Aqua Regia

Woof, it's been awhile since I posted anything here!  I've actually made several posts over at jewel_power regarding some treasures that have come up on Ebay, so if you're interested in Jewel Riders be sure to check that out. :)

In other news, this past weekend was my ten-year high school reunion.  I batted back and forth mentally for a while whether or not I was going to go originally.  My class was forty-four people total, some of which I had been in school with since Kindergarten.  It was a small private school system.  Suffice to say, I was ready for some space and separation from the vast majority of those people by the end of high school.  I've stayed in fairly close contact with the people who I was true friends with, and that always felt like enough for me.

I didn't go to the five year reunion, because I honestly felt like I had nothing to show for myself yet (also, I was still in pharmacy school and had like zero time to spare).  But by now I (and most others in the class) have been working for a few years and I was interested to see where many of them had found themselves a decade on.  Sure, there's Facebook stalking to keep up with some people, but there's nothing quite like actually seeing them.  And even among my closest friends from HS, we hadn't all been together in person since one of our number got married five years ago!

Saturday morning started with a church service at the school (including a fun bit of singing with the Lodian Singers again!), followed by a lunch at my parents' house (close friends invited only), and then the main class reunion at a brew pub restaurant on Saturday night.  The morning event wasn't as well-attended, but it was nice (I hadn't been back to the school in quite some time either).  The lunch was super fun, and we were pretty much roaring with laughter all afternoon.  The evening event...I had some anxiety about.  I thought I had put those feelings behind me a long time ago, that I didn't care what these people thought of me, but the surprising truth was that I still did (at least for those few hours that we were together).  That was a slightly bitter pill to swallow.

Still, the evening went well, and as it progressed (despite the complete loudness of the restaurant and my hoarse voice from yelling to be heard over the din) I found that I've still made peace in that area.  I wanted them to have a good opinion of me, but it truly didn't matter if they actually did.  Which makes sense - why should people I haven't seen for almost a decade occupy any of my limited mental space?

Part of it just felt awkward, though.  With some, it was like no time had passed at all, but others I struggled to simply find anything to say after "Hi, how are you?"  If there was never a connection there before, I guess nothing's going to come out of two hours together again. XD  But seeing all those people together again was a strange experience.  Part of me went straight back to HS, but always with this cognitive dissonance there that some people now have kids or look way different.  Even now, I'm not sure I'm describing it well.  This feeling never happened when I've seen people individually or in small groups, but something about having the whole group together made it feel like some sort of strange field trip, only a decade transposed.

Sunday was a nice, relaxed day though!  A few friends and I went to see Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which is kind of like "Marvel does Tom Clancy."  I loved the banter and sibling-like relationship between Cap and Black Widow.  It was adorable!  (I'm a sucker for friendship ships, what can I say?)

I'm also in the middle of rewatching X-men: The Animated Series from the 90s, which has been a total blast.  Expect thoughts on that soonish. :)

So now that I am out of "Pharmacy Purgatory" (ie, I finally got my license number from the Board), I decided to share what I spent the last two weeks doing: drooling over the new (and some not-quite new, but new to me!) toys I found in pictures from the Sand Diego Comic Con 2010. Most of these pictures are from Michael's Toy Review of the Week.

( Behind a cut because there are just too many. )