Lightning Strikes

Well, I'm back, people. Three days of reminiscing, hugging and drinking. I was at my 10 year college reunion in Minnesota and let's just say I had a blast. The travel was no fun- we were massively delayed both ways and spent an hour in a holding pattern last night circling lightning clouds. I took some footage of one that we ended up flying into. While I was assured that the "lightning wouldn't hit us" I still had to defer to the fact that electricity likes metal and I was in a big tube of one at 25,000 feet above the earth. Oh, well- I made it in one piece save for the unforgiving heat and humidity I got home to, along with the blackout at my subway station and a dog that wouldn't stop panting when I took him home.

So, Minnesota you ask? First of all I am a co-founder of the school's improv group, now in its 14th year, so we planned a "reunion show" with current and founding members. What we didn't plan on was a three hour delayed flight there. Apparently Delta doesn't like to use the the uniform standard of time, so long story short and five Cheese on Wheat packages later, the last two of us arrived to the show with 5 minutes to spare. The show was awesome and we had a great time.

Me Dorking Out:


I'm the guy in the middle.

The weekend just started off with a blast and didn't slow down until about 1:00 pm on Sunday when I woke up still drunk in my dorm room and dragged myself to Super America for a huge Coke slushie. But I got a chance to do just about everything- see the people I wanted to see, re-connect, be silly. I had a great time. Everyone looked wonderful and the weather was great.

So here's a few things I learned from Reunion '08:

1. Minnesota in the summer is the bomb
2. Just because you have a beer ticket does not mean you have to drink beer
3. Fried cheese curds does not a dinner make
4. The co-ed bathroom dorm experience is not as forgiving as you remembered
5. Buying tickets to events ahead of time is useless as everyone just lets everyone in anyway
6. Name tags are a great idea
7. Making it obvious that you are looking at someone's name tag as you greet them is not a good idea
8. When you say, "party in my dorm later," people will not forget
9. If you've ever been in a joke college punk band named Bitch Chicks on the Rag, and your signature song involves a lot of expletives, it might not be a good idea to sing a version of it with your former band mates ten years later at the class of '98 dinner because children are present, then again those fuckers need to learn someday
10. Everyone's baby is stupidly cute

Anyway, I'll leave you with some footage of that lightning cloud from the plane that I took. You can really only see the best of it in the first few seconds, so no need to watch the whole thing. Mind you, this isn't from when we flew into it, this is a half hour before. The footage of us in the cloud is forever ingrained in my stunned face as I could not fathom taking video of what I was sure to be my final moments. Dramatic much? You betchya! It's good to be home.