Overdosing on Memory Lane

This weekend was my 20th high school reunion. The best indicator of the different place I am in my life is that I am 30+ pounds heavier than I was at the 10th reunion but that only bothered me a tiny bit. Since I’m so much happier with myself and my life right now, that 30+ extra poundage was nothing but a blip on my anxiety radar. I was WAAAAY more concerned about blanking on people’s names. Or worse – having them blank on MINE.

We traveled down Friday and went straight to dinner with some graduates who wouldn’t be able to attend the festivities. That was a good low-scaled way to start the adventure because there was just a few of us and we had beer and food as a good buffer to curb any anxiety. It was really great seeing everyone and I only struggled temporarily with a few people during all three events. My kids were decently behaved at the family event which is good since they were running on minimal sleep. I didn’t stress too much about what to wear or what to say and I even forgot to have photos on the ready on my phone of my kids. All-in-all it was a much more relaxed event than the 10th reunion because I cared way more about seeing old friends and catching up than I did about my own appearance. This means maybe I’ve done some growing in 10 years!

Or I just stopped caring about my appearance in general. Which, considering how many days I spend in sweaty workout gear? Is probably more along the lines of the truth.

While seeing old friends and watching our kids hang out was awesome, some of our other adventures rang dear in my heart too. First, Donnie and I hit up a running greenway around an old mental hospital that overlooks the cemetery my Dad is buried at. I remember when Dad’s brother was buried there he talked about that trail and how he’d like to go run it and visit his brother’s grave, but I’m not sure if he ever got a chance to. I seem to remember him saying he never did when we were discussing burying him there when he was in hospice. Either way – the entire trip was an homage to Dad. Especially the selfie I took with his marker. Dad loved the “Arm-Length” photos, so I figured it would be a fitting tribute.

We also hung out a bit in Fountain City which is the part of Knoxville I grew up in. We went to one of Dad’s favorite eateries, hung out at the playground, and visited my old school.

We went and saw our old house, and it’s always freaky because in some ways it looks so different, but in other ways…EXACTLY THE SAME. It’s a different color and has fancy windows and a garage door, but it still has the numbers Dad painted on the side of it. There are several trees missing in the yard which is good since they kept falling on the house Dad’s final years. It’s weird…and I desperately wanted to go knock on the door. But we refrained. I didn’t grow up on the safest street in Knoxville so it would be a hit-or-miss as to how my knock would be received.

All in all it was a great trip. A lot of memories brought to the surface that I had long forgotten. Even weirder was when people would discuss their memories, some that involved me, and I would have NOT recollection of those events. What happened to those memories? They were probably cleared out to make room for my endless Harry Potter knowledge. At my 30th reunion I won’t remember anyone’s names but I’ll still be able to recite the Weasley siblings by name in order of birth.