Not my high school reunion

I never posted anything after attending the Denton High Class of 99 10 year reunion. What a night! It was kind of a letdown to tell you the truth. I graduated in Panhandle with 52 people, and we had 28 show up to our reunion and about 45 there all together. It was a pretty good turnout. We only charged $10 a person too. The Denton class reunion was a little different.

For starters, you had to have tickets to the reunion in order to attend. You could pay $50 by mail before a certain date, or $55 at the door. I chose to go the $55 route since I was not positive I was going until last minute. I wanted to leave myself an "out" just in case. However, my best friend from elementary, and his wife, were going to be there so I decided I would go. I stayed the weekend with Margaret in Ft. Worth and drove the short distance to Denton for the reunion Saturday night. I got there late, which was planned. I did not know how many people I would know at this reunion since they graduated with almost 400 and only a small fraction of those went to Sam Houston Elementary. I got there and painfully handed over $55 and then scanned the room. I saw Eric and his wife, so I went over and said hi. They had saved me a spot. They were eating, so I went to get a plate too. I was disappointed in the buffet options. I'm not sure what I expected, but for $55 I was hoping for more than chips and salsa and fajitas. Not even any guacamole! Geez! I made my way back to the table, which was filled with people I did not know. I got to meet some new people, which was nice. One of the girls I met flew in from D.C. with her fiance. They ended up winning the "Traveled the Farthest" award.

I could not help but think about how few people were in the room. The reunion was held at the Denton Country Club, which was probably not the best place to have it. For starters, the DCC is not in Denton. It's in Argyle, which is very close, but still not in the same city. The room was not very big, but was staged to host maybe 200 people. I was there most of the night and there were never more than about 50 people in the room. 50 people! That's only 5 more than we had in Panhandle! And there was no splinter group hanging out in the bathroom or on the front porch. Everyone was inside! What's going on Denton High School Class of 1999 reunion? Where is the love? Apparently not at the DCC!

I don't have to be critical of everything though! I did get to see people that I had literally not seen since I was in 6th grade, and that was well worth the trip! One girl I reconnected with on facebook a couple of years ago, and has since never answered a message I posted, came over and said hello and sat and talked to me the entire night. I suppose I can chalk those two years worth of facebook ignores out the window.

Another thing I really enjoyed was being looked at by people in the room and knowing that they were trying to place me. "I just don't remember him? Did he go to school with us? Maybe I sat next to him in Mr. So and so's class?" One guy came up to Eric and said hi and chatted for a few minutes. Then he turned to me, looked down at my nametag, stuck out his hand and said, "Cole, I don't remember you." I laughed and said, "if you didn't go to Sam Houston Elementary then you don't know me." I appreciated the honesty though. I probably would not have gone up to someone and said that. I would have convinced myself that I knew that person, and then probably made a fool of myself when I pretended we had a past in high school. That's just how I roll. I did get to see one girl that I had a huge crush on in the 5th grade. Her name was Vanessa. I made her a mixed tape and I think she was my girlfriend for 2 weeks. She looked fantastic! And before I go on any more, she's married. Happily. With kids. Enough said!

Their were some people I was really looking forward to seeing that did not show. For starters, two girls that I reconnected with on facebook told me about the reunion and asked if I was coming. I had not even thought about it until then. They did not even show up! Another couple of friends that I thought were going to be there ended up not showing up, so it was kind of a lackluster night. Totally worth going, but not necessarily something to write home about. Just interesting enough to blog about. I think?

Weird dude

It has been almost a month since my last post, and that was hardly a real post. However, I as I sit at my desk at work at 3:21 in the morning, I find myself with an abundance of time on my hands. We have been remodeling the store for the past three weeks, so my assistant manager and I have had a lot of early mornings and long days since. The crew has been working 6:30-6:30 for three weeks straight! What dedication! And the store looks phenomenal. They will have about a half day tomorrow and then the store will be ours again! I did finally have a day off last Friday, so at least DeWayne (my assistant) and I both had a day off in the last few weeks.

That brings me to tonight. Since today was the last full day of work for the construction crew, they scheduled a cleaning crew to come out and strip, seal and wax the floors and then dust everything and just do general cleaning from the remodel. However, the "crew" turned out to be one guy. He got here a little before 6, which is when we close. We got everything moved off the floor onto a carpeted are so that the floors could be finished. He started working on them about 6:30 and here we are almost 9 hours later still plugging away. The "crew" had estimated that they would finish around 1 or 2, however, when the "crew" turns out to be singular rather than plural, we are now looking about 6 a.m. Guess I will be here to open the store in the morning!

