Let’s see, what have I done in the last 10 years?
A few selected highlights (mostly in the correct order):

I went to college.
I dated a girl from my high school (she was still in high school).
I got a job at one of the special collections in a library at college.
I dated my old girlfriend from 10th grade again in college.
I got a job at a campus computer helpline.
I got a job at a super computer lab.
I dated a girl from my classes at college.
I got a job at Honeywell.
I played some soccer with friends.
I dated a girl I met driving home for spring break who also played soccer.
I was an assistant coach on my girlfriend’s hockey team.
I got a job at SimonDelivers.com.
My girlfriend graduated and left for St. Louis.
9/11
I got laid off from SD.com.
I graduated from college. (in only 6 1/2 years with a Bachelor’s in Computer Engineering)
With no girlfriend, no job and no school, I left for Montana.
I was a ski bum for a winter while living with my brother.
I decided to stay in Montana for the summer.
I got a job land surveying.
I decided to stay in Montana for one more winter.
I kept surveying.
I decided to stay in Montana for one more summer.
I kept surveying and started doing computer work.
I decided to stay in Montana for one more winter.
I started dating a college girl from Chicago.
I decided to stay in Montana for one more summer and maybe another winter.
My girlfriend graduated and left Montana
I only skied twice.
With no girlfriend and no snow, I decided to move back to Minnesota.
I got a job working for my dad at a custom cabinet shop.

Which pretty much brings us up to last weekend, when I went to my 10 year high school reunion.

The reunion was to be held at Tuttle’s Bowling, Bar, and Grill. I was immediately skeptical, and not only because of the $40 price tag. I was certain that bowling would be included, but $40 worth of bowling is beyond my right arm’s abilities. I was hoping that the food was better than the tripe we were served by Brit’s Pub at the 5 year reunion. I was also hoping, though far from certain, that some drinks were included in the price. Which was not the case at the “cheap” $20 reunion of 5 years past.

Tina, and Kristin and Jacob Dahlen in a separate car, picked me up around 7:45 or so. It was good to see them all and we then headed to the bar. Shortly after arriving in downtown Hopkins I saw the Tuttle’s sign. It was next to a smallish (I thought) building surrounded by a gravel parking lot. My skepticism took a healthy leap in intensity. We parked and walked in. Unfortunately we walked in the “wrong” door. We entered to see a nearly empty bowling alley and no one we recognized. Where was everything? Where was everyone? A little kid rode by (inside) on a BMX bike. This did not help my anxiety regarding the quality of the evening.

We walked further into the building and finally spotted the bar/restuarant area. Okay, phew! We had hoped that we weren’t expected to just hang out in the bowling area. We peered in through the door and saw a few people we recognized but none we knew. So we stood around wondering how much fun we could have else where with $40 per person. About that time we saw some people enter through the door at the other end of the bowling alley and immediately turn into the bar area. Aha! That’s where we were supposed to go. So we walked down and turned the corner. There was the table where they took our money and gave us our wrist bands and an envelope with four drink tickets in them. Hooray! Oh, and name tags. There were no name tags at the 5 year reunion, I thought this was an excellent addition.

We sauntered in and didn’t really see anyone we knew so we stood around and talked amongst ourselves after filling out our name/address/email information on a computer they had out. While we were doing that a group of people started coming through the door–a group party made up of people I knew, including Todd Schaumberg, Brian Kuhn, and one of my best friends from elementary school through high school, Adam Boutin. After going up to say “hi” and “how are you” and all of that, Adam whips out a piece of paper with a bunch of names on it. He tells Tina and I that he had both of us in his pool of people who would be at the reunion. I laughed heartily at that.

So we just all stood around near the door chatting about this and that. In short order Steve and Linzy walked over to us indicating that there were approximately zero people there that they knew so far. They had arrived about 8pm, 1 hour after the “official” start (though as I’ll explain later real starting time wasn’t until even later) and there was no one around. Luckily it seemed that we had arrived at just about the right time. Not long after this whole meeting I decided that it was a perfect time to start using my drink tickets–so I headed for the bar.