"Don't You Forget About Me"
(Blah blah)
"Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)"
(Eurythmics)
"Take On Me"
(Aha)
"Major Tom"
(Blah blah)
"Watching You"
(The Police)
"Drive"
(The Cars)
"The Safety Dance"
(Men Without Hats)
"Melt With You"
(Blah blah)
"Forever Young"
(Blah blah)
Yes, it's hard to believe that twenty years have gone by since we graced the halls of Argyle Secondary School, bolting for our lockers before the bell rang, crushing (do Canadians even say this word? Maybe I've been in California too long) on boys (or girls) that really didn't deserve to be crushed on. Crushed maybe. By a big heavy implement. But crushed on? Probably not. Oh, I'm kidding. We were all wonderful.
So I have broken this page down into two sections, Recap and Gallery. If you don't give a flip what I have to say about the reunion, feel free to go straight to the Gallery and look at the pretty pictures I took instead. I wouldn't blame you. I tend to be quite yappy. Also, in an effort to protect privacy, I'm only including first names.
Recap - my walkthrough of the entire event
Gallery - pictures from the hockey game, pub,
and reunion itself
Okay, I'll admit, I had a momentary lapse of reason when it came to the reunion. I questioned whether or not I wanted to attend for the very same reasons I'm sure everyone else did:
It was a bit of a trip from San Jose, California to North Vancouver, B.C. and I kind of debated back and forth as to whether or not I wanted to shell out that kind of cash. Obviously I did. It was so worth it! For any of you who bailed because of said reasons above or any weirdness from the 10-year (was I the only one who enjoyed it???), do not fret! We come in peace!!
So I sucked it up and made the decision. Once I did that, I didn't really care WHAT happened, because I was determined to have a good time, see some old best pals from school and take bunches of pictures which would (hopefully) be better than the ones on my crappy digital camera from the 10-year reunion. Man, what a load off.
I found out later, I wasn't the only one stressing. I mean, I wasn't even in a minority. Everyone had the same fears! Well, probably not EVERYONE. Most everyone. But here's the thing: I really didn't care how successful people were, how much money they made (unless they were buying me a Pepsi), or what they looked like. Given that I'm not exactly the buff 18-year old I once was, I was fairly sure no one else was either. And honestly? I just wanted to see how people were doing! Not to compare or judge, just to learn. I spent 5 years with these people, some of them I became like near family to. So why wouldn't I want to know what's going on?
Plus, there was the hope that I'd gather some courage and talk to those grads who I didn't have the guts to talk to in high school. I've definitely become bolder so, meh, what the heck.
Yeah, this wasn't so great. My flight was cancelled so I had to be shuttled from San Jose to San Francisco and then hurry up and wait for 5 hours until the new flight. Oh well, at least Alaska Airlines gave me 1,000 bonus miles and paid for my cab! Oh, and 12 bucks for a meal. I'm like, "You realize this is airport food. Twelve dollars will buy me half a breadstick!"
So I played on my laptop and counted the minutes until my flight. Several hours later, I arrived at the Vancouver International Airport and called Moira who was now asleep since she's got two kids under the age of five and it's roughly 11 p.m. (so much for arriving at 7 p.m.!). I decline the Navigation system at the Avis Car Rental because I have MapQuest directions and think I know everything. What I can't seem to remember is the fact that I am geographically challenged and get lost going around the block. So I drive out of YVR (for you flight types, that's the airport code) and promptly head into Vancouver, rather than out towards Coquitlam.
It's late. I'm tired. I'm lost and you can't do U-Turns. So I do the famous Canadian U-Turn and do left-left-left-right. I head BACK to the airport so I can get my bearings and start over. (Seriously. I did this. I must have burned 20 minutes of driving time.) Finally, I was on the right path and heading to Moira's pad. I arrived super duper late and, sure enough, I got sleepy Moira at the door. So she took me downstairs to the dungeon where they keep all visitors-- ha ha, I'm kidding. She has a beautiful place and took me down to the guest room.
