Turn Out the Lights

The party is over. We meet up on a Friday night, one time a year. We drink, laugh, tell stories on each other and stay awake as late as we can possibly manage in our middle aged bodies that act and feel 17 for at least one weekend a year. We look forward to it, we write about it, we make grandiose plans that may or may not ever happen, and we love each other.

One middle aged school teacher was there for the first time in a few years. We have all missed her as she stayed with her sick mother til the tearful end. This reserved, sweet lady would bounce around the room announcing she was drinking "TeeeeKeeeelah!" Then she started the countdown to passing out, which for some unknown reason she estimated to be around Midnight. "Or I'll turn into a pumpkin."

I tried to calm her down by telling her turning into a pumpkin was not a bad thing, considering what the local redneck boys around here are known to do to pumpkins. Undeterred, about 11:55 she flopped down on a bed that was not hers and waited for the passing-out to commence. Every so often she would pop up with concern all over her face and ask individuals if they were planning on driving home (assuming they were as drunk as she was feeling) then offering to let them sleep with her in her room.

The highlight of last night was when our event organizer mentioned her year of chemo-therapy from breast cancer. She talked about her wig and from time to time walking through the house without hair in front of her son's friends. And I could not contain my question any longer. Like a timid little boy I just had to ask... "When you had chemo... Did you lose your ear hair and your nose hair too?"

I was expecting shock and disgust but instead I heard a shout of, "She didn't lose her pubes! I already asked!" Then another asked, sounding like another little kid in awe and amazement of some totally cool concept, "Did you lose your eyebrows or eye lashes?" and other asked, ""Oooh! What about the hair on your legs?!"

The questions were interrupted by "That would be cool if you didn't have to shave your legs!"

And there we were, thanks to the magical powers of alcohol, transported back to the innocence of youth. Staring wide eyed and open mouthed, waiting on the wonders of grown up life to be revealed to us by the first kid in our group that was brave enough try something new and lived to tell the tale. It was maybe one of the most special moments of my life. I love those guys!