Officially Technological
Thursday, October 06, 2005
Julie On:
Being a Grown-Up, Nostalgia, Long Car Rides, Weddings, & Non-Commenting Blog Readers
This past weekend, two High School friends of mine (Stephanie and Tina) and I drove what should have been two hours - but turned into three (because of the two-lane road through little cities) - north to a little town in between Alpena and Rogers City, Michigan. This little town is called Presque Isle, and sports the nifty little lighthouse on Lake Huron where my friend Tracy and her husband, Howie, tied the knot.
We had heard from the Weather Channel that it may dip down into the forties for a high that day, so you can imagine with what concern we dressed for an outdoor wedding in Northern Michigan. We were pleased, however, to be told that the high for Bay City was 85, so at the coldest, it may be 65 up north, and when we got there it was probably a very pleasant 70. But it was perfect. It was warm and beautiful outside and the wedding was friendly and peaceful.
Now, for the "human interest stories" I gleaned from my friends after spending literally 12 hours with them (6 in the car). When you graduate from High School you realize that your life isn't the only life that has moved on. You know that everyone is moving at a similar pace to your own, but when you are confronted with the facts of people's lives, it never ceases to amaze. We laughed about stupid stuff that happened in high school and we went around the circle trying to accumulate the recent history of the people involved. It was in one such scenario when we were sitting at a red light in Harrisburg and Stephanie says, "Hey, Turn Right!" So, we did, and a block and a half later, stopped in front of a neat little hair salon that was owned by a friend of ours. She wasn't home, so we called all her nearest friends and family until we found her at her grandma's and forced her to come over and show us her salon.
Forty-five minutes later we were back on the road once again trying to patch together the pieces of people's lives. Of course, notoriously, I'm the friend who has "dropped of the face of the earth", Stephanie's the "busy" one with school, work, boyfriend, and wedding plans, so she too is somewhat uninformed. So, we had to rely heavily on Tina for all the latest and greatest. Obviously, there are some snags in this system, so when we were about 10 minutes away from Pinconning, we called the expert in "Human Interest Stories".... Dale. He was at home, and watching a movie when we called and said we could pop in. I needed to look in his year-book because my year-book is in Lansing and it was going to kill me to wait two whole days to remember the name of one of our class-mates, Tina wanted to find out if Paul really did move to that house at the end of Townline 17 Road, and Stephanie was curious about why she saw Tiffany and Delana's cars in front of their parents' house.
So, after a brief tour of Dale's new digs we got down to business. I shuffled through the year-books (I was thinking of Rachelle), mysteries were solved (yes, Paul did move to that house, and Tiffany and Delana's mom is sick), and forty-five minutes later, we rounded out our trip with a wide swing around Mt. Forrest Township to drop of Stephanie and Tina. I must say it was a very insightful day. It was nice to see Tracy and Howie get married, it was great to finally catch up with Kimmy and Jon who were at her wedding, and it was fun to tell stories that haven't been told in years and remember things that haven't been remembered in years. It was a beautiful thing. *sniff, sniff*
In closing I have two comments:
This past weekend, two High School friends of mine (Stephanie and Tina) and I drove what should have been two hours - but turned into three (because of the two-lane road through little cities) - north to a little town in between Alpena and Rogers City, Michigan. This little town is called Presque Isle, and sports the nifty little lighthouse on Lake Huron where my friend Tracy and her husband, Howie, tied the knot.
We had heard from the Weather Channel that it may dip down into the forties for a high that day, so you can imagine with what concern we dressed for an outdoor wedding in Northern Michigan. We were pleased, however, to be told that the high for Bay City was 85, so at the coldest, it may be 65 up north, and when we got there it was probably a very pleasant 70. But it was perfect. It was warm and beautiful outside and the wedding was friendly and peaceful.
Now, for the "human interest stories" I gleaned from my friends after spending literally 12 hours with them (6 in the car). When you graduate from High School you realize that your life isn't the only life that has moved on. You know that everyone is moving at a similar pace to your own, but when you are confronted with the facts of people's lives, it never ceases to amaze. We laughed about stupid stuff that happened in high school and we went around the circle trying to accumulate the recent history of the people involved. It was in one such scenario when we were sitting at a red light in Harrisburg and Stephanie says, "Hey, Turn Right!" So, we did, and a block and a half later, stopped in front of a neat little hair salon that was owned by a friend of ours. She wasn't home, so we called all her nearest friends and family until we found her at her grandma's and forced her to come over and show us her salon.