I figured she'd be tired so I didn't want to delay her very long since we each had long days ahead of us. She the spa, me whomever I could find to harass without notice. I chose my old work-mate, Tara and my sister. BUT...every time I started to feel guilty about keeping her up, we'd find something else to talk about. Next thing you know, it's 3 a.m. and we realize this is going to set the standard of lack of sleep for the entire weekend.
This was interesting. I didn't want to PLAY, I just wanted to be there. I didn't want to play because I'm a complete feeb and woefully out of shape. Making a fool of myself the day before the reunion may have paved the way for some AWESOME tales to tell at the 30-year, but I preferred they not be about "How Melissa threw up blood on the ice and had to be hauled off in an ambulance." Moira decided she was going to play that game and I give her massive props for sheer guts. Even though she did tell me no less than ten times that she thought she was going to throw up with nerves. Seeeeee??? I dodged a bullet didn't I???
Luckily, she didn't. I knew she wouldn't. (She probably hadn't eaten anything.)
So all the players hopped into their gear (I think it was Dena, Pam, Moira, Collette, and Shannon) and I went off to yap with Marnie while we waited for the game to start. It was interesting catching up with her because, honestly, I didn't know her that well - except by sight - so I was curious what we'd have to talk about. Sure enough, we filled the time easily. We headed out to the spectator area (which was niiiice and chilly) and watched them skate.
I took bunches of pictures of everyone meeting up. We probably had more skaters than spectators, but who cares? It was REALLY nice to be there because it was like dipping your toes in the cold water. You know what you're in for before you jump in. Since this was a big reunion, this kind of knowledge was invaluable. I got a chance to talk to Ray, Ailsa, Vicki, Tanya, Victor, Jeff, Rob, Janine, Chris, Dana, and a bunch of others who knew better than to humiliate themselves on the ice. (Although there was a second there where I kind of slipped on one of the slick benches after taking a picture. That could have been embarrassing.)
Truthfully, I remember NOTHING about the game. All I saw was little ants skating around on ice and a black thing whizzing to and fro. Mostly, I was talking. When I wasn't talking, I was taking pictures. When I wasn't taking pictures, I was talking. Not a lot of watching of hockey game going on. Who won? I have no idea. Who was playing? I have no idea. Hello! They all had helmets on!!
You know who totally blew me away? Victor and Mark. I walked RIGHT PAST Victor and he said hello to me and I'm like, "Erm...yeah... Hmmmmm... Nope. Don't remember you. Coming up snake eyes on that roll." The second he said his name, I went, "OH! VICTOR!! I only went to Elementary school with you, too, and see this scar??? (I stuck out my finger) You did that! The pencil sharpener in the cutting board, remember? I tried to pull out that 5 cent piece of plastic and metal and you nearly cut my finger off! I think of you every time I look at that scar." I show him the scar again. "See? It's right there." He looks at it, gets a pained look on his face and says, "If I didn't tell you before, I'm sorry." I laughed. I still have the finger. It's all good. And then I ask him about his dog, Lola, who was the BEST dog (next to my dog, Butch) in the whole world because she was a floppy eared, long-tailed mixed-breed Doberman, she had the strength to pull us all around the school ground on our roller-skates. (Needless to say, dogs don't tend to live 25+ years so I was a little bummed to find out that she was no longer around.)
By the way, I don't know if it's legal or not to drink booze in bleachers while you're watching a hockey game at a community rink? But certain people totally snuck it in. Not mentioning names, you know who you are! (Actually, I'm not mentioning names because I forgot who you are.)
After the hockey game, we headed off to the Black Bear Pub in Lynn Valley. There were approximately 40 of us. The Black Bear Pub does not hold a lot of people so we got to play this game I like to call, "Sardines". But it was fun. I think I had my very first conversation with Rob who was clearly inebriated, but ultimately hysterical, so that was cool. I talked to Todd about missions trips and how we just missed each other in New Orleans this last July by a WEEK. I also got to talk to Rick (whom I adore) and even Drew, who suggested I read a book. (I believe it actually fit the conversation and he wasn't suggesting I was illiterate and under-read.)
