30th Birthday Jober!!!  Can't wait til Mexico this weekend.

  • 3:56 am
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