BillyStyle

So I’m 27 years old now. I’m beginning to figure things out about myself. One of those things is that caffeine seems to have no noticeable effect on my energy. I first noticed this after a high school basketball game in our neighboring town of Bend, Oregon. The drive was 30 minutes max in a school bus. A friend and I each bought a Jolt Cola from a vending machine in the school (we found it a bit odd that there was such a caffeinated drink in the school). We each chugged them quickly. Within ten minutes of bus riding, I was fast asleep.

Since that time, other forms of energy drinks (if I remember right, Jolt was one of the first, if you can call it an energy drink) have been born. A couple summers ago, some wakeboarding buddies of mine essentially got sponsored by Red Bull, and I had many days where I drank two or three cans of it. Even then, I never noticed additional energy. A few months ago at the Portland Pro Wakeboard Tour stop, we got a slew of free Rockstar. I drank one can and a little of another just before a flight out of town. My flight got delayed almost two hours, and while waiting, I had to keep moving around so I didn’t fall asleep and miss my flight when the time came around. Now, I’m not saying caffeine makes me tired, I had been out in the sun most of the day, and would normally have been plenty tired.

I’m sure that caffeine still messes with my innards, because I couldn’t be that lucky, but for some reason, it has no effect on my energy; weird.

The reunion was awesome! I’m very glad I went to it. I guess my graduating class was 240-ish people large, and I’d guess 60 – 70 people showed up, which is probably pretty good. I had forgotten many names. Well, more like buried them in my memory. It was great to see so many familiar faces and see what they’ve been up to. I’ve heard of reunions where the focus is on the activity, the food, or on when it’s going to end. The main focus on this one was just talking to people, catching up, reminiscing on the good ol’ days. It was superb.

Some of the highlights for me follow. My best friend from the fourth grade all the way through junior high school showed up. He started home school after junior high, so I only saw him a few times during those years, and none after that. He had just barely moved back to Redmond (my home town) and happened to hear about the reunion. It was great, we talked about all kinds of things we used to do including set record times on my paper route (yep, he helped me for free), play endless amounts of Nintendo, and even the one fight we got into where we both got suspended for a few days.

A lot of people had stayed in Redmond or nearby. Some had recently moved back from the area, and others planned on moving back soon. Kind of interesting. I’ve always figured that it would be a great place to settle down once I start a family of my own. The reunion strengthened that thought. I still like those people and the area.

All in all, it was a great reunion. I hope to stay in touch with at least a few of the people (thanks to the INTERNET, I may), and look forward to the twenty year reunion!

Yep, I’m getting pretty blasted old. My 10 year high school reunion is this weekend. I’ll be headed up to Oregon today after work. I’ve really only kept in touch with one person in my graduating class, so this will be interesting. Right now I live in Utah, and the reunions I’ve heard of here involve lots of married people who have had kids. I imagine there will be a little of that, but it should be quite different than a Utah reunion. My little hick town of Redmond, Oregon should have some pretty interesting stuff going on. It should be a fun thing to check out. I’ll update in a few days when I’m back!