Christmas wrap-up

Since the last post I have eaten lots of beef and chocolate and cookies and pie and drank beer and got presents. Christmas was good again this year. I highly recommend Rise & Fall, Rage & Grace by The Offspring. I had been thinking of picking it up for awhile, got it for Christmas, and really enjoy it. By far one of the best Offspring albums ever.

I also got a Transformers toy from my pal Dave. Even if the new Transformers movies are terrible, I'm happy to report that Hasbro still makes good Transformers toys. Far less dangerous than the ones I had growing up (fewer sharp edges, no guns that shoot small missiles, fewer accessories to choke on, etc.), but still fun to transform from car to robot and back again.

The day after Christmas was my 10-yr high school reunion (a.k.a. high "shool", per this page in my 1999 year book). There were the people who I still see and hang out with today, a few people I haven't seen in ages and was glad to catch up with, people who I knew but didn't care about but had to feign interest and excitement in seeing, and a great big group of people I had no recollection of ever meeting in my life. Name tags were sometimes helpful, but other times I still had no idea who I was talking to.

One example: one fellow stoppped me and was all excited, "Ben! What's happening? Fill me in on what you've been up to since high school!" His name tag was sort of curled and I couldn't even read it. I told him my life story, he happily clapped me on the back and as he strode away I was finally able to catch the name tag: Eric Simmons. Eric Simmons... Eric Simmons... Hmmm. Nope, no idea. Was he the guy who I went to school with who also lived directly across the street from me? I think so. That's probably why he was talking to me.

Much later in the eveing I ran into Kevin Simmons. Ah! Kevin is the one who lived across the street from me! ... So, who the heck is Eric Simmons? No idea, but we're probably bestest buddies now, and I'm looking forward to the 2019 reunion already.