Missing Out?

This past weekend was my 10 year high school reunion and as I'm sitting here today I'm thinking I would like to say that I would have liked to have been there. Confusing enough sentence? Maybe, but the fact sort of remains that I'm not that unhappy that I didn't go.

Sure, I would have liked to have seen some people that I don't normally get the opportunity to see when I'm back home in Sioux Falls who don't live there either, but other than that, I only thought about what I could be missing for a few brief moments while I was down at the Lake of the Ozarks. The fact of the matter is that I haven't really kept in contact with that many people from high school since we all either moved away, went to college or both.

I didn't stay home for any typical reason that most people use to not attend a high school reunion, for example working at Wal-Mart or weighing 450 pounds, I stayed home just because I didn't really feel like it. It's pretty generic and probably even lazy, but I didn't feel like dragging my wife up to Sioux Falls for the third time in about two months. Gas is expensive, and I need gas money to get back and forth to Lincoln, Nebraska in September, October and November for Husker games.

I almost decided to go the week of, I won't lie. I even told my wife I was considering it. A few people were in my ear about coming up, and I felt bad (and still do) that I turned them down in a way by not coming at all. So I'm sure I'll sit and struggle with it for a little bit, but not too much. Had I still been living in Sioux Falls it would have been a no brainer and I would have gone. I guess living away gives people like me an excuse not to go. But it sounds like everyone had a good time and that's great. I'm glad to see that my class was still operating on the same level they pretty much were the last time I was around them. The get togethers were informal and not at some stuffy fucking country club, which is what my Mom's high school class has done every time. Screw that. If they had done that I wouldn't have even given it a second thought.

Well, now I've got 10 years to decide what to do when I'm 38. Maybe I'll give it more thought this time.

Who's House?

Have you ever wondered why people will always insist that they are right? Do you ever ponder the question of why people are so adamant in their beliefs that even when shown the folly of their ways will continue down the path of self-righteousness? It stumps me just as much as it befuddles you, the curious yet intelligent reader of this blog. Both of you.

What seems to be the most frustrating aspect to me is that people who take this position generally decide to take all opposing views as a personal attack on them, God and their country. If they say "tow-may-to" and I say "tow-ma-to" they say "fuck off you jerk off." I guess what I'm saying is if I'm going to get into a healthy and heated debate I'd at least like a little foreplay before we exchange blows.

It's funny to me that people who defend the country's honor and safety against would-be terrorists by sacrificing young men and women with children into a country that was all but absent in the attacks from September 11th, will turn around and say that they hope a bomb would have gone off in Independence, Missouri yesterday while Barack Obama was giving a speech defending his own patriotism.

The thing that irks me is that these people can, within a single breath of a conversation, wish a fiery and violent death on a United States Senator and then justify and support the deaths of thousands of troops all while saying that Jesus loves us all and we are forgiven. Maybe ultra religious conservatives who wish everyday for death are happy to wish it upon others so they can come to salvation. Who knows. I'm almost done with trying to examine the psyche of the closeted John Hagee supporter. You know, the people who are all ready to quote the Bible and will tell you that they'll pray for you but will stop short of saying that God is punishing us by increasing the price of gas because of our support for the gays. They don't want you to think they're really nuts under their shallow sea of piousness. They haven't tap danced on the lines of public craziness. Yet.

All I know is that now that the headphones are off from 9 to 5 so to speak, and the public opinions of the near senior crowd is giving me a headache.