That Stinks!

This is wife.imp's newest catch phrase.

Have to get up and take girl.imp to school? That stinks!
Have to get up and pop your own popcorn at night because your husband is in the midst of correcting a scene in his book? That stinks!
Dr. Who marathon (repeating every episode as often as possible)? That stinks!
Husband making not so subtle, erotic requests? Let's skip this one shall we?

In homage to the 'That Stinks' here are some memories of life from my high school, as the 20th reunion is approaching:

1 - My first love in sports was baseball. LOVED IT! However, baseball is a team sport and my peers and I were not close. In fact there were several occassions when dad talked me out of going to school to get into a fight (have I mentioned I am a natural red-head with a natural red-head's, hair-trigger temper???). So when my teammates actually invited me to meet them after practice (we were having a personality conflict) to sort matters out, I decided that participating in a sport with these people, without extra padding, was not the smartest move I could make. WHY?

2 - I watched several people come and go in our school who managed to get onto the wrong side of the 'elite'.
a - One guy, a year ahead of me, was a martial arts freak. One day, seven of his classmates met him after school and helped him obtain a 5-day absence from class. The following week he came back to school and hunted them down one at a time (in between fights he would go to the band room and use the intsrument cabinet doors as target practice for his throwing stars).
b - A new kid joined our school and the 'elite' immediately went after him. The hazing was so bad that one day, during the last period of the day, the sheriff showed up and arrested new kid. Apparently (and I sat next to him during two classes that day) he was carrying a sawed-off shotgun in his school bag. His mistake (and our blessing) is that he actually showed it to someone before he decided the time had come for a little retribution.

3 - Were these people actually that bad? I mean can they have been so out of control that someone would want to shoot them? We had a 'mentally slow' child. Mikey. Could do math in his head that today's computers would be hard pressed to match. Loved basketball. Never seen him not smiling.

They hung a picture of a playboy centerfold in his locker. Just tied two corners to a string and hung it over the coat hook of his locker. Mikey freaked. It was outside his experience. He could not figure out how to take it off and his parents were picking him up at school when I came back in from track practice.

Of course 'everybody' was laughing their asses off, because Mikey missed his bus.

anybody getting the impression I did not like my classmates? need more?

4 - you know the scene. Car stops and offers ride to 'the poor schlup' and pulls off as soon as he starts to get into the car. In high school, I did not always have a car available so sometimes I walked home (10 minutes, maybe fifteen if I walked the long route).
It was a nice day after football practice (I played football exclusively in high school because I found I could hit people as hard as I wanted and would not get into trouble. Of course the only thing I had to do was make sure it was not a cheap shot).

Anyway I chose to walk the long way. So the car full of my teammates pulls up and offers me a ride. Why on earth would I put my life in their hands? I waved them off. By the time I got to their car I could be home anyway. They kept calling, encouraging me to accept the ride.

Hey! I could trust them!!

I waved them off...Come on Dennis...hurry up!! You'll miss your ride! (AS IF!)
So I jogged forward two steps and stopped. The car moved forward 5 feet and stopped. Apparently if I did not put my heart into it, the joke was not funny. So I 'ran slowly' toward the car until they peeled rubber and took off.
What fun!

5 - But Dennis, you had to have good memories? Yes, I did and do. However here is one that started out as a suspicious feeling and, well, you decide:
I and my girlfriend, in our senior year, were voted Cutest Couple 1987. I even have the yearbook to prove it!

Good memories....

Before the actual vote was tallied, a friend told me the cutest couple final vote. BEFORE the actual vote. And why were we picked? Everyone wanted to see us bask in the obvious approval and warm feelings from our peers. Right before we were informed that 'Hey, It's a joke! We really don't feel that way.'

...and yes, I was so informed a few days after the Official notification came out. But by then I could tell them that, guess what? In 20 years nobody will remember.

Sooo, thank you! Howerver, I keep wondering, when one of these reunions will bring up the cutest couple...seriously!