Back to reality

I can't turn off the buzzing in my brain.

Some of it is lack of sleep -- over the past 4 days, I've gotten an average of maybe 3 hours a night.  But some of it is this pervasive feeling of longing, of "wait wait no no no come back it can't be over yet."

Lisa put it very aptly, comparing it to coming down off a 3 day cocaine binge (possibly - I don't think either of us can speak from experience).

Jason and I flew out with the kids Friday afternoon.  With the exception of a mini-meltdown by Zeke as we were landing in Washington (he wanted to sit on Daddy's lap to watch the landing, rather than sit in his own seat with his seatbelt buckled), the travel went smoothly.  My parents picked us up, I changed into a nice shirt and some heels, put on some makeup, grabbed my mom's car keys, and headed to the reunion.

What followed was 3 days of sensory overload.  Feeling the synapses in my brain explode every time someone walked up to me and said, "WENDY!  OH MY GOD!  IT'S SO GREAT TO SEE YOU!"  At one point early Friday evening, my friend Greg said, "I'm feeling overstimulated, it's almost too much," and I knew exactly what he meant.

As expected, everyone looked beautiful, exactly the same, only more so.  We all fell into our old conversations, only with more laughter, more appreciation for each others' beauty and uniqueness.

There were even some typical high school shenanigans, when we went hunting around for one guy's hotel room when we heard he had three cases of booze in his room (the cash bar was exorbitant).  When we got there, his girlfriend basically told us to piss off and shut the door in our faces, leaving seven of us out in the hallway falling down with screaming laughter.

Friday night we closed down the hotel bar in the Gateway Marriott.  Saturday night we were there for last call at a rooftop bar in Adams Morgan.  We were all decked out with sparkly stick-on jewels that we wore like bindis.  Sunday we dragged our tired asses over to Lisa's for a barbecue (I couldn't stay, unfortunately).  All we wanted was to prolong that contact, that feeling of comfort and familiarity and love.

And then it was over.

I've been out of sorts ever since.  I miss my friends and that feeling of being with people who truly know me, even though they haven't seen me for 23 years.  I still can't sleep.

Nothing to do but start planning the next one.