Saturday, September 01, 2007

So, I'm in Maryland, and tonight we will attempt to crash a high school reunion. Hank did not graduate from this high school (spent freshman and sophomore years there) and in fact did not graduate from any high school, but that's a story for another day. Regardless, we're going to show up and look like we belong. Something tells me we're going to spend the evening in the hotel bar, but you never know.

Last night we attended a cocktail party put on by one of Hank's old school-mates, whom she hadn't seen in about 25 years. It was odd being at a party where I knew absolutely no one except Hank, but I wanted to let her mingle, and I didn't want to seem like an asshole, so I did my best to mingle.

For most of the time I was conversationally trapped by a fellow electrical engineer. Neither one of us actually does electrical engineering, instead we both do things more boring. In fact, if we had a Whose Job Is More Boring contest, it would be a tightly contested match. HOWEVER, at least I know that my job is boring and I won't bore others with my version of tales of security standards at water utility plants. Trust me, I've just made his job sound much more interesting than he did.

My first conversation, which was much more interesting, was with one of Hank's ex-friends who promptly introduced herself as a bitter divorcee.

Divorcee: Oh, I know it's not PC to be bitter.
Me: I don't think it's really a PC issue. It's not a case of offending someone by being bitter. It's just how you feel. You feel bitter.
Divorcee: Oh, god. You really are from California.

Tonight, more of same. I can't be a trophy husband, but maybe I can convince people that Hank didn't marry a prick.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mike, if it's anything like the reunion I drug the red head from Houston to a few weeks back, they'll be happy to have two more people willing to fork out a hundred bucks for ice tea and hors d'oeuvres. (Is that a legal Scrabble word?)

Mike said...

Anon, they actually had a pretty good turnout. And, the food DID suck, but there was free crappy beer and wine. Free booze is all you can realistically hope for at a reunion. (I don't know.)