Happy Halloween

(Ceiling fan)

Fallen

Speaking Of Old

I saw my brother. We met at an Oregon hotel and upon check-in I was asked if I had an AARP card. I was asked again the next day at breakfast. I was able to produce said card, qualifying me for discounts my little brother isn't old enough to get, but I liked it better when I was asked to prove if I was old enough to drink.

Reunion

I didn't go to my high school reunion. I graduated 30 years ago and for some reason, I never went back and stayed in touch with no one. It wasn't until very recently, through Facebook, that I only started to reconnect. Still, it wasn't enough for me to endure the awkwardness of a reunion with people I hardly knew. Old people, if the pictures are to be believed.

But the reunion found me. One did, anyway. I happened to be on Facebook lamenting the discomforts of our small apartment when I noticed a post from a high school classmate who was excited about promoting her novel on her first book tour, her current stop being Portland, just across the river from my tiny apartment.

A flurry of text messages produced phone numbers and before I knew it, we were planning time to get together. Right now she's giving an interview to the local newspaper at the Wordstock Festival at the Portland Convention Center and then we're off to lunch and 30 years of catching up.