Wow. Last night I went to my 20-year high school reunion. Not quite the turnout I was expecting, but a decent showing nonetheless. I was stuck by one particular observation. It seemed that of all my former classmates that I met again, they either looked pretty much the way I remembered them or looked completely different.

Some, had undergone a bit of a transformation because of...ahem..."hard livin'". One woman I had known pretty well back in school looked like she hadn't aged a day while another reminded me of one of my great aunts. Strange. It's also funny how after twenty years you can find so much more in common with some one than you did when you were younger (marriage, kids, job, mortgages, etc.)

But the most interesting part of the evening is below the fold... It turns out that the Mrs. had more trepidation than I had about going to this shindig because of the anticipation of meeting...dum, dum duuuuummmmm...the old girlfriend. Ok, so maybe she was little more than just a girlfriend. Ok, so we were engaged for a while.

Alright, so maybe it was for a few years, whatever. Anyway being the standard garden-variety male that I am I couldn't understand what the big deal was. I reassured her that there was nothing to be nervous about. I certainly wasn't. Don't worry, I told her. You'll get along fine.

Now I know most of you ladies right now are sharpening pins to stick into your Ex-Donkey voodoo dolls. How dare I be so cavalier about such a sensitive subject! I just don't understand women! What a jerk!, you must be saying to yourselves.

Well, guess what? After the initial awkwardness, those two were chatting away like old friends. They shared complaints about me, swapped war stories about dealing with my mother and discovered that, both being mothers themselves, they had a lot more in common besides their exceptional taste in men. In fact, if not for the ex being there, the Mrs. probably would have been bored out of her mind (I got her to admit this later).

See. We're not as dumb as you think we are. We just pretend to be. Our judgment can be way off at times on a lot of things, but when it comes to the women in our lives we can appreciate the big picture.

On the other hand, maybe we are that dumb, and I just lucked out.

Posted by: Gary at 02:56 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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