Among the joy and alcohol and talking so loudly that we all became hoarse, I managed to get a few words in with Kristi and Jill who were already at the pub (with Kristi's husband, Mike, who also went to Argyle, but graduated a year before we did). Off I went to social butterfly-ize with others such as Jeff, Scott, Ian, et al.
And I took bunches of pictures, too.
Apparently, Moira and I (who assumed we'd be at home by midnight) closed the place and were the last girls left. Now this was pretty hysterical, because who we ended up hanging out with (at roughly 2:30 in the morning) was not at all who I expected. So we all stood in the parking lot as people waited for cabs and Rob suggested we go to Maplewood Pub. So I looked at Moira, she looked at me, and we said, "Okay." Being the ONLY two girls left, we were pretty popular. What really was funny was following Rob, playah!, in his white minivan. Oh, how times have changed!! I kid, he was really nice and surprisingly witty. How was it I did not know that in high school? Could it be...I never spoke to him? Maybe!
So off we go to the new pub. We skate in and they don't ID. Part of me is thinking, "SCORE!", the other part of me is thinking, "Heyyyyyyyy..." Not only that, they don't charge a cover charge. We find out why as we enter the pub. The lights are on. They're kicking everyone out! Moira and I, a few drinks under our belts (me, pop - her, no idea), we're feeling a need for some washroom time. Rob points us upstairs. We go upstairs and it's packed with nubile 20-year olds. we head downstairs and find the washroom. As we sit in our little stalls, we hear two girls at the sinks talking. What one of them says is enough to embarrass a corpse and we decide to high-tail it out of there. Didn't even say goodbye! Just bolted.
Off to Chateau Moira. Bed. Sleep.
Vicki was kind enough to organize a little get-together so that we could all meet up early, gather some courage (some mental, some liquid), and then head down together. Tanya booked a hotel room in the Holiday Inn (which is where the Reunion was) so that we would have a place to crash after the party. Roommates: Melissa, Tanya, Vicki, and Moira. She invited a bunch of others, too.
All in all, here's who showed up:
So every time someone knocked on the door, we'd open it up and go, "Holy cow, you look GREAT!", or "Oh my gosh, you haven't changed a BIT!", or "No, we didn't order pizza, check down the hall."
I swear, some of these ladies I had not seen since probably Grade 8. You know how it is in high school, as soon as you have a boyfriend you ditch the girlfriends. I pretty much had a boyfriend throughout high school, so keeping in touch with tight friends from Elementary school was harder to do. I hadn't hung out with Sue since we had a massive snow in the Winter of '82 and went out to hunt boys from Lynn Valley Elementary with ice balls. So that was a blast. Putting Suzie and Sue together was crazy. It was like stepping back in time. And the weird thing is, talking to everyone, it was like...whoa...what happened to the last twenty years? I turned around and it was like the years never happened. Click. And we're back.
Moira and I headed down around 6 p.m., but I had to come upstairs two or three times because I changed into jeans from a skirt (after running into Tony, who looked REAL comfortable), forgot something, and forgot the same thing again and had to go back and get it and take it upstairs.
As we arrived, Dave and his wife were at the greeting table and were handing out name tags. Then off to a professional photographer for to snap our pics! SMILE! CHEEZ! And then off we go into the room of remembrance. It wasn't called that. I call it that because as soon as I started spotting people I recognized, some story or other would come into my head about them. Totally random stuff, too.
Doug - making him kiss me in Grade 7, cruelly
dumping him before Grade 8 to go out with Danny Sigurdson, buying
him Lego and Rubik's Cube for Christmas
Kevin - he lived across the street from the soccer
field of Lynn Valley Elementary
Sue - could kick anyone's ass, if she really wanted to
(we gave each other a run for the money)
Suzie - making banana bread from a box for her mom,
matching beige cord skirts for the dance
Miranda - playing Space Invaders on her Atari at her
house, which happened to be next door to Dougie
Rich - lending him some cassette tapes that I
never got back
Todd - walking down the hall with him on the way to
French class
Sunny - watching her head butt the volleyball (on
my Green Team) and having it debated if it was a foul, her Gremlin
Lee-Ann - hanging out with her on the basketball team
that sucked so bad, I don't think we ever won a game
Cara - leaning against the gym wall talking to her as
we watched people playing basketball down below
Tanya - sitting in her bedroom talking to her about
Craig, the love of her life, in grade 10 and the limo ride for her
Sweet 16th
Lisa - watching her and Lori in gym class
where one has to wear a blindfold and the other has to tell them
where to go and Lisa directs Lori right into the gym wall
Kenna - her double-jointed elbows in Volleyball in
grade 8
Heather - watching her and Tamara bury Sue and I in tennis (and just how smart she was!)
