Champagne

The 10 Year Reunion

In high school, I was definitely a joiner.  Any Spirit Days, clubs, school-sponsored events - you could count me in.  I showed up, decked out in school colors with a gigantic smile on my face.  Don't get me wrong - I didn't love high school, but I also didn't hate it.  I simply live by the philosophy that if I'm here I might as well participate.

However, when my 10 year high school reunion was announced, my immediate reaction was a giant pit in my stomach.  I didn't want to go.  My cynical mood kicked in.  I've stayed in touch with so many people over Facebook.  I see my close high school friends all the time.  Plus I'd have to drive back to Havasu and get a hotel because my parents don't live there anymore.  UGH!  Not to mention my recent divorce and who wants to put themselves through that questioning?!

I was going through all the reasons not to go with a friend one night and his response was pretty simple, "Yeah, but you don't know who is going to make it to the 20 year reunion.  Life happens.  Might as well see everyone now."  Pretty straightforward and somewhat morbid logic but he had an excellent point.  Done.  I decided I was going.  Although some apprehension still lingered, I coerced one of my good friends into going with me.  Tickets were purchased, hotel was booked and PTO requested.  

I'm incredibly grateful I did go.  Not only was it fun, it was exactly what I needed to feel like Jen again.  Here are my top 7 moments/memories from the reunion.

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1.  The Smell of the Football Field Grass.
I don't need to go into great detail, but we all know I've gone through a lot of changes lately.  It is easy to get lost in the chaos of such huge life changes, especially when drowning in work.  Your sense of self gets lost.  It's disjointing and disorienting and I've been trying to find a catalyst to recenter me.  All it took was the smell of grass.

When we showed up to the Homecoming football game at the high school, I took a moment to soak it all in.  The huge mass of people, the lights, the floats, the oddly small marching band.  It was so... high school.  We walked in, laughing about the spray painted shields of armor on the ground that looked like sea turtles and scanned the crowd for the special Alumni section.  A quick pause and suddenly, I was hit by the smell of the field.  The very familiar smell of half-dead, torn up, cheaply painted grass.

I spent most of my high school years on that field and the simple smell of the grass made me feel very at home.  I felt more like myself.  Sure, ten years have gone by, but at the core, I'm still who I was back then and thank goodness for grass for reminding me.

2.  Familiar Hugs.
At the bar the first night in town, we saw a lot of people.  Havasu's not a big place so we ran into everyone who decided to have a Friday night out on the town.  However, there were a few people whose hugs are so warm and familiar that they are almost healing (cheesy, I know, deal with it).  One in particular was my friend Kat Quill, who I've known since the first grade.  There was something about her hug that made everything seem happy, carefree and normal.  Part of that is her amazingly positive personality, but another part stems from that homey feeling I've been looking for.  Her hug set the pace for relaxing me for the rest of the weekend.

3.  "That one time..." Stories.
This one actually deserves subcategories.  Everyone loves reminiscing with old friends, but I'm not sure many people have stories like these.

"Your mom arrested me twice!" - Luke Hornburg  Luke didn't graduate with us, but he's married to one of my friends that did and was friends with my older brother growing up.  At the football game, upon spotting me, he decided to announce that not only did my mom arrest him twice, once was the day after he stayed the night at our house.  Usually, when approached with "Your mom arrested me/gave me a ticket" stories, I roll my eyes and ask, "Well, did you do something wrong?"  But Luke's blunt and unexpected delivery was so shocking that I couldn't help but laugh my ass off.  He then continued to tell people all weekend about it.  Outstanding.

Speaking of repeating stories:  "Jen broke up with me over email!" - Hank Lawrence  My friend Hank and I didn't really hang out a lot in high school despite the fact that our best friends dated the whole time (and are now married).  This may be attributed to the truth in his story.  Yes, I did break up with him over email when we were 14 years old.  However, he clearly got over it because we're great friends now.  Or so I thought... until he decided to tell every single person who came into the bar that I broke up with him via email.  Awesome.  Thanks, bud.

"Jen turned me gay when she turned down my marriage proposal in third grade." - Tommy Watanabe  Tommy and I did that cute third grade "Do you love me? Check Yes or No" thing back in Mr. Tebo's class.  We "kid" flirted and it was pure ridiculousness.  Tommy then proposed to me and I crushed his soul by saying no and dumping him.  Apparently, this turned him gay.  Damnit.

"Jen's mom strip searched my mom." - Tommy Watanabe (again)  This story is actually pretty incredible and is best told in Tommy's words here.

