reunions are such odd beasts. my dad's side of the family (spread out on both sides of the continent as well as in various parts of europe) is attempting to plan a reunion in southern california in three weeks. it will be the first such reunion in 25 years, with only one surviving member of the oldest generation left (and she won't be able to make it). there are, of course, three subsequent generations of the warga clan, with a significant california contingent. because i'm so close to my mom's side of the family and get to see them fairly often, it does not seem to be that much of a novelty to get together with mostly the california crew. it'll be good to get the family together, though. last time the theme was "paprika power" (ah, yes, the universal symbol of hungary!)... i wonder what ingenious icon we'll choose this time? :)

it gets me thinking about my 10-year high school reunion, though, which is coming up in short order. why do people make such a big deal of class reunions? it's basically a venue to catch everyone up on the latest gossip about the kids we went to school with. while i think the extraneous gossip might be entertaining, i actually still keep in touch with the people i care about from high school. some of my closest friends from high school continue to be some of my closest friends-- in fact, i just went and saw one of them get married this month. so, the idea of losing those extra 20 pounds, getting your hair done, and finding a charismatic date for this kind of event seems like overkill to me. so, where did the most-likely-to-be's end up? are they happy? are they entrenched in family life or career overload? how much do we really care?

holy nolan ryan-ness, batman! my cousin taylor, pitcher extraordinaire for the csu pomona broncos, was just named all-american. i can't even begin to express how awesome i think this is-- and he's waiting anxiously for tuesday's draft, as there have been hints of him being picked up by the giants or the mets. big congrats to tay, as i know what a dream come true this would certainly be.