Forty-five minutes later we were back on the road once again trying to patch together the pieces of people's lives. Of course, notoriously, I'm the friend who has "dropped of the face of the earth", Stephanie's the "busy" one with school, work, boyfriend, and wedding plans, so she too is somewhat uninformed. So, we had to rely heavily on Tina for all the latest and greatest. Obviously, there are some snags in this system, so when we were about 10 minutes away from Pinconning, we called the expert in "Human Interest Stories".... Dale. He was at home, and watching a movie when we called and said we could pop in. I needed to look in his year-book because my year-book is in Lansing and it was going to kill me to wait two whole days to remember the name of one of our class-mates, Tina wanted to find out if Paul really did move to that house at the end of Townline 17 Road, and Stephanie was curious about why she saw Tiffany and Delana's cars in front of their parents' house.
So, after a brief tour of Dale's new digs we got down to business. I shuffled through the year-books (I was thinking of Rachelle), mysteries were solved (yes, Paul did move to that house, and Tiffany and Delana's mom is sick), and forty-five minutes later, we rounded out our trip with a wide swing around Mt. Forrest Township to drop of Stephanie and Tina. I must say it was a very insightful day. It was nice to see Tracy and Howie get married, it was great to finally catch up with Kimmy and Jon who were at her wedding, and it was fun to tell stories that haven't been told in years and remember things that haven't been remembered in years. It was a beautiful thing. *sniff, sniff*
In closing I have two comments:
- After laughing almost to tears for three hours straight, I realized that my life has taken on a sober to the point of constant "ugh"-ness that is completely foreign to the fun-loving, happy-go-lucky girl that graduated number 11 (.005 GPA less than number 10) from Pinny High.
- Tracy Tolles Buse, this is for you: COMMENT! :) (I warned you that I'd do this.)
7 Comments:
I was amazed last week when I got e-mailed pictures of my friend Alissa's baby...who's just barely still 'baby.'
Isn't it fun to catch up with people? That's the only good thing about dropping off the face of the earth is coming back and seeing how much has changed.
You were number eleven too? I didn't know that! I always just say that I was in the top ten percent. Because there were 110 in my graduating class. :P
Yeah, I was in the top 10% too. There was 180 in my class. You know who was number 10?? Kelly Savage. You know why I'm still miffed about that?? Because by the time we graduated, I was ahead of her, but because she was number 10 when they did the yearbook stuff, she totally got all the glory. How's that for me being selfish. ;)
Man, you guys are smart.
Happily not in the top 10% of anything,
Dan
COMMENT!
Ha! So I'm a little slow...sue me. I am a newlywed, y'know! Before that, I was busy with moving, planning a wedding, being engaged, etc. Life just "snuck" up on me and got really busy! I do know what you mean about trying to catch up, and this wedding was really not the time for me to have the chance to do that. On one hand, I did get a few minutes to sit down with you girls & Jon & Kristi; on the other, I had a ton of things to do as a hostess and the BRIDE. :P Luckily for all of you, I'm pretty even-tempered and I didn't transform into a bridezilla under all the stress. I did regret not having the chance to spend some good quality talk time with you though. I don't think you've necessarily become the only person who has disappeared completely -- our group just hasn't been keeping up with each other as much as we probably should. Of course, just like most teen movies, there's the core group of friends who are all close to each other, but there are couples within the group that are even closer. Like Kim and I, for instance. We lived next to each other for most of the important growing up and hanging out years. You and I, however, found it easiest to find each other at school and our humor made life tolerable as we faced growing up in Pinconning. :P Since then, we've just needed to find each other on the internet and start up the passing of notes once again. :)
What do you think about that?
Well, anyway, I think I've gone on enough for now. But I am making up for some lost time since you've started this blog! Time to get back to the real world and get to painting and searching for jobs. :P
Well! Welcome! ;) I thought you did really well getting to everyone at your wedding. I've been to weddings where the only time I saw any member of the wedding party (including the bride and groom) was when they walked down the isle. :) So, you did really well. It was fun catching up with you, and you're right, we should keep better track of each other than we do. There's a few people that I often wonder how they're doing.
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