Sunday Scribblings - "Cheese"

In high school I was a spirited, outgoing and flirtatious girl. I was a cheerleader at 5' 1" with a rack and was given the dubious honour of "Class Flirt" my senior year. I still cringe at that label because I knew the boys probably had used a less flattering term. This was probably how I was remembered as our 30th reunion drew near. I had not attended a reunion since my 5yr because I was a big ole chicken. Not many knew what I had or what it did to me. My love story is what they wanted to hear.

It was the weekend before my 48th birthday. I was so excited that I was blessed with yet another year that I decided to go. I was still scared of walking in that room with a walker but I felt that I needed to go. We had decided to leave hubbys at home, stay at a nice hotel and make it a "girls" weekend.

The venue was at Arlen Ness' custom Harley motorcycle showroom. His daughter Sherri was in my little posse and she works there so he donated the space. Amazing Italian food and a live band made for a great casual get together.

Moreau Catholic High School's class of 1979.

I climbed up one step and said "cheese" so many times that by the end of the night my face said "no can do." There was not one look of pity that I saw but instead I was received by warmth and happiness that I was there. I should have brought Dave because people really wanted to meet the man in the love story.

The downside was I didn't want to be fed so I ate a burger before I left, I don't drink, I don't speak well over a band, I left my glasses at home so I didn't recognize anyone unless they came up to me. But there were a lot of hunched over squinting people looking at name tags, so I was not alone on that one. I did have straw for a water bottle but they were shaped like a flask with Arlen's logo. For late comers it looked like I was sucking up Vodka. Together with my speech slur and walker tucked out of the way, well you get the picture.

The lighting in that showroom made all the photos look grainy but these were my "click" that tore up Hawaii after graduation. I tried to keep up but at 3am my body won the battle with my brain. I missed out on I-Hop at 3:30am but my body still took 3 full days to recover. We took so many pictures to remember this night, that say "cheese" was still vibrating in my head to the beat of Journey as I drifted off to sleep.

Going to that reunion made my ALS walk and birthday even brighter.