Things people wrote to me in my high school yearbook. Part I

Recently I found my lost high school yearbook. It was missing for close to a year and with all of these little reunions I've had recently I was really itching to look at the pictures and see what people wrote to me. It's a fun and good way to see what aspirations you had at the time, where people thought you were headed and even see where your friends and enemies were like at the time as well.

Here are some excerpts along with my commentary- (please note I am only using first names and last initials to spare google search embarrassment)

Brian, you are one of the funniest and wittiest persons I know. Good luck in college.- Joe G.

Okay, so this didn't tell us much, but my ego needs a good stroking before we get started.

Brian, well this is it!! You're a great and charming and witty guy!! I'll never forget our sexual talks!! You did great in Beauty and the Beast and a fantastic job in Jan. 16th!! Never forget me!! Call over the summer (leaves phone number)!! Love, Heather

Apparently Heather really liked to use exclamation points!! It was nice that Heather enjoyed my acting parts in the drama club, but I really was a bad actor. The fun thing here is that she knew me for always chatting about sex. I was quite the open and blunt person about it and still am. I would listen to Dr. Ruth on the radio a lot as a teen and would be quite the sex expert among my peers. (despite the lack of experience) Looking at the undertones of the message, I wonder if Heather was hoping I'd call for sex over the summer. Hmmmm....I guess I'll never know since I had a girlfriend at the time.

Brian, I think you are a creative mind. But I wish you worked harder.- Mrs. L.

Ouch! This English teacher hit the nail on the head. She was one of the few teachers that I disliked in high school but I regret feeling that way now. I think if I could back in time I wouldn't have cut her class so much and paid attention. I really could've done much better. It really is the story of my entire school career. I had so much wasted potential back then.

Brian, Bonne chance a un eleve unique! C'etait mon plaisir de t'avoir dans ma classe malegre le fait que tu n'as pas continul avec le francais!!- Mme K

Ummm...?? What?!! Is that French?! I'm embarrassed to this day that the reason that I took French was because a girl I had a crush on at the time we had to sign up for electives said that French was cool. How I wish I took something useful like Spanish.

Brian, I am glad I got to know you over the past year. You are a real nice guy. I will always remember your wacky T-shirts- especially the one with the tongue on it. Good luck in all you do- probably as rubber-band salesman. - Michelle K

Michelle was in my homeroom and speech class during senior year. We had basically ignored each other for 3 years in homeroom but public speaking class forced us to work together on many projects and my sense of humor and zany T-shirts (I was such an unabashed attention hound!) eventually won her over as a friend. I was able to cross clique lines like that frequently. I made casual friendships with the jocks and cheerleader types like Michelle because I didn't take things seriously and made them laugh. Note that Michelle was the only person in my yearbook who accurately guessed my future profession. (she remembered that I had a 5 ft rubber band that I brough to school)

Finally I'll end this part with what Mr. Odney wrote me-

Brian, I remember the first time I saw you...it was a stormy summer night...NO!!...it was at the Night of Jan. 16th auditions. Rememeber?! You said I'd get the part of the gangster because I looked like I had a broken nose. Remember that? Huh? Huh?! No really, Brian. You've wised up since then. You're a good kid Brian. Seriously, after everything that's happened I consider you to be one of my true real friends. And that means a lot. Good luck in life/work/humor/art/love/death. I hope that everything goes well for you. {snip- a bunch of catch phrases we used at the time} Be Good- Andy B

Getting back in touch with Andy has been wonderful as I always have missed his sense and take on things. His story of how we met is true and is actually not uncommon with many of my friends. I often come off as rather obnoxious at first and some people (including my wife) actually didn't like me at all at first. But I grow on people like a fungus.

That's it for now, I will revisit this later this week as I'm still astounded how people thought I was going to get my own HBO special.

The BBC Reunion part 2- now in Triple Blogcast!

It's not uncommon when you have reunions that when you see an old friend that you haven't in years you recall the very reason why actually lost touch with them. You've either grown apart or one of you has changed or perhaps you just came to the realization that this person always was and still is a jerk. This past weekend I felt nothing of the kind and was left wondering the morning after why I did lose touch with these people in the 1st place.

and now the awards...


