High School Reunion : 20 Years

Wow, I can not believe it has been that long!! And I was shocking all the kids I went to school with and told them, Gwen graduated this year, which is so weird to think about. 20 years ago, we were doing the same thing. LOL

But wow, trying to catch up with everyone was just crazy. And what’s weird is we only had a handful of people, I could not imagine having the whole graduating class! 

We also had some incredibly sad moments too, remembering the kids that have died over the years. One of them being Aaron Tanner. I don’t think anyone didn’t like him, he was such a funny guy and I loved his hugs. You could just feel how genuine he was. It just angers all of us that he was shot and killed over a stupid wallet. And go figure, those kids “attempted” to rob 2 people prior, one of which that turn and ran. They didn’t shoot him, but Aaron tried to run and they shot him. Aaron was engaged, he was getting ready to attend a video game convention and try to get in with making music for the gaming industry. He had so much to contribute and his loss is still felt even after all these years. (He was murdered Feb 25, 2001)

Then Jeremy “Jerms” Wozniack, was driving a tour bus for a band. Dropped them off in Tennesee, was on his way home. Fell asleep at the wheel, veered off the road and died in the crash. He was such a goof ball. He died July 2008.

We had two parts. First part was at the park and shocker, Mr. Rodahl, our history teacher showed up and it was so nice seeing him and actually speaking with him. He was one of the best teachers, as well as Mr. Lampkin and Mr. Stotts. 

Then Part 2 was at “The Knick”, which was crazy how much more people showed up for that. At one point when I was signing in, this guy standing next to Bridget and Michelle, is asking, “Who is that?” And I looked at him like and who the fuck are you? I was thinking he was someone’s husband and just being nosey. Well, when they said, Sara. He was like OH My GOD!! Sara?!?!? And I am still looking at him like, and who the fuck are you??!!? LOL Michelle says, “That’s George!” My mouth dropped to the ground and I exclaimed, “GEORGE?!? OMG!!” We got to talk for a bit, but then we went to find Jen and Pat, and then somehow I got stuck in the booth and when I went to find George, he had already left. 😦 But I got his # and will call him to see about meeting up sometime, maybe with another class mate, this way we have a back up for when the conversation stalls. 🙂

Then at the end, it was only me, James, Dan, Heather and Patrick. Which of course the men folk were hungry. So we headed over to Von Trier since there was a Taco truck and then we could sit and drink. 🙂

Tried a Moscow Mule for the first time and YUM!! 

When we were leaving, Pat wanted to keep a glass, so I stole it for him. BUT I now have the glass, he left the bar before me and I didn’t realize I still had it till I got to my car. LOL Well at least we have an excuse to meet up again. 🙂

I wish this happened once a year, this was just too much fun. And it seems we are having these every 2 years, I definitely would love this happens again in 2 years. 🙂

House of Evil : Reply to Review

yourmouthislikeafuneral reblogged your post: Book Review : House of Evil

Just to answer your statement about “An American Crime”, it doesn’t cover near half the abuse this girl went through. I guess they can’t have too much shown on camera?

Well, that will be true of all movies that are made from books, it all depends on what the writer pulls from the book and what the director wants to work with. The movie seemed to favor Gertrude and kept making me want to feel sorry for her. Or make her seem more passive than what she was. Reading the book, there is no way she was that docile, she was the ringleader and encouraged her kids as well as the neighborhood kids to abuse Sylvia. 

And when the police found her body, it could have been mentioned that she was found with all her fingernails broken off, just reading that gives me chills, I could not even phantom the amount of pain she was in. 

Update

Now I wish I had mentioned some of the ideas I had. I know of a few, but I have a feeling I forgot some others…..

But I am getting closer to reopening. I finally installed the driver for my printer and I just finally got Adobe Photoshop Elements installed, which that was tricky. I found my case, but the disc was not inside. So a friend of mine loaned me their copy so I could install it. This was the one program my netbook could not handle at all.

I have been organizing my area, getting things to make sense and seeing what I may need to move, whereas my work light is in the wrong spot completely, but what is frustrating, it holds my business cards and other odds and ends.

I am behind. Horribly behind. My Uncle passed away June 15th and his funeral was on June 30th. So I had to round u my husband and the kidlets to make the trek out for his services. We had planned to visit over summer vacation, but sadly, this ended up not being the visit we wanted to make. We did squeeze some fun things in as well. 🙂

We came home July 3rd to horrendous heat. So for 3 days we did nothing. But now I am back up and running.

But now this weekend is my high school reunion. Oi vey! Just all these things throwing a wrench into my plans. But I hope that is the last event. But I am getting close.

I am also planning on having a rummage. This will help me recoup costs that we used for our trip and toss that back into savings. But i need to hussle, being as each day my store is not open, I am losing money and I like having savings……just nice having something to lean to when money does get tight.

Back

We made the trek out for my Uncle Stu’s funeral and wow. My cousin Brian was right, it’s better we plan to do some fun things instead of just coming for just the funeral.

On the way there, a few times, I really was ready to cry, being as I was finally coming to terms with his death and my loss.

We finally arrived at our temporary home, which was a nice hotel, excellent service, but if we ever book a hotel again, it will not be there. I was hoping to be closer to Ramsey, since that is where my cousin Brian lives and my Uncle’s funeral would be held. And somehow we ended up in Minneapolis. 