Something about this guy is just a little weird. And when I say a little I really mean a lot! When he got here I introduced myself and told him I was the store manager and that I would be here through the night until he finished. He told me his name and I immediately deleted it from my brain. Of course, 10 minutes later I needed to ask him a question, so I had to ask him his name again. This is when it got weird. I said. "I'm sorry, can you tell me your name one more time?" And he replied, "It can be whatever you want it to be." Excuse me? I shot the construction foreman a "what-the-f kind of answer was that?" look. He chimed in quickly and said, "Timmy. His name is Timmy." Riddle me this readers? What's creepier, his response to my question or going by Timmy at the age of 40? Of course, the foreman could have been pulling my leg when he said Timmy. I have been calling him that all night and he has not corrected me. Either that is his name or he enjoys being likened to Lassie's boy master.

Then things got a little weirder. The building we are in closes at 10:30 and is locked down tight. I was in my office and Timmy was on the floor doing his thing. The night manager, who is a student, knocked on the door to let they guy know that the building was closing. Timmy told him that he had to leave the side doors open so that he could bring his equipment in and out. Next thing I know my phone is ringing and the asst director for auxillary services is calling me telling me that they cannot leave the side doors open because people have wandered in after hours before. Of course, this is the first I am hearing any of this. I walked out to the floor to find Timmy having what can only be described as a temper tantrum. I suggested he pull up to the back loading dock, which I have key to, and we can unload his other equipment there. His response? "So you think you can unload a 3,000 lb machine up onto your loading dock from my van?" Uh, no, I never claimed to Hulk out after 10 p.m., but surely their is another solution to this situation. I was still on the phone with the asst director and she is giving me other options. Meanwhile, Timmy "pissy pants" was talking over me and saying there were no other options than to leave the doors open. We resolved to bring all the necessary equipment in through the side doors and then call campus police to let him out that way when it was needed, presumably around 3. "What's that Lassie? An alternate solution? Good girl!" At the rate we are going now, the building will reopen before he is finished, so Timmy threw a tantrum for no reason! I did tell him he needed to chill out and that if he had something to say to staff that does not work for me, but instead NSU, that he needed to go through me first. This did not sit well with Timmy. "I have never encountered this many problems on a job!" Must be his first night. Sounds like somebody needs to change their dirty pee pants!

Once Timmy had a second coat of wax on the floor he decided he wanted to be buds again. I was moving furniture in our cash office and I head him say something, so I popped my head out. He began rambling on about waxing floors and shines and other things I did not care about. I zoned out and nodded, but I was not listening. He stopped talking for a while, so I thought it was my turn to say something. "Is this water or oil based wax?" I got as far as "This is water based. You wouldn't want to.......," before I zoned out again. He was snacking on some trail mix that I told him he could take from the floor if he got hungry. Timmy needs to keep up his strength! He asked me if I wanted some and I said, "Thanks, but no thanks. I'm allergic to nuts." He gave me a sad look and said, "Well that stinks! I had some peanuts out in the car that I was snacking on on the way here." I'm not sure why that story had to be told, but I rolled with it.

I am not sure where this story will go from here, but I am quite sure it is not over. We are about to round 4 a.m. and only the tile has been finished. He has not started on the Toli (fake wood looking tile) which takes a different kind of wax. I could probably tell you what kind of wax if I had been listening to him several hours ago, but that was the part of the conversation that sounded like any adult on Charlie Brown.

My favorite video clip

I have passed this video around for years and thought it might be a good thing to post. Hope you enjoy. It always makes me laugh, a lot!