Michele - sitting quiet as a church mouse in her
glasses and big coat in Mr. Crosetti's class (we were ALL afraid to
move and it was COLD!)
Vicki - spending bunches of time with Jayson as
they dated in elementary school
Ben - running from the Boulevard to the top of
Mountain Highway in the rain with cinnamon buns that Jenn
gave him
Moira - having a sleepover at her place with
Caroline, her back brace, and her catching heat from Corey
for doing well on tests
Patrick - sitting in Science class talking to him
about Ian Fleming and the story Patrick was writing
Graham - grey rugby pants
Ian small teenager, big saxophone
Rob - coming up with the admittedly horrid and cruel
lyrics on the 500 floor to "Silver Bombs", watching 'interesting'
movies at his parents' house
Janine - mis-telling the "last thing a fly thinks
about before it hits a windshield at 50 mph" joke (it's "goes
through it's mind") (she blew the one about four skin divers,
too)
Jenn (missing) - her big fur coat and that
wicked cool calculator watch in grade 8
Kathy - seeing the picture of her and Caroline
in the newspaper on the first day of summer, splashing in
the pool at Stanley Park beach
Dave - the sandwich board he wore as he walked the
street advertising for Kentucky Fried Chicken, hearing his voice on
a call-in radio program
Drew - never getting the joke he made about me
Rick - hanging in the halls with him at a concert
Stacey - wishing I had an OUNCE of whatever it was
that made her so beautiful and popular
Natalia - watching her put up with crap from the
idiots in Mr. Mammone's Earth Science class in Grade 11
Bonnie (deceased) - sitting in an ice cream shop on
Pier 39 in San Francisco with her and this excruciatingly handsome
guy named Tom as he told us about 1,000 Years of Solitude
(not really caring about the book, just thinking he was so gorgeous)
in Grade 12
Tony - laughing my arse off to just about anything he
said
Derrick - writing his own music (for all
instruments), which we ended up playing in Concert band while he
conducted
Caroline (missing) - looking up at her while she
and Trent stood on some steps near the tennis courts and he moved
her long long hair out of her face
Scott - sitting near Scott and chatting
with him in French class before "Bon Bon Bingo"
Lori - wondering just what it was that girl had to
snag a hottie like Graham, and wishing I had some of it!
Scott - "Oh Canada!" hand farts
Marisa (missing) - her mom perming my hair, speaking
in Italian
Tamara (missing) - her father was a chef and she had
frozen CHOCOLATE in the freezer!!!
Cheryl - getting her eyelids tattooed in grade 12 (was
that fact or some rumour that stuck in my brain?)
Sheila - thinking it was cool that her name was
"girl" to an Australian, jokingly tossing her remote control in the
air and accidentally letting it slip and having it smash all over
the place
And THAT'S just off the top of my head!
I took it upon myself to be the unofficial photographer for the Reunion. What this really means is, if I take the pictures, I don't have to be IN them. Smart thinking, any way you look at it. Now, also, since I'm exceptionally sentimental, I wanted to make sure that I took enough pictures to really remember the event. I tried to get as many as I could.
Unfortunately, this meant I missed out on talking to some people. I never really did have the guts to hop on over to the Sunny/Dena/Stacey table to chit chat. Even after 20 years, I tended to stick with the people I felt comfortable around. Although, if they had approached me, I would have loved to have talked to them. Actually, Facebook has been really helpful in that regard. I'm much more bold (and wordy!) in type.