The Dorian Gray award, the person most likely to have a portrait of himself as an old man- Jeff "Movie Bill", I'm not gay but if I were I'd go for Jeff- the dude is a specimen.

The Steve Martin award, the person who has a full head of hair but is completely white/gray- Andy "The Enforcer", I wish he would grow it out as he would resemble Moses.

The Jeane Dixon award, the person who most believes in astrology- TIE Karen and Adam "Dr. Death". I always knew that Karen was delusional and believed in that crap but I had no idea that Adam did as well. I guess he's been hanging around those Hollywood types too long.

The Manute Boll award, the person who is a lot taller than I remember- John "Pretty Boy". I always knew John was at least 6ft, but he was clearly taller than me and seemed to be 6' 3" and I just don't remember him being that tall.

The Pied Piper award, the person when leaving took the most people with them- Karen, now that was weird. I know it was late, but right after Karen says she had to go, the remainder of the party attendees left with her. It was as if they were all going somewhere to have an orgy and I wasn't invited.

The Iron Chef award, the person who brought the tastiest snack- this one was shocking but I thought the buffalo chicken dip that Steve made was super tasty.

The wooden leg award, the person who really could drink- Bill "Merv" His drinking didn't even make him annoying as he clearly is annoying before getting drunk.

The tape recorder award, the person who recalled the most old jokes- Josh "Mad Dog", he always did have a knack for catch phrases, I actually miss that.

Best exchange of the night (that I witnessed)-

Andy- You had a big part in 12th Night

Jeff- I had 2 lines

Andy- At least you got to fence.


There were many other funny moments but that one will always stick with me.

Reunions are great when the people are great. I'm so glad to have these people in my life again.

The BBC Reunion part I- now in Triple Blogcast!

I am very proud to bring you the first report on last night's BBC reunion in the new and exciting Triple Blogcast format! Since three of the attendees including myself are bloggers, we all decided to blog about our experience at the party.

(please note, currently Im the first to blog, I will go back and edit in direct links when they appear- Jeff's is now up!)

To see Andy's take go here
Too see Jeff's take go here

The reunion was a blast and the best time I've had in quite sometime. Often, you can judge the success of a party by a few things-

1) What time the last guest leaves

2) How much food is left over

3) How much booze is left over

4) How much of a mess was left

5) How much laughter happened

So, let's take a look and assign points-

1) The last guest left technically at 9AM. My good friend, Jeff and his wife Vicki both had too much to drink and it was best that they slept over. We get 200 bonus points for the sleepovers, however, the party didn't end at 9AM- it ended at 2AM. Surprisingly, I still had 4 guests at that point if you don't include Jeff passed out on the couch and Vicki upstairs sleeping. Karen had a look at the time and declared she was leaving and then Josh, Andy and Adam all left with her. I guess the party's over when Karen leaves- something I'll have to remember in the future. 418 points for the late ending.

2) Some background before I get to this- My mother-in-law is insane and there are 2 things about her that really bother me sometimes and every now and then, my wife, Lynn, exhibits some of these traits . For starters, she's a pack rat and can't throw anything out. The other thing is that she overcooks everything and makes way too much food at events or even casual dinners. Lynn has successfully avoided overcooking her cuisine but at times I find her keeping things that are best left in the trash can and she tends to make too much food (although, not as bad as her mother). So, you'd think by now I would know better than to ask her how much corned beef I should buy for the party. 3 pounds of corned beef is way too much meat when you have lots of other things to eat. The food itself was good and we had a nice spread of everything as most everyone brought something to the party. I recall the brie, apple and chicken sandwiches my wife made were very good, the buffalo chicken dip made by Steve was very tasty and Karen's trifle (which was just a token) was also very yummy. So we'll assign -58 points for the leftovers and 248 for the yum factor.

3) Considering that A- we are all in our mid to late thirties, and B- 1/4 of the guests were non-drinkers, this is where we really excelled. We managed to kick my one keg, almost kick my second keg, almost drink an entire case of hard cider, down a few shots of Jeagermeister and vodka, and drink a few bottles that Bill brought. The libations did lubricate the laugh factor but the social interactions were fine with out it. I'm giving 587 points here.