The funeral was arranged really nice. It was much better than I even anticipated. And was so happy there was a memorial board commerating my Uncle’s life. There weren’t many photos of him, but there were photos of him when he was younger and my Mom was right, he was quite the looker when he was younger. I thought he taste in men sometimes was a little out of my realm, but I 100% agree. I just feel bad he aged incredibly fast. Heck, the almost 40 years I have known him, he always had grey hair which turned to white these past 10 and he was always a burly man. 

During the service I finally had my cry. I was trying so hard to hold it in. I didn’t want to get my kids started. I know they were already upset, but to see their Mom cry on top of it, would just get them started. But I’ll be damned, the pastor asked if anyone would like to come up and share any memories of him. I just stalled, being as I knew if I got up there, I would not be able to compose myself. Then the pastor went on to speak about the type of person he was and how he was the type to give the shirt off your back. Which is so utterly true. And I just caved. Julia and Emily had started crying later in the service during one of the songs. 

I miss him. I really do miss him. He was basically the last part of my family I had that I was closest too. Which now I am building a relationship with his children, which I even question their genuity. I already caught Debbie in a lie. She is telling me she dropped Uncle Stu off at the Amtrak to come out for Vinnie’s service, but Brian and Sam both told me he drove himself out here. I am a little angry at myself for not catching up with him until the day of the funeral, but honestly, if I would have seen him, my whole world would have shattered.

I was there at Vinnie’s funeral and was looking for him and there was one man I thought was him, but he was too frail looking to be him. Only to find out later that was him, but I thought it was due to his lack of facial hair. While at Brian’s house, he showed me photos of his Dad one week before he passed and even looking straight at him, I would not recognize him, he had seriously lost that much weight. 

I literally got choked up looking at the photos and told Brian, I am glad I didn’t come out here for Memorial weekend. This would have literally shook me to my core. And I would have been literally devasted to the point that I truly do not think it would have been a good idea for me to drive home.

And this is where I come to peace with how this all played out. If I had seen my Uncle, if I would have known he was that sick, it would have eaten me up alive. Being as I lost my Mom and I beat myself up on not being able to bring her home to take care of her. I certainly wouldn’t be able to do that for my Uncle. But I am a still a little angry with Debbie for not calling me, being as I had called her and asked if he has cancer, she said No he didn’t and that she would be the first to know, being as her Dad would have told her. But he tried telling me first. And that is where I still feel a little guilty. He tried and I went on the word of his daughter and that if he did have cancer, she would call me. Why didn’t she? Maybe it was his choice, but either way, it’s water under the bridge. I’ll still think about it from time to time, but I am not dwelling on it. It’s done and over with and I can’t put all blame on her or my Uncle, I share part of this blame if not all. 

I think too, the reason it was easier for me to believe Debbie over my Uncle, is I was not ready to loose someone else to cancer. I didn’t want to believe it. Goodness, I had lost sleep for a week there till I finally called Debbie. Also at the time, he didn’t say he had it 100%, but they thought he did.

But see, on and off, after my Mom died and I am forgetting this, he kept saying they think he has cancer and then nothing, then he’d be on the kick again. And this was why this time, I just got upset with him, being as I thought he was getting convincing with the lying. 

BUT who knows, maybe this whole time, they thought he did. But why didn’t they find it? Is liver cancer that hard to find? I know he was going through the VA and I truly think they are a poop shoot. These men and women go through hell and back to serve our country and they get the shittest medical care in the world. While our politician’s are paid for well with excellent insurance and the best of everything.

I guess I am still working through my anger over all this and here I thought I was past this. 

So let’s move on, I had a really nice visit with my cousin Debbie and her family. Got to meet HER children and her grandchild. Which is so weird to meet this whole side of my family I never knew. She even invited us back for her daughter’s wedding in Dec. Which time off won’t be an issue since it right when I put my stores on vacation for Thanksgiving, but I am concerned about the weather. If it seems pretty mild, then oh yes. I would LOVE to be there!

I took the kids to Mall of America and we went to Nickelodeon Universe and went through the Mirror Maze, which this time didn’t seem as much fun for me this time, being as there was a lot of people in there. But the kids had a blast and that was the main thing.

I really wanted to eat at Bubba Gump’s and not one person in my family wanted to go. I mentioned this to my cousin Tony and he says, he’ll go with me next time I am in town. Hahaha! Well now that Julia knows it’s seafood, she wants to go too. It’s actually in between, seafood and burgers. And of course, we ate in the food court and when we did walk past Bubba Gump’s everyone was like ohhhh there’s Rainforest Cafe, and I was like oh well, too bad. No one EVEN wanted to look at a menu for Bubba’s, which if I HAD seen Rainforest Cafe, I would have said, hey let’s go THERE instead. Their loss not mine. Being as I will get to go to Bubba Gumps without them. (insert Nelson laugh here)

Then we saw my cousin Brian and had a really nice visit with him as well. He lives out in the boonies and gets all sort of creatures by his patio, I can not even say which birds we saw, but we did see a Groundhog sitting on his porch. LOL He has a bear that comes out and knocks over his bird feeder….lol

He was able to show me a photo of his Mom, which floored me. I could see so much similarities with his Mom and mine. They had petite features. I would love to see what she looked like when she was younger, but he didn’t have any.

Then on the way home, we stopped in St. Paul to see the Grumpy Old Men houses. I was more intrigued with Ariel’s house. But I didn’t even to think that Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon stood on that very street. I definitely plan to stop there if we go out in December and Gwen and I will dress up like them and have fun with it. Which I should have done this trip, but had too little time to do it in.

But we are now home and I am heading to bed. I have been coasting on less than 5 hours of sleep these past 2 nights and tomorrow is the 4th of July. I have some final things to get ready in anticipation.