Apparently, I was best remembered for my poor break-up etiquette and my mom being a police officer.  Not too shabby...better than some of the alternatives.

4.  Scotty's Broasted Chicken.
If you're from Havasu, this needs no explanation.

For those less fortunate, it is the most delicious chicken to ever grace the surface of the planet... and I had it for lunch.

5.  Awards for Functioning Genitals. 
The reunion committee (who did a wonderful job, by the way) decided to hand out awards based on various "accomplishments", including categories such as Most Countries Visited and Furthest Traveled for the Reunion.  Oh... and Most Children.  While not given to someone with a shocking number of kids (three), they definitely opened the door for him to shout to everyone, "My junk works!"  All. Night. Long.  Yay, for your functioning genitals and their hard earned (pun intended) accomplishment, Kyle Bernabe.  Super happy for you.

6.  "I wasn't a bitch/asshole in high school!  Was I?!"
I overheard this a lot.  Being from a small town, we have very little patience for bullshit.  After ten years of people, apparently, stewing over some high school interactions, the gauntlet was thrown... HARD.  The first time I heard it was at the football game.  (Remember, that was after only being in town for two hours.)  People were coming out with guns blazing.  And it continued all through the banquet and night out at the bar.  However, this led to a lot of diffusion of awkwardness and positive mending.  Good for us being good human beings and moving forward.  A lot of maturity in ten years.  Keep it up!

7.  Denny's at 2:30AM.
The story of Hank and I ending up at Denny's at 2:30AM is the perfect illustration of Jen being Jen (read: irritating) and Hank being Hank (read: a gentleman) and us being an awesome team (kind of like Batman and Robin.... I am Batman).  First, we have to rewind to the pre-reunion.  In the presence of my parents (love you, Mom and Dad!) Hank and I drank a bottle of champagne... each.  This was sip one in a string of drinks that were consumed prior to dinner starting.  Truly, an awful and not well-thought out strategy.  At the age of 28, I should know better.

When dinner did start, everyone lined up to get food from the buffet, but I was too busy talking (shocking, I know) to even think, "Hey, I should get some food."  Hank (God bless him) not only came up to let me know dinner had started but generously made me a plate when I asked because I wanted to finish my conversation.  Such a stand up guy.  Unfortunately, I was far too inebriated to eat and only took about four bites of the salad and ate the breadstick.  Sorry for wasting your effort, Hank.

Fast forward to about seven hours later, we were being ushered out of the bar during closing when I took one look at Hank and said, "I'm hungry."  The look on his face was a cross between "No kidding!" and "Are you fucking kidding me?!"  Thankfully, instead of slapping me across the face, he responded that he was hungry too and suggested we walk to Denny's.

Now, Denny's is only about a mile from the bar we were at, but I was in horribly painful heels and was still... ahem...recovering, so I feel like this was his little bit of payback for me not eating my dinner and being somewhat irritating that evening.  Well played, sir.  At least I got my fruit and eggs, so I think it still worked out in my favor.  He still gets the award for Best Reunion Buddy Ever.

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I'm just going to throw this out here... don't be that lame person who is cynical about reunions.  I'll definitely be making an effort to attend all the ones in the future.  Nothing feels quite as good as going home.

Love you all, LHHS Class of 2004.

Conference Calls in Real Life

You've almost made it through the work week and if your week was anything like mine, you need a little giggle to pick you up for these last 8 hours.  A coworker sent me this video under the tagline "Seems a Bit Familiar".  This is my workday... every. day.  Hopefully you'll find it as humorous as I did.

Happy Friday!

Never Miss a Good Opportunity...

We're Getting a Fake Christmas Tree

Last weekend, we decided to take down our Christmas decorations, including the tree.  We had purchased a beautiful Douglas Fir from our local grocery store and placed it proudly in our front window.  It filled the house with that beautiful "I'm a real tree" smell all season long.  However, the needles had begun to dry and droop and now it was exuding that "I'm a fire hazard" smell.  (I'm not sure that's a real smell but it fit the story.)

It was now time for the tree to go bye-bye.

We started by carefully removing all of our ornaments, garlands and lights.  This process required us to move the tree away from the windows.  Apparently this upset the tree because about 10 lbs of dried needles fell from the branches to the floor.  Regardless, we shuffled through the Needle Sea on our carpet to make sure every bit of Christmas was removed from its boughs.  Reaching into the tree to remove ornaments was like fighting with an angry cat.  Our forearms were covered in scrapes and scratches from that vile tree.  How could something that brought so much joy be so cranky?

