the underwear drawer

romy and michelle's high school reunion (minus romy)

So yesterday I exercised the supremely bad judgment of watching that new Britney Spears and Kevin Whatshisface reality show on UPN. And lo, it was kind of vomit-inducing. Not just so much for the skankiness factor, or the extremely closeups of greasy grimy skin, or all the sad, sad sex talk. I mean, that all was vomitous too, but oh my stars, the camerawork. If you're going to make a whole show consisting of someone's hand-held camera footage (which every five seconds would vertiginously whip around 180 degrees for a mega close-up of the filmer's face as she interjects some saucy comment and then laughs with her mouth VERY WIDE OPEN) at least make sure that the camera has one of those motion-stabilizer things. That was some Blair Witch shit right there. The room, she is still spinning.

So the next big thing looming on my calendar (aside from a smattering of PICU calls and ER shifts) is that my ten-year high school reunion is coming up in about two weeks. First of all--my TEN YEAR high school reunion? Holy crap, how can it be ten years already? When you think of it like that, all in a chunk, it hardly seems possible that time could pass so quickly. But then I sit down and think about my four years of college, four years of med school, and two years of residency, and how long each of those individual experiences seemed, and then ten years starts to sound about right.

I am very excited for my high school reunion. Well, first of all, I'm excited that the lounge that they picked for the reunion is only a ten-minute walk from my apartment--but aside from that, I'm also psyched to see everyone. Let me say right off that, unlike many, I did not hate my high school experience. Most of the people I know that profess hatred for their high school years say they felt trapped by their high schools and saw college and beyond as a chance to escape and be with a cohort of people that could actually read, or, barring that, occasionally hold an intelligent non-intoxicated conversation. I don't know about that, or how much of it is exaggeration to make a point, but I do know that when I offered to go with Joe to his ten-year reunion three years prior, he blanched and said he didn't think he could handle a whole night of discussing lawn care and gun collections while standing around with cups of spiked punch in the high school gym. So anyway, my point being that I have no idea what other people's high school experiences were like, but I really liked mine. I liked the school, and I liked the people. They were fun and cool, and to this day, still some of the smartest people that I know. So the thought of seeing everyone in the same place again, with minimal effort on my part (see: the ten minute walk) is a happy one.

I know that the conventional wisdom is that high school reunions are the place to spot how everyone got fat and bald, but I don't really think this is going to be the case either, given the sampling of high school friends with whom I've kept in touch. In fact, I'll probably be the real outlier, being knocked up and all, but of the classmates I still see around the city, everyone looks...pretty much the same. Some of the guys I've seen out and about have started to tend towards the habitus of the middle-aged (a little softening around the waistline, maybe a slight retreat of the hairline), but on the whole, everyone still basically looks like--dare I say--teenagers.

I blame this on New York. Outside of New York, I think that people are pushed towards marriage, home ownership and family much faster than within the city. Most of the people I graduated high school with are about 28. (I happen to be a year younger with a June birthday, which is why I'm only 26--though not for long.) But in other parts of the country, most of my high school class would be married with children, like Al and Peg Bundy. However, the majority of my high school friends are not married. Everyone rents. Many people work, but have not settled into "career" mode yet. Many are still in various stages of graduate education (mostly law, though there's some medicine and business scattered in there). And no one has kids yet. I don't know what it is, but there seems to be something about living in a major metropolis that delays your ascension to "grown-up" status. Sure, we get there eventually, but we just take our sweet time arriving.

Oh my god, I'm going to be a freaky square breeder-girl at my own high school reunion. How terminally un-hip.

Currently reading: Finishing "Bergdorf Blondes." Well, that was mindless. Next up, "The Namesake."