Thanks-but-no-thanks-giving.

[penfield]

The Webster High School Class of 1995 has scheduled its Ten-Year Reunion Extravaganza for Friday, November 25, 2005. A cursory glance at your calendar will tell you that this is the Friday immediately after Thanksgiving -- America's officially designated "Family Time" -- allowing participants to wrap all their bitter recriminations and feelings of unfulfilled personal potential into one fun-filled weekend.

There were some who objected to this timing, most vociferously arealariel, who carried her complaint just short of suggesting that reunion organizer Meghan had the intelligence quotient of quiche^[1]. The other non-Thanksgiving option was a random summer weekend, which might not garner the same attendance level but would be at least slightly less snowy.

Initially, it was my plan to recuse myself from this delusionally sentimental, blatantly voyeuristic cluster-fuck. I still keep in pretty good contact with those friends who were truly meaningful to me anyway, I rationalized, and I had seen Grosse Pointe Blank too many times to imagine the event as any sort of idyllic homecoming.

And I admit, I am somewhat wary of any situation in which I am asked to compare the size of my resume with anyone else's. Call it envy, pride, insecurity, whatever. There is a weird, counter-intuitive process that my ego entertains, in which the opinions of strangers and shirttail acquaintances speak louder than the opinions of close friends and confidants. Perhaps I will explore this phenomenon more fully on this blog at some later time; all you need to know is that I care more about the opinion of Meghan than I probably should. And anyway, I am not a particularly savvy self-promoter. If I have to spend thirty seconds hearing about Matt Chatfield's BMW without taking a sledgehammer to his groin, I might just explode.

That said, high school was not an entirely unenjoyable era for me, and the thought that some of my friends might be there to view the wreckage of the Amtrak Nostalgia Express makes it sound like a reasonably entertaining evening. Besides, I'm going to be in Rochester for Thanksgiving anyway, right? To snub the reunion when I'm right there would seem egregiously spiteful, even for me.

Except I talked to my parents this past weekend. See, they were supposed to go to the Dominican Republic^[2] for vacation in April of this year, but they had to cancel their trip because the cat needed emergency surgery or therapy or grooming or something. Long story, apparently. So they rescheduled their Caribbean vacation ... for Thanksgiving.

Let's put aside the fact that this leaves me without a home for Thanksgiving dinner, or an observed family birthday celebration, for that matter. These facts are not insignificant, except insofar as this question goes: Should I make the trip back home to spend Thanksgiving by myself in an empty house and go to my high school reunion, or should I just scrap the whole reunion idea altogether and find someplace I really want to be for the holiday?

Should Jason go to his high school reunion?
	Yes. Enjoying the company of old friends, and mocking the lives of old enemies, is worth an otherwise boring trip to Webster.
	No. Reunions are dorky, artificial reminders of the glory days that have passed you by. Go to Hawaii instead.
Free polls from Pollhost.com

And remember, this is for posterity, so please, be honest.

Comments

[1]

[enchanted-pants.livejournal.com]

[1] I cannot substantiate this notion, though I will say that if quiche had been on the ballot for Junior Class President, I probably would have voted for it.

yet another invitation

[(Anonymous)]

Let me be the first to invite you ..... I always hated reunions anyway.

love,
Aunt Jackie

[(Anonymous)]

I didn't attend my high school reunion (Athena '94) and don't regret it. But then, they also wanted $50 or some such thing from us to attend, so screw them. Apparently I wasn't the only person who felt that way; some 20 people in a class of 310 showed up.

But, if you can turn it into a Grosse Pointe Blanke (I know I have at least one and perhaps two extra E's) re-enactment, that would be worthwhile. Let me know if you need help putting a body in the furnace, but try to make off with a more attractive woman than Minnie Driver.

Also, though your extended family has probably made the offer, if in Rochester, you may consider yourself invited to spend Thanksgiving with the Unwin/Falvey Clan. My parents have a habit of taking in holiday orphans.

Bring towels and rubber gloves

[instant-ethos.livejournal.com]

Skip the trip to Rochester in November.

If Mrs. Ethos hasn't already birthed herself a baby by Thanksgiving, she'll be darn close. So I can only imagine we're having Thanksgiving here. If you come, you could have quite a story to tell... Imagine putting that on your blog...

the Reunion

[smithie98.livejournal.com]

I hated high school, and yet Village Twins, Ms. S. and I drove 16 hours to go to our 10-year reunion. It may have been a bit foolish, but we all had a blast.

On the other hand, if your 'rents are not going to be in town, it may not be worth it.

We'll probably be in DC for Thanksgiving, so you're welcome to join us as well...

[(Anonymous)]

Interesting...you use the idea of being in Webster for the holiday anyway as a rationale to attend the reunion. I use the idea of being in Webster for the holiday anyway as an excuse to put off making a decision. For what it's worth, I'm leaning toward going. Of course, I don't recall having anybody I'd call an "enemy" in high school, and I can count on one hand the number of classmates I could say I've kept in contact with since graduation. So, seeing how I haven't made up my mind about me going to the reunion, I thought it unwise to vote on whether you should go. I apologize for my uselessness.

And as if you needed another Thanksgiving dinner option, I offer the Moak house, where there is always a possibility that Dad might burn the house down while trying to deep-fry a turkey. And Thanksgiving or not, a birthday celebration of some sort would also be part of the weekend.

I say go

[(Anonymous)]

Just to go to the reunion doesn't mean you have to stay. Go check it out, if anything fun happens in the first 5 minutes, stick around, if not, sneak out the back :) I think thats what i will do when mine comes up.

-cousin Barbie (i hate that nickname)

Reunion....

[(Anonymous)]

Hmmm...Thanksgiving without family? I would struggle too. But your welcome at my house for dinner Jason. That way you can amaze me with your fantastic life accomplishments thus far. I will be generous with my praise and most of the time be quite honest with it. Update that resume - I expect a glossy finish, not matte.
Meghan Callan

Re: Reunion....

[enchanted-pants.livejournal.com]

Is this really Meghan Callan? Are you really inviting me over to your house for Thanksgiving dinner? What a nice gesture. Especially since we didn't really know each other very well, even in high school. Although you've invited me to your house twice before. Once was that Show Choir party, and I don't remember much about that except that I had to drive Jared all the way back to his place to get his car for some reason. And then, even earlier than that, there was that party after the Freshman dance that I guess I got invited to because my date was the friend of someone who was actually cool, unlike me and the similarly situated Charlie, who spent most of our evening trying not to be noticed by the popular kids for fear that we would be pantsed or something. That was a weird night. Anyway, thanks for the invitation, but whether I'm in Webster or not, I will not need to impose on your holiday.

[2]

[enchanted-pants.livejournal.com]

[2] As devout readers of the Jason Hammersla Files will know, I had an earth-shaking but ultimately fruitless crush on one Miss Domenica for the virtual entirety of my developmental years. In ninth grade computer class with Mr. Schlegel, we were doing this big database project based on all the nations of the world. The Dominican Republic was one of the nations, of course, and for my own jollies I changed the name of the database record to say "Domenican Republic," in honor of my adored. Mr. Schlegel ended up deducting points for that, and I got a 98 on the project.

Miss Domenica is expected to attend the reunion.