4) The mess wasn't too bad, clean up would have been faster, had it not been for the leftovers. But, since we are all respectful people and none of us were completely toasted and puking there wasn't much mess to be found. The children's parties are usually much harder to clean up after. So I'm giving 298 points for the politeness and ease of cleaning even if there was nothing truly wild that occurred. I'm too old for that shit now, anyways.

5) To quote Karen from her facebook status, "My cheeks hurt from laughing". I agree, I was crying because I laughed so hard. Being together with my old friends was very comfortable and enjoyable. The movie that we watched again was not as bad as I remember it being and was actually very funny to watch. The sense of humor of everyone was amazing and I don't think a joke was missed. Also, It was a nice mix of reminiscing and new stories. I haven't laughed that hard with giggly glee probably since the last time we were all together. I give this one 2487 points.

Now, if i had a calculator I could add up all these points and perhaps learn something, but as I've repeatedly said in the past- I'm no scientist. All I can tell you is what a great friggin' time I had and from the feedback I've heard so far was that it was mutual and I'm so very glad that we had it.

Tomorrow, I'm finish with part 2 and delve a little bit more in the specifics and also give out some awards.

Bald, fat and old is the new funny

In less than 2 hours I'll be having a small gathering of people at my house. Some of these people I will not have seen in 20 years. It was over 20 years ago that this group previously got together and made an hour and forty five minute movie on VHS tape. Please consider that this was the summer of 1988 and not today where the ability to edit and put together a movie with your friends is much easier with digital cameras and computers.

We called ourselves "The BBC", which stood for Bill Behun Comedy team. Somewhat odd is the fact that Bill Behun was not a member, nor was he someone we emulated. He was a peer of ours in the theater club that would ham it up, dress a bit pretentiously and had an ego to match. When the team was conceived that fateful day in 1987, we decided to name it after him as a joke and then have nothing to do with him. Before we knew it, we had performed sketches at the drama club parodying his life. It's not that Bill was a bad guy really, he just seemed to ask for the extra attention and being the smart asses that we were, we were perfectly willing to skewer him for it.

We had performed again at another function later that spring and then when 4/6ths of us were leaving for college, we decided to undertake that movie which took our entire summer to make. It's called The Last Temptation of Bill (an obvious title parody to the Scorcese film that was so controversial at the time) and we had cast an outside person to play the role of Bill. That person will also be in attendance tonight. As a matter of fact not only will "movie Bill" be here, but we also invited the real Bill to be here. Five out the six original members will also be here as well. Gary being the only exception. (and Dave, who filled in for Andy at the 2nd performance, cannot make it as well)

It should be fun. It will be good to be back with my old writing and performing partners, we made a good team when we weren't fighting over where to go to eat.

Reconnecting the dots

This June I'll have been out of high school for 20 years.

(I hate the sound of that- I feel so old)

Despite the fact that I will not attend my 20 year reunion this fall, I have been slowly recontacting many old high school friends. Some even found me. I figure most of my friends or people I'd be interested in seeing again wouldn't attend the reunion either or they were in a different class. Many of my friends in my senior year were juniors and some, including my girlfriend, were sophomores. I guess I was too immature for my own peers.

Over the past year, I've slowly amassed a decent chunk of my old friends back again. Most of us have jobs, kids, spouses (some even married each other), and are productive members of society. Heck, some even are award winning members of society. (I'm like a proud father) It's been great hearing what everyone's been up to and what their kids are like. I even have fun bragging that I'm vice-president of a multi-million dollar corporation (don't get too excited- it's the family biz).

So, as anti-reunion attending as I've become, I am hosting a dinner for 6 ex-high school classmates of mine tomorrow night. Hopefully it'll be like old times, except for the fact that we'll have alcohol and no worries about getting busted by our parents. Although, I suppose it would be awkward for my wife if I start making out with my old girlfriend, so I guess I shouldn't plan on making it much too much like old times. (note to Lynn- I'm Kidding!!)

I plan to get an even bigger get together some time in the summer as I know I can get even more old friends to come. Strange how comforted I've felt reconnecting with old friends, I wonder why I've even lost touch in the first place.