My high school had a twenty-year reunion last weekend for (obvious to people who know what year it is and can do math) the class of 1984. I graduated three years previous, but I knew many people from that class, certainly more than I knew from my own. My friend Scotty called me around 8:30 on Friday and talked me into leaving the office and coming up to meet him and some other friends up in the part of town near where we grew up. It's about 30 miles, about a 45 minute drive, and I half-way didn't want to go, because I was tired, and STILL WORKING AT 8:30 ON A FRIDAY NIGHT, but a friend that I haven't talked to in years got on the phone and she talked me into going, I knew I couldn't miss it. So I drove out there, and I had a great time.

I knew I was going to post about it, I even tried to record some ideas as I was driving home at 3AM, but I wanted to wait a while, to get some perspective, so I didn't sound maudlin or sentimental. I haven't really had much of a social life the last few years, and if you've been reading these posts you might get the impression that I would rather not have one. I think that I may have thought that. But it was very reassuring on some primative, reptilian part of the brain, some Maslowian level to have friends, long-term, geological time-scale friends. I saw many of my friends, some I hadn't seen in fifteen or twenty years. They remembered me, I remembered them (except for this girl named Ashley, who I still have no idea who she is, but she remembered me, I hope she didn't take offense, but I think it's better to be honest if you don't remember someone than to try to fake it. "Oh, yeah, HI, you!!") and we remembered a lot of really good times.

After I bought my house, I went out with this girl a couple of times (if you asked me which celebrity she looks like most I would have to say Julia Roberts), and I think she was weird, because she kept asking, "So where are your friends?" and saying "I like to go out in big groups and meet people". I was getting mixed signals. I think that she thought that I was a loser and that I really didn't have any friends. I can't be a loser. I have a house in Bellaire. My friends have all gotten married, had kids, moved away, and I don't often see my real friends, but when we do it's like no time at all has elapsed, and we don't need to talk every day to stay friends.

I was too insecure to go to my own high school reunions, for a lot of really dumb reasons, mostly that I haven't lived up to my own image of me at twenty-seven or thirty-seven or now forty. But I think that there may be a flaw to your high school precognition when you are envisioning yourself at age 40.

I did get asked "the questions" that I have to constantly avoid:

"Are you married?"

"No? Have you ever been married?"

"Oh, really?!! Never?"

and sometimes, "Do you have any kids?"

and then, "Are you seeing anyone?"

"No? Oh, really?!!"

And the (usually) unspoken follow-up:

"Are you gay?"

Well, that answer is no, I used to get upset and say something back, but now I just say no.

And with my real friends, my true and secret friends, I only get asked one of the questions, and I just have to say no once: "Are you seeing anyone?" Or sometimes, "Hey Drew, are you gay or what?"

This post is for my true and secret friends. You know who you are.

Late.