…and my face is STILL breaking out! Seriously, I am about to get on a plane and fly back home to Pittsburgh, PA by way of Charlotte, North Carolina to attend my thirtieth high school reunion and I have a big, fat, freakin’ zit on my chin in a spot that can not be artfully concealed. Yes, I popped it which only made it worse and because thirty-plus years later I still haven’t learned that popping it will only make it worse. There are benefits to this. Perhaps that zit is ugly enough that my seat mate on the red-eye flight back East won’t want to cuddle. Of course the big benefit is having 48 year old skin that acts like it is still 14 means that there isn’t much need for Botox or Restalyn treatments. Hopefully the mess on my face will calm down by Friday night because, yes, I am headed to my thirtieth high school reunion!

High school wasn’t exactly my best of times. I did love school the way an awkward, nerdy, brainiac would. But I also endured a lot of teasing and drama pretty much in the same way that an awkward, nerdy, brainiac would. When I went back to my first high school reunion twenty years after graduating and heading west, I went with a MAJOR chip on my shoulder. I would show them all I thought to myself. I was accomplished, successful and I mostly grew out of my awkward phase. But a funny thing happened at the reunion. I connected with people whom I scarcely spoke to all through high school. We caught up on where life had taken us. We laughed. We drank a little. We danced. We sang. I remember sharing a conversation with the girl voted “Most Beautiful” and finding that not only was she still beautiful on the outside, but she was someone with whom I had a lot in common with…then and now. “Why weren’t we friends in high school?”, she wondered. Why indeed? I came away from that reunion realizing that we all had a lot more in common that the fact that we graduated in 1980. We all had our awkwardness in our high school years. Some of us covered it with bravado of athleticism or surrounding ourselves with people or burying it in books and sometimes by acting out against each other. Still we were all just kids, uncomfortable in our own skin, lacking a lot of confidence. We all had our share of high school drama and trauma…even the “Most Beautiful”. But we all grew up…well, okay, most of us grew up. Thank goodness that big old chip fell off my shoulder because I really had fun and I did make some new friends whom I still keep contact with today which is why I am looking forward to attending this reunion.

So the last couple of weeks I have spent time preparing. I pulled out the old yearbook and endured the teasing from my kids about how big my hair was. I found the right dress that doesn’t scream slutty cougar but at the same time doesn’t make me look like my grandmother. I’ve tried in vain to drop the five pounds I gained while convalescing that hip stress fracture. I loaded up my iPod Touch with lots of photos of my circus act to share. I had my hair trimmed and the color brightened up. I even got a “restoration” facial that left my pores tiny and my skin all dewy and glowy. That’s probably why this massive zit erupted yesterday. My bags are packed. I’m ready to go. Look out West Allegheny High School Class of 1980, I am on my way and ready to party! Pay no attention to that thing on my chin and I promise not to notice your pot gut or thinning, greying hair or any other changes that prove that thirty years has indeed gone by much too quickly.