Prom, Reunion, and TLC

[jackofallgeeks]

So, life is pretty crazy.

This last weekend was quite a trip. On Friday I drove down to my sister's
place for Shawn's birthday party. It was a sorta surprise, but neither of
them are terribly subtle. At that, though, Jenny was still able to 'get'
him with a very unexpected appearance from an old friend. It was a good
time (it always is, with my family), but I had to leave early because I was
staying the weekend with surichan in Virginia Beach.

Visiting with Leslie was the driving force behind my trip south. We've just
rediscovered an old psychological thriller video game from the late '90s
(TLC, or Tender Loving Care, an "interactive movie," if any of you are
familiar with it), and we spent far too many hours on Friday night playing
through it. On Saturday we went out for breaksfast with her boyfriend Carl
and ran a few errands before she went off to a wedding and Carl and I went
to a Sci/Fi yardsale and met his housemates to check out a new thrift shop
they'd found. Most of the rest of the day was pretty non-notable (except
for a trip to a video store that was trying to sell VHS along with
more-interesting fare -- though, A+ for having copies of Denver the Last
Dinosaur on the shelves).

Saturday night was, simply put, awesome. Leslie, Carl, and I met some
friends (most notably Nicki, appologies for misspelling, who was at least
three shades of awesome) at a Tapas bar for a late dinner and then out to
Carl's friend Cat's place for "Prom Night." Which is exactly what you'd
expect: a few dozen twentysomethings (and older, I guess), more-or-less
dressed to the nines with a DJ and balloons and a theme (and alcohol, which
wasn't at any highschool proms *I* ever went to) laughing and dancing and
having a great time. It was awesome. I remember mostly Meghan, Kim (who is
apparently my younger brother's age), Cat (who seemed to be mocking my
laugh, but Leslies said she liked me), that dude in the high heels, and
whoever decided to come as The Joker (and apparently didn't make much of a
positive impression on either Leslie or Nicki). It was loads of fun, and if
I get around to it I'll post the pictures I got.

(As an aside that won't mean anything to anyone but me, Nicki resembled my
friend raen a whole lot. They're both very pretty ladies.)

Sunday brought me to my second reason for being in Virginia Beach, and the
bit that initiated the whole thing. Back in highschool I was in a youth
group called YOA, and a week or so ago I got an invitation to an end of the
year picnic thing. Lots of old-timers were invited to come and catch up and
give the new kids an example of what happens after highschool. For me,
that's probably the closest I would ever get to a highschool reunion, so I
went. Unfortuinately, it ended up being rather abbreviated (only 2.5 hours
instead of the projected 4) and only a handful of old-timers showed up.
There was Chris Traub and his girlfriend; Katrina Traub and her daughter;
Kim and Matt Hamrick (married now), neither of whom remembered that we'd
known each other once; and Becky Croft, though Emily was laid up in bed
after having her wisdom teeth removed. It was nice catching up with Becky
and Mrs. croft (the Crofts are the only ones I've really kept any contact
with since leaving the area 7 years ago), but I think I spent more time
chatting with Jill Croft (Becky and Emily's little sister, who's a rising
senior now which is odd because I knew her when she was eight) than anyone
else there. It was a little disappointing, but it was alright.

So, there you go. TLC, Prom, and a little highschool reunion. All in all,
not too bad.