Unofficially, the reunion was a 25-Year Lynn Valley Elementary School reunion so we all got together for pictures and stories and that was amazingly fun. I felt so comfortable with everyone from elementary school, it was uncanny. I tended to gravitate toward them most of the night. I welcome any and all talkers and even found out that Stuart had a crush on me in Grade 8 so bad, that he couldn't even speak to me. I asked him if I had been rude or unfriendly to him (thus putting him off!), but he said no. Wheww! I'm telling you right now, that made my entire reunion. Talk about flattering! If you saw me in Grade 8, I was NOT much to look at (and I was still Melissa Brouwers) - most likely due to the fact that I had wicked thick hair that I hated to brush and should never EVER have allowed to get "feathered".
The food was excellent. I thought it would be a mob running towards the buffet, but since everyone was so busy talking, people sort of just trickled in here and there. So I never had to miss out! Actually, I took three bites of my food and went off in search of more people to photograph and yap to. Best $55 salad I ever ate! (I'm kidding, I had dessert, too.)
I spent a good long time talking to Doug about life and politics and another good chunk of time laughing my arse off talking to Tony, thinking he was one of the easiest guys to talk to at the entire reunion and being grateful for it.
Rob and I had a chance to sit down and yap, and he reminded me what a psycho I was about Ben in the 90s to which I wholeheartedly agreed and I reminded him what a smart ass he was. So we sparred back and forth for a while, which reminded me of pretty much every day at work these days, until Tanya came over. We continued to verbally spar (lightheartedly) as Janine made her way over, too. So as I waited for the sparks to fly, Janine asked for a picture of her, Rob, and Tanya, which I never got around to taking.
Paul made one of the most hilarious impromptu speeches I have ever heard and I wished WISHED I had brought my digital video camera. Honestly, though, it would have utterly sucked to be stuck behind that, too. On the television played a home video that Paul and Scott made, that Scott brought with him to the reunion. So I got a chance to see tons of my classmates in their finest 80's outfits and hairstyles walking the halls of Argyle Secondary in 1987. That mesmerized me.
Suzie made me laugh out loud because she had not changed a BIT. I loved her personality and raucous wit!! Watching her and Sue gallivanting around joking with each other practically brought a tear to my eye, it was so funny and familiar.
I skirted Ben pretty much all night and finally decided to suck it up and talk to him. He was yapping with Tony and I stepped in and said hello and spent the next several minutes talking to him about what he's doing these days (teaching at Emily Carr College), his family (married with one child and one on the way), and his Art (Art exhibit this weekend - September 2007). I told him what I was up to and that I still had an old drawing he did for me somewhere around the house of an eaglet. I took some pictures with him and of him and went off on my merry way, feeling exceptionally mature and not at all clingy or unhinged.
I was kicking myself because I didn't talk to Steve and I really wanted to. There was something pushing me to talk to him and by the time I looked around for him, I couldn't find him.
I caught up with Jennifer in the hallway and asked her if I could take her picture, to which she graciously agreed. We spoke for a few minutes, I recognized someone I hadn't yet gotten a picture of and said I'd be right back. She said, "Oh sure, you say you're going to come back, but you won't." (or something to that effect) and I thought, "Wow, would it be important to her if I didn't?" and I was secretly kind of happy about that. (She is another one of the popular girls who I would have loved to have talked to in high school, but never had the guts.) She was right, by the way, I did forget.
I talked to Paul who, when I asked him the dreaded question, "What are you up to these days?", he said (without skipping a beat), "I sell drugs." I laughed and went, "Is this a Grosse Point Blank moment?" and he clarified that he sold pharmaceuticals. Still, awesome way to say it, you know? I thought I had this great job as a Game Designer and most people who asked me about it, had no idea what a game designer WAS! (So much for impressing anyone!) I should have asked them to ask their kids! I have street cred with them.
So as the party started to wind down and it was long after midnight, we headed up to the room and (you guessed it), we yapped some more. I don't think I slept more than 2 hours that night. We headed up to Garry's suite and talked to him for a while and then back down to our suite so Tanya and I could have some time alone to really talk - something we hadn't done in a lot of years. We had a few minutes of quality time before the other girls returned to the room.
