I just bought plane tickets for my five-year college reunion. What's different, what's the same...I had my five-year high school reunion in 2000 (and the ten-year is next year, since I did the Theoretical American Standard Schooling Schedule...)

...which leads to a sort of funny aside. As I remember it, I thought briefly about taking a year off in between high school and college, but there wasn't really anything I wanted to do that badly. That's pretty much how I ended up in California, too: I saw a paying internship come across my desk, and it let me make some money, see a place I'd never been, and not have to make any big decisions for a few more months. Evidently I did need a break from college, though, because the summer after freshman year I got restless and bought a one-way train ticket to rural Wisconsin to try and make a living as a professional a cappella singer. I made it back in time for school to start in the fall, but I took Mandarin Chinese to keep myself interested, and heartily recommend it if you find a lack of mind-expanding challenge in your life.

I guess reunions are designed to provoke reminiscence, so I'm trying to remember the faces and people I hung around with and think of who would be eligible to show up and then who would actually be likely. I'll probably see a lot of the Dynamics, which will be fun. I'm thinking also of the goodbyes at graduation time, or one in particular, which was basically "You're neat, I wish we'd gotten to be better friends." So I'm hoping she shows up.

I'm expecting to see the one ex-girlfriend from my class, which should be nice if awkward, since it was a tortuous codependent relationship; and I haven't been able to track down the woman I had a nice sweet short thing with senior year, although someone with her name still lives near the campus, which I find a suspicious coincidence.

And some portion of my family should drive up to hang out, so that'll be fun too. Yay for traveling.