around the world in 80 days

I would say that I feel like I've been living in a Jules Verne novel lately. But that would be phony and fake, as I went to Illinois (not around the world) in a Nissan Versa (not by railroad or steamer) for 3 days (not 80)... and I have not even actually read Around the World in Eighty Days. So I will simply use it as a clever and exaggerative title (to a blog post in which I make up new words like exaggerative).

At any rate - I'm back. Hazel and I went to Nana & Papa's house (my parents) for the weekend since Daddy has been out of town since last Sunday and Mama was wanting a little bit of caretaking for herself. Oh - and because of her 10-year-high-school reunion. Gulp.

It was a lovely weekend - I'm always so well taken care of at my parents' house - they cook great food, run to Panera for delicious blueberry muffins in the morning, snuggle my baby daughter and fight over who gets to dress her and change her diapers and feed her dinner... it's a little vacation from my everyday life. We shopped, watched some TV, took walks, and played with the baby. Excellent.

And this visit, I got to reconnect with friends from high school. There was no real formal "party" - it was Homecoming weekend at BHS and there were mini-events all weekend, the only one of which I attended was my friend Sara's informal open-house. There were some people I've seen relatively recently (in the past year), some where it's been 2 or 3 or 5 years... and some I literally have not seen since the summer after we graduated. Here's what I noticed:

- We all pretty much look the same. Some people so much the same it's almost creepy.

- Lots of us have changed names... not just because we're married, but because we now answer to "Mom/Mommy/Mama/Mommommommommom"

- When talking to some of the people with whom I was not super-close or even necessarily "friends" (as opposed to more "friendly acquaintances") and you remove all the high school social trickiness and add 10 years - you think to yourself "if we still lived in the same town, I bet we would be good friends, because these are just nice people." It makes you feel kinda good, but also really sad that high school is so fraught with drama and social strata that prevents you from realizing those things as a teenager.

- It's strange to stand in your old friend's same old house with the same old people (plus their wives/husbands/children), snacking on slightly more refined food... and feel as though nothing and everything has changed.

- I much prefer smaller group get-together/catch-up sessions. It was a blast to see people, but I'm just not a big-group-type person. I like a cup of coffee (okay, okay - a doctored up frou-frou latte drink) and 1 or 2 other people and good conversation. I'd really love to catch up with these people in a more personal setting - but that's not exactly the easiest thing to do.

Anyway - we're home now, 10-year-reunion is under my belt, and Mark comes home (LATE) tomorrow night. Haze and I are looking forward to having our guy around again.