Ted Stevens

Alaska lost a very prominent citizen on August 9th. Ted Stevens, our former US senator, was killed in a plane crash. I was saddened to hear of his loss.

I "met" him on my 8th grade trip to Washington DC. In the image above, I am in left, right in the middle, in the blue shirt.

He was 86 years old, so he lived a full and long life. My prayers are with the senator's family and friends.

Freshman and Sophomore Reminisce

Most of the time, when I think about high school, I wish I could never think about it again. Junior year was ok, but senior year was awful. But my freshman and sophomore years were a lot better. Sometimes, actually, all the time, I wish that I could relive bits and pieces of those two years. I knew C then, but I was not really acquainted with him at all. He was slightly attracted to me from the beginning, but didn't give me much thought, while I hardly knew he was there.

I wish that I could go back and get to know him better. To become friends with him two years earlier. Freshman year, when both girls and guys basketball teams were gone, it was just us and another girl in Spanish class...and we often times played Scrabble in Spanish. Those weren't fun times for me...but I wish I knew C better then and it would have been more fun. It was more just awkward.

And then we started to get to know each other slightly before the end of sophomore year. And all through the summer. Those photos show us so, so young. But here we are and it all worked together nicely.

Anyone else have any wishes to go back in the past for something similar?

High School 411

I have always looked back to see who in my high school class is now married, or has kids (or both). No one so far has died, which is good :P But I'd never sat down with my yearbook and counted. From my senior year yearbook (2.5 years ago) 11 people are married (including me) and 8 of them, all of them married except one, have kids. This is out of under 100 kids. Now here's another thing, I went on to the next class down. Only 5 people are married in that class! 2 couples are engaged that I know of. And only 3 have kids. How unbelievable. And most of my class was right after high school, which is even more unbelievable.

I looked through the rest of the book, reading names and faces. Amazing how many people you forget. Quite a few I couldn't even remember, which was a little sad. I've seen a bunch of my classmates since graduation, usually at work. But then there are a few that I literally have not seen since then. Amazing to think that in another 2.5 years, that number above could double or triple. *Shakes head* I really hope someone plans a reunion so I can go. Not that I had affection for most of my classmates. But it'd be fun to see how they all turned out!

*Edit* Thought of another couple in my class that married each other and have 2 kids!