Oh, where to begin. We've only got a minimum number of people signed up for our class reunion, the class of 1987, and the big party is set for Aug. 10. The class of '77 meets this weekend and from the sound of things they're anticipating a better showing that us, so far.

The weights have been lifted, the diets dieted, black dresses purchased, hot cars rented--it's go time, so where is everyone?

One of my friends said she's not going to attend because she's fat and she's not doing what she went to school for and she's divorced. Never mind she's living an amazing life, being the woman she really is, making a good living, being happy and making other people happy.

And none of us care if she's fat. Heck, if you're using a 17-year old super model as a baseline then we're all fat"»we just want to see her and get the laugh-fix we know she can give us like no one else can. That girl is a riot and I miss her and if she keeps being a dork about all her insecurities we're all going to miss her and we're going to miss the chance to have her be a part of the event that's going to have to last us for the next ten years.

She needs to understand that she has a responsibility to show up to this kind of stuff. It's a little harder to get out of it I suppose, if you live right here in the shadows of the Old High School over at 650 S. Maine, but there are some other '87 grads thinking they're going to bail on us too. It's just not right. I know, I know, there's an awful lot of facing up to the fact that we're old and things didn't really go the way we thought they would, but honestly, would you really change a thing?

Apparently, some of us are missing and maybe some of us don't really want to be found. But seriously, why would you want to miss this? What's wrong with reminiscing and reminding each other every 10 years of some of the "messes" we got into into or out of. Just thing of all the hugs you'll miss.

Life happens and it's happened to all of us equally. We've weathered it and we're better people than we were 20 year ago. I remember at the 10th reunion how we didn't really segregate ourselves into cliques like we did in school"»how everyone was glad to see everyone else even if they had never even spoken to each other as kids. It's probably a little early for most of us to realize the importance of connections in life, of hanging on to the things and the people through life who define us. We haven't really developed an appreciation for who we were in terms of who we are.

So much of what happened in high school doesn't matter at all and thank goodness for age in terms of editing garbage from the memory. But some of that stuff is gold and remembering it on a regular basis is good for the soul. That's why we have reunions"»to sit around and remember when--to remember who we are and how we got here.

There was a basketball trip to Elko our junior year on the Greenwave busses--those old converted carbon monoxide monstrosities--when one of the buses broke down on the long approach to Galconda Pass. As we waited and waited for rescue, which included the delivery and installation of some obsolete engine part, bathroom breaks became somewhat urgent in nature.

Back then the boys and girls varsity teams traveled on one bus, and the JV teams followed on the other. So it's winter. It's dark. There are no facilities other than large sagebrush. The bus lights are on to provide some direction and the coaches send the girls out first, keeping the boys and the girls with steel bladders on the bus. The Nevada girls head off into the dark to take care of things, but the Nebraska girl and the Dakota girl take advantage of the bus lights to find a suitable sagebrush, and yes, end up, to their immense embarrassment, fully illuminated and center stage through the front window.

That was one of those bonding moments that cements friendships for life and we all have been and are the closest of friends to this day. We have so many more of those stories but often in the bustle of life, in the hauling around of each other's kids and the rushed lunches we manage to fit in, we forget to stop and remember what got us here together.

The reunion is a time to do that"»uninterrupted. It's a chance to do that with the rest of our class, the ones who aren't still in Fallon, the ones who knew enough to find a sagebrush in the dark.

We'll see you all in a couple of weeks"»get your reservations made, dang it.