Rants and Ramblings: random commentary about culture, media, politics, technology and whatnot.

round about town

Thursday was kind of a surreal “preview of things to come” for my 10-year high school reunion next year.

In the morning, Rob and I stopped by my old high school to surprise visit my friend Danielle, who works there as a science teacher. We missed her — I found out later that she had been in a meeting — but we did get to wander around campus a bit. The hallways are a bit darker than I remember, but, new construction aside, just about everything else seems the same — including the crazy National Merit portrait of me which still hangs in the school office (thankfully, it’s hidden behind the Christmas tree right now). I was a bit nervous about running into old teachers, but the halls were pretty much empty (it was the last day of finals, and school had ended half an hour earlier), so I was spared that awkwardness.

After that, we headed into town for lunch at El Charro. The restaurant is my gold standard when it comes to chimichangas, and I was actually really disappointed with what we got this time around: a chimi that was all tortilla, with very little filling except for what seemed like more tortilla.

We walked off lunch by wandering around downtown, including the lovely mosaic-domed Pima County Courthouse (more photos »).

Later that night, we met Danielle and Kevin for dinner / drinks. We had a great evening, catching up on the goings-on in our lives and those of folks we knew from high school. The latter occasionally proved a bit surreal: At one point, as Danielle talked about working at the high school, Kevin scribbled a note to warn her that an old classmate was throwing darts on the other side of the pillar she was sitting against. And there was a moment reminiscent of Grosse Pointe Blank when another classmate, who had last month sought me out on MySpace, unexpectedly came over to our table to say hello.

It’s been so long since I’ve had any random encounters with former classmates — most of whom I haven’t seen since graduation — that it’s really kind of strange to see them and have that “so how have you been?” catch-up conversation. But I guess that’s what the whole reunion thing is going to be. Maybe I should follow Rob’s advice and figure out my standard answer to that question now — something terse and catchy like Martin Blank’s “I freaked out, joined the army, went into business for myself, I’m a professional killer.”