Some time later, after we'd all gone to bed, someone knocked on the door and I thought I half-dreamed it or the cleaning lady was WAY too eager for my liking. I found out later it was Dave! I wish I'd opened the dang door, because he was so busy being a host at the reunion that I never got much of a chance to catch up with him!
Tanya was up at the crack of o-dark-thirty, making coffee, and shuffling around. I'm not kidding. She was up BEFORE 7 a.m.!!! For whatever reason, I thought it was later so I got up. Believe me, I could have slept in until at least 2 or 3 p.m. -- forget that after you hit 30 you can't sleep in business. I can! But I didn't. Everyone packed up (Moira headed out the night before to get a REAL night's sleep and Miranda stayed over instead) and parted ways and Tanya and I headed out to breakfast on Capilano and Marine Drive at De Dutch Pannekoek House. I begged. She relented. They don't have De Dutch in California and I'd been waiting about a year to go there.
Before the picnic, we sat at a window seat and talked for a while, just kind of processing how everything went, memories of school, and how weird it was that we hadn't seen each other in fifteen years. FIFTEEN YEARS! It was like we picked up where we had left off, but better because - finally - we had some life experience and wisdom under our belts. I have to say, it was one of the best talks I've ever had with her. I came to realize that I have never been able to replicate the friendships that I had in high school and, as nice as it is to live out here in California with the warm weather and great job, I miss my friends from home. Tanya was feeling it, too. She said I should sleep at her place that night and I ended up bailing on my sister (good thing I visited her on the Friday or she would have been CHEESED!) to stay over.
I love it how, in typical Canadian fashion, the weather is warm and beautiful when we're spending our time INDOORS and the moment we have an outdoor event, it turns cold and rainy. (Oh, how I have missed that!) Only the most die-hard of adventurers braved the elements and showed up for the picnic. Since Tanya and I were just down the street, of course we showed up, even though neither of us brought anything resembling a family member.
So along with Julia and family, Moira and family, Natalia and family, Patrick, Rob and girlfriend, Tony, Dave and family, Paul and family, Janine and family, we hung out - shivered a bit - and talked for a while. It was nice, actually. Cold, wet, but nice.
After the picnic, we headed back to Tanya's place in Deep Cove. We hung out and yapped, laughed, stayed up, and talked some more. Mike, Tanya's husband, was very gracious about lending his wife (whom he hadn't seen all weekend) to me and took care of the kids and the house while we obliviously spent our time and energy on each other.
The next day, I had to get ready to fly back to San Jose and I had kind of a sadness about it. I didn't want to go. You can take the girl out of Canada, but you can't take Canada out of the girl! So we got in all the gabbing we could possibly stuff into each other's ears and she walked me to my car. I was holding up PRETTY GOOD until she gave me a hug and started to cry, then I lost it, too. One thing I am NOT is a cry-ee type person. Ice queen, maybe. Stoic, probably. Distant, most likely. Emotional, not really. So this was kind of a surprise, but a nice one.
The flight back was utterly uneventful, so I won't even mention it. However, I do want to point out that a WEEK after the Reunion, my voice is still hoarse!!
The end.
If you didn't go to the reunion, I am sad because you should have. If you did go, I hope you took a second to talk to me. If you didn't, I'm utterly accessible and love to catch up. Again, I'm exceptionally nostalgic -- I'm the girl who collected gravel from her alley in elementary school so she wouldn't forget what it was like to live there.
And I'm on Facebook, which Scott aptly calls, "Face-crack", so do a search of "Melissa Parker Bianco".
So the word is that Dave is getting feedback on another reunion in 5 years. Apparently we didn't scare him away from organizing these things. Kudos to you, Dave! If you want him to make it happen, be sure to email him and lend your support.
Ah, the joys of photography. So, how did we all change? (Or not!)
These are Thumbnails so if you want to see the BIG picture, click on the little one, otherwise this page would take a kagillion years to load. (Like it took me a kagillion years to write.)
And, not that I need to mention it, but these pics (since they were taken by me) are copyrighted by me. So if you wanna use one, I'm sure it's absolutely fine by me, just let me know, give me credit, and don't use my bandwidth - save to your own computer. Capiche?