No. 35: Go to My 40th High School Reunion

No. 35: 40th High School Reunion: DONE!


O my!!

This one was fun.

Funny, isn't it? I went to my 30th High School Reunion and was overwhelmed by all the people, and everyone seemed so old and unfamiliar.  I stayed about an hour, and actually could not leave soon enough. There were zero photos to even document that I was there.

I'm thanking good ol' social media for making this more manageable.   I've seen pictures of many high school friends on Facebook even if I am not officially "friends" with all of them. That helped the recognition factor considerably.

Our class panoramic photo. 

I looked and looked and could not find myself. 

I know I was there. 

And I would credit this photo but I don't know who took it. Sorry. 

Another help was most of the spouses stayed home unless they actually attended our school at one time. No one was trying to impress anyone; no one was trying to pick anyone up; everyone just seemed to want to visit and catch up.  And most of the spouses realized if they didn't know anyone, it just wouldn't be fun. The spouses that did come banded together and entertained each other. Not having all the extra spouses meant that I didn't have to search faces to see if one was recognizable.

My spouse came but was a good sport and didn't complain once about being abandoned at a table with a few other men he had just met.

The invitation for the night. 

Slightly wrinkled from its travels. 

Kind of like all the attendees.

I LOVED seeing all of these faces again.

I must say the women fared better than the men in the looks department for the most part. I thought men were supposed to get more distinguished and the women were supposed to get frumpy. Ha!
That was not so much the case here.
Hair dye probably gets a lot of credit for the disparity. The women dye, the men don't.
Although one person came up to me and said "You are blonde!" and I replied "I've always been blonde." And then I looked at my Senior picture where I was anything but blonde. I was blonde until I was 6 years old....then I picked it up again when I was in my mid twenties. What a surprise to me!
I always thought I was blonde, I had just gotten blonder. Nope.

Anyway, there were highlights and lowlights, as is the case with any evening.

My Favorite Spontaneous Interaction came when one of the former hunky football players who now is a bit more rotund (think of Mr. Krabs from SpongeBob SquarePants for a physique) practically twirled up to me, glanced at my name tag and gleefully announced "I remember you! Do you remember me?". When I replied "Of course", he spun away.  Made my night.

Some of us were shaped like this, some of us weren't.

We all looked darling.

The Most Huh? Moment came from a class member that sidled over, glanced at my name tag, looked at me and said "Nope. I didn't know you." Which was odd, since I know that yes, you did know who I was. Whatever.  I'm filing that under the "if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all" category.

And the Most Mind Blowing Conversation was with a guy from my home room. We weren't ever close friends but we were in the same home room for ever. We chatted and I told him where I was living now and he said "Do you know where Mt. Princeton is?"
Why, yes, I was there last week, soaking in the hot springs as a matter of fact.
"Well, my family owned it from the mid 1960s to the mid 1980s."
 WHAT???  Ninety percent of the people I talk to have no idea where this part of Colorado even is.  When I expressed disbelief, he rattled off a list of little town names that would only be known by a local.
"Tin Cup, Chalk Creek, St. Elmo's, Buena Vista, Nathrop. Do you believe me now?"
I was totally taken aback. Once I got home I had to Google the Mt. Princeton history just to verify and yep, there was his family name. Wow.

Me, last year, at Mt. Princeton Spa. 

And my classmate's family used to own it.

Wow.

But mostly it was just delightful to see all of these people that I had spent a good part of my childhood/teen years with. Friends from Girl Scouts. Girls I had disagreed with. Boys that had dumped me. Boys I had dumped. Didn't matter. Everyone was just happy to see each other.

Thrilled that I went. Can't wait for the 50th .

Annnnnnddddd......
I took pics during the night and will share them on Thursday.
I did my best to get follow up pics of all the peeps that were on last week's Throw Back Thursday post.
Won't that be a fun comparison?!

First Time for Everything...

There's a first time for everything...


Part of my decision to do this Sixty by Sixty list was that I had gotten in a rut and wasn't doing new stuff. I wasn't doing fun stuff. I was just doing the same ol', same ol' stuff.

So while this wasn't on my list, I have to admit my trip to the Mt. Princeton Hot Springs Resort probably should have been.

My friend Liddy came into town to see me. She has a house a couple of hours away from me in Colorado. We grew up together, first meeting at church in Houston. My parents helped cement the friendship by suggesting that Liddy come with us to San Miguel de Allende for a few weeks when we were just out of 6th grade. Liddy's aunt and uncle lived there while my parents had recently discovered the charm of that little mountain town. That was the beginning of my love affair with San Miguel and the beginning of one of my best friendships.

San Miguel de Allende at dusk.

Forty five years later we are still playing together.

Me and Liddy doing what we do best:

Traveling and ...ummm...Drinking? 

Two years ago, but some things never change. 

While Liddy was here we decided to try the natural hot springs outside of Salida.  My kids have been there before but I never had.

I will be back!

A lovely funky old entrance leads to two large traditional pools, one at a temp of 96 degrees, one at 103 degrees.

You walk into some boring traditional pools.

Not for us!

 We sashayed past those boring cement ponds and headed down the steps to Chalk Creek. There we found shallow pools of varying temperatures fed by the natural hot springs. Depending on where you stepped it was either VERY hot, warm, VERY cold, or Goldilocks Just Right.

Just like a natural hot tub.

Our only mistake was not taking (adult) beverages with us. There is no food or beverage service available, only a water bottle vending machine.

We almost had the river to ourselves. It was DIVINE.

A few hours of soaking and we could barely climb the stairs back to the car. Our legs were jelly and our stomachs were rumbling. Tension and stress were no longer our companions.

We weren't out of the parking lot before we were plotting a return. Maybe in the winter?  With a snow flurry or two floating gently down into the steaming river? Or in a few weeks while there is still a chance to get a little tan?

Soon.