Wow! What a night is all I have to say. I had so much fun mixin' and minglin'...catching up with classmates and old friends and just LMAO (to myself of course) on a myriad of fashion faux pas and at the fact that I would even be worried for one second that I couldn't compete. HA! I have come prepared.We arrived at THE Thayer Hotel today about 3:30 pm. THE Thayer is the ONLY hotel ON post so it is "allegedly a big deal to be able to get a room here. ALL hype. Call me a hotel snob if you want to, but the rooms at THE Thayer are one step above a room at the Super 8, except the doors here are on the inside instead of the outside of the hotel. For all of this money, I need a mini bar, robe, and something resembling a Heavenly Bed. Not even close. No mini bar, no robe, bed sucks but we do have a coffee pot...IN THE FREAKIN BATHROOM of all places. Whatever. We are here and that should be all that matters.
We take a little nap...well, I do while Ron wheeled and dealed on his crackberry and cell. Then he decided it was time to find out if the plumbing still works after all the surgery. Okay, I'm game...been awhile ya know. Turns out that everything works JUSTA FINE!!!!!! WHEW!
We get dressed and hitch a ride with J&T up to Herbert Hall Alumni Center for the reception. The Steptoe brick in the walkway is holding up nicely. We get into the Alumni Center and it is a freakin mad house. We get our gift bag and hat fine but the whole name tag thingy was a complete MESS! WTF! WHO THE FREAK IS IN CHARGE? Certainly NOT the Conference Chair who walked around viewing the mess and not doing a DAMN thing about it. Irritated the sheeyat out of me. Over 1200 name tags strewn across 2 tables in absolutely nor order. Pandemonium. Being the obsessive compulsive, type A personality that I am, I simply could not let this go, so between myself and my classmate Mike B., we managed to get R-Z organized by letter on one table while his wife and Terri organized A-Q on another. EXCUSE ME!!!! CONFERENCE CHAIR. Do you want to take some LEADERSHIP of this fiasco. Obviously not. Mike and his wife (and classmate) Connie have told me I need to let it go, but DAMN. The SHEEYAT was everywhere.
Anyway, we managed to get it under control and moved onto the bar. Time for some serious drinking but since there is only beer and wine, I best be quick about it since it is gonna take a whole lot of wine to get a tad silly. I decided to just sit back and take a look around to make some observations:
- 20 years sure do make us look all grown up. Some a whole LOT more than others. Some look not a day difference (RON) and others look like life just beat the crap out of them.
- I was overdressed but not a problem. As my grandmother always told me, it is better to be overdressed than to be underdressed. You can't fix or dress down UNDERdressed. I ask myself several times, "What, on God's Green Earth, were you thinkin' when you put that on." HOTMESS.
- I loved Terri's comment about how the more that time passes and she comes to these things, the less she is worried about what she looks like or what she is wearing. Re-read comment #2.
- Realizing just how great my life is and I wouldn't trade it for the world.
Ron, Joe, Terri and I sat for an interview for the West Point Archives and it was great to get a chance to reflect and record for posterity our thoughts on why we entered the Academy, what we expected to get out of our experience, and what thoughts we wanted to leave the cadets there today. Messed my wine high up gettin' all serious but I recovered nicely afterward with a few refills.
Just when I thought I was far gone in the alcohol department, there was one lady who had WAY more than me. She was absolutely hilarious. I managed to get her under her husbands wing who told me that she was doin fine and they were goin to a after party. I told him "No, baby, SHE BE DONE!" Hope she is takin' some aspirin right now cause tomorrow is gonna be a long day.