Weeds

I am up a little later than normal this evening working on some clothing orders for work and decided that I "needed" an iced tea and a snack.  Since I am out of tea at the house, which never happens but seems it has, and have not been to the grocery store in weeks, I decided to go the convenience store down the street.  I went in and got the necessities, and then headed outside.  Another car was pulling up when I got to my car.  I looked over as I fastened my seat belt to notice that the two guys in the car were smoking.  This is nothing out of the ordinary for Oklahoma, especially my area, as it seems that everyone here smokes.  However, I did think it was weird that two men were sharing a cigarette in a car with all the windows rolled up.  You guessed it, not a cigarette!  They were sharing joint.  A joint!  Maybe I am a little naive, but I was shocked. Who drives around and smokes a joint?  Seems like that could be a little dangerous, not to mention stupid!  To tell you the truth, it also made me think of this comedy cd that I have listened to several times over the past couple of years.  In Daniel Tosh's routine, he does a bit about drugs, marijuana in particular.  As roughly as I can remember, he says "Legalize it!  That's right folks, I am an advocate for the legalization of marijuana.  Then all the lazy stoners in the world would not have anything else to complain about.  Most people don't see me taking this approach, but it's time to grow up and do coke like an adult!"  That last line always makes me laugh. Maybe it's because we all know someone who used to smoke a lot of pot, and maybe still does?  So what did I do?  Nothing.  Except drive in the opposite direction! 

Yep.....I'm a fan.

Previous to this last weekend I had not heard the new Miley Cyrus song "Party in the U.S.A."  I had heard a 30 second clip on iTunes, but that was enough to know I did not want to download it......or so I thought.   I was in Dallas this past weekend for a wedding, and stayed with a couple of friends of mine.  Margaret and Dana knew the song and played it no less than 20 times over the course of the weekend, with improvised choreography and top of your lungs singing.  You know, after hearing a song that many times, you either love it or hate it.  Turns out I love it.  Margaret made Dana and I travel cds so that we could listen to the song the whole way home.  I did not listen to the song the whole way home, but I have probably listened to it 15 times since I got home Sunday night.  I am now burning it to a cd to take to work, so I guess I can get my fix there too!

High School Reunion

So I went to my 10 year high school reunion last weekend and I could not have had more fun! I have to admit that I was a little apprehensive about going, but probably because of the same reasons anyone gets nervous about going to a reunion.   I was 10 years older, so were they.  I gained weight, so did they.  I was pretty much the same person, and so were they. (for better or for worse!)  We had two parties, one Friday night after the game and another Saturday night.  Both parties were a lot of fun, but to tell you the truth I think I had more fun the second night when their were less people around.  Regardless, I got home after 3 a.m. both nights, so you know I had fun!

I am planning on going to the Denton High 10 year reunion in a couple of weeks.  I went to elementary school there and a had not thought a thing about their reunion until a couple of people on facebook asked me if I planned on going.  Now I am really excited about it!  

I do know these two reunions will be very different!  Our reunion in Panhandle was in a barn outside of town.  We had tables set up to sit, food around the sides on workbenches and beer and other beverages in various coolers.  We also charged $10 a person to cover the costs of food for two parties.  The second party was at a friends house and was just as fun!  Inversely, Denton is having their reunion at the Denton Country Club, planned by a party planner, with a DJ, a full buffet and a cash bar.  It also costs $55 to attend. Now to some people this might seem like a better option.  While I do agree that this party will be a lot of fun, I'll take a party in a barn in the country any day over that!

I think that is the beauty of growing up in a small town.  We went to a small school where we were actually able to get to know everyone in the school, not just in our own class!  We were missing information on 6 people in our class.  Now, 6 out of 52 is still 11% of our class missing, but it seems different when the Denton class facebook page has to send out four messages just listing names of people they have no contact info for.  I am not sure how many they were missing and how many graduated in the class, but I know it was more than 11%!

Every time I am in Panhandle I wish I had a job that would allow me to live, and maybe even work, in Panhandle.  I am, by no stretch, in a large town now, but 25,000 is certainly larger than 2,400!  Maybe someday I will have a job that allows me to live in Panhandle.  Right now I cannot imagine what it would be, but I guess time will tell!

Leprosy

I seriously doubt anyone likes having fever blisters, but I truly hate it!  Nothing makes me feel like more of a leper than having a fever blister staring back at people when they look at me.  I feel like I should be banished to a vacation on leper island with the other unwashed masses. When I was a kid I would stay home from school when I got a fever blister because I was so embarrassed about how I looked.  I would go to school sick, but not with a fever blister!  But now I have no choice but to go to work and pretend that my fever blister is not "that big" and people are "looking intently at me" and not my lip!  Most people are pretty nice about it.  I say, "Sorry, I have a fever blister."  As if I had some choice!  And they say, "Oh I didn't even notice."  I can almost convince myself of the fact that it is not that big until one person with verbal diarrhea looks at you and says, "What happened to your face?"  That's the reality check.  

This is really not much of a story.  People get fever blisters every day.  I am trying to blog more, but maybe this one could have been left out.  Maybe not.