Once the branches were properly undressed, it was time to remove the tree from the water-filled tree stand. We made sure the sliding glass door was open to the backyard for a quick escape and set to work.  I crawled on the floor to unscrew the supports, being slapped in the face by angry branches.  My husband was holding the tree upright to prevent a collapsing disaster.  When we were ready, he lifted the tree with Herculean force, dislodging it from the stand, straight into the ceiling of our brand new house.  Startled by his mistake, he made a run for the sliding glass door.  In the process, he had unknowingly dropped the trunk back into the tree support ever-so-slightly, and it traveled with him.  Old dirty tree water spilled all over our new tan carpet.

As I screamed in dismay and made a run for the towels, my husband made a run for the sliding glass door - which apparently wasn't open wide enough.  The doorway rejected the tree with powerful rebounding force, sending a shower of whatever needles remained on the pathetic tree all over our dining room.

We now had a river of needles leading through the entire length of the house, a small pond of dirty tree water on our carpet and a mountain range of dry needles in the living room.  Fabulous.  Happy Freaking Holidays.

O' Christmas Tree, my ass.  Seriously.

Really, the decision was made for us.  We'll be purchasing an artificial tree next year and some quality Yankee Candle Factory products to supplement the smell.  Bah Humbug.

New Year's Resolutions 2014

resolution - the act determining upon an action or course of action, method, procedure, etc.

I have never made a New Year's Resolution they way most people do.  I don't make grand promises to myself about losing weight, making more money or being a better person.  Why?  Because these grand statements never come with a plan of action.  If you resolve to change something, you also have to have a plan.  Otherwise, your gym membership goes unused and those books on your Amazon.com wishlist never get purchased.  

Instead, every year I make a list of Personal Goals.  {You can find a free printable list here.} 
I find that I consistently want the same things from year to year.  I want to read more and see more movies.  I want to try new foods and see new places.   However, I would very rarely achieve these things because I didn't have a plan.  So, let's make a plan.

This year, I'm dividing my resolutions up into the categories of my blog.  This way you can keep me accountable!

Beauty
1.  Find my signature hair style.  I feel like I'm almost there.  Aaaalmost.  This year will be the year.
2.  Get more manicures.  I occasionally get pedicures with my mother-in-law and do my nails at home, but there's nothing quite like getting your nails cleaned up professionally.
3.  Try out at least 3 Pinterest Beauty Tips.  I pin all day but let them go to waste.

Books
1.  Game of Thrones series by George R. R. Martin
2.  Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
3.  Read 4 other books. 

Decor
1.  Create a chalkboard for our front living/dining room.
2.  Create pegboards for my craft room.
3.  Hang more pictures of family and friends around the house.

Fashion
1.  Buy a new work bag.  This seems really simple but I've been carrying around the same big black Target tote bag for at least 8 years.  I want to upgrade but I always find myself looking at cheap bags.  I need to make an investment.
2.  Invest in my wardrobe and accessories.  More isn't necessarily more.  I'm finally fed up that cheap clothing and accessories are ruined or worn out very quickly.  Again, it's time to invest. 
3.  Clear out my closet.  Time to ditch items that no longer fit my body or sense of style.

Fitness
1.  Use every workout DVD in my collection.  I seriously have DVDs I've never played that I have had for at least 5 years.  Pointless.
2.  Run a 5k.  You have to start somewhere, right?
3.  Continue on my path of working out 3 times a week.  Maintaining my workout schedule is the best thing I can do for myself right now.  

Food 
1.  Try eggplant.
2.  Make soup from scratch.
3.  Make duck.

Humor
1.  Find and share one humorous article, video, etc a week.  My stress level goes through the roof if I'm not giggling.  Let's make this a team effort.

Movies
1.  Finally see "Lincoln".
2.  Finally see "Gigi".
3.  Finally see "An American in Paris". 

T.V.
1.  Get caught up on "Scandal". Totally addicted - need to get up to speed.
2.  Write at least 2 blogs a month about what I'm watching.  I know you probably don't care what I'm watching, but I'm spending my time on it, so I might as well make it feel worth it.
3.  Watch the news 2 times a week.  I usually avoid the news but it makes me feel disconnected from my world and community.  

Web
1.  Blog and share fun internet finds at least once a week.  I typically do this on my personal Facebook page, but you guys aren't there, so I'll share here.
  
Wisdom
1.  Share it, live it.  This is the only one that I'm going to be vague on.  I will only post when inspiration strikes.

There you have it.  I will use the tag "2014Resolution" to keep myself accountable.  Wish me luck!

What are you putting on your list this year?

 

Dear Santa...

... Do you use Pinterest?

Happy Holidays!