I won.

As threatened, it's time to go into painful detail about the events of my last weekend, starting with my 20th High School Reunion.

I'm not sure what I expected to get out of it, so I can't rightly say if it was a satisfying experience or not. 

It wasn't cheap...it was $200 for a couple, and more if you waited an bought tickets at the door.  That price kept more than a few people away...out of class of over 400 people, I'd say we had about 75 of them(plus guests) attend.  There were even a few folks I talked to that came alone because they couldn't afford to bring their spouses.  I'm sure there was once or twice my wife wished I had left her at home...but all in all, she seemed to have a good time.  She is the friendly talkative type, and strikes up a conversation much easier than I do.

Who wouldn't want to talk to her?

I would say that I only had three or four meaningful conversations(went beyond the where do you live and how many kids do you have point) all night.  There just wasn't that many people there that I clicked with, or had significant memories of from high school, which is funny.  I was in drama, and choir, and wrestled and played football, and was in a few AP classes...I thought I had a fairly varied social base, but I would say 80% of the folks who showed up at the reunion were ones I couldn't remember saying more than 5 words too in 3 years of school.

One thing I did realize, from the conversations I did have, is that no one came to the reunion with a sad story...which should make sense.  People aren't going to pay $200 a couple to come talk about how bad their lives suck...and it wasn't why I went. 

I went to see if I won...and I did.  I had the hottest wife, and the best kids.  Let's not talk about jobs...I wasn't about to admit all the times I cried in the shower before going to work...but I didn't hesitate to point out my wife. 

I'm not sure I will go to a 25th or 30th...it depends on how much they decide to charge, and what kind of commitment I get from folks that I WANT to meet with.  My wife and I could have come up with a lot more interesting/fun things to do with an evening for $200+.  Heck...we didn't spend that much when we used to hit Seattle for a night at the 5th Avenue Theater.  I'm more likely to use facebook to try and set up a night at Famous Dave's than go to anything organized again.