Day 2 of Jen's 20th reunion began a little earlier than we expected. Unbeknownst to us, Addy had contracted a stomach virus and at 4 AM, it started to effect her. Jen tended to Addy while I did the initial clean up and then Jen went into hyper cleaning mode. Jen absolutely despises stomach viruses and anytime someone in the house gets one, out comes the yellow gloves, lysol, bleach, and other various chemicals. So for the next few hours, Jen tended to Addy and cleaned at the same time. She is an outstanding multi-tasker.
The stomach virus threw our plans for the rest of the day into chaos. It was time to roll with things and hope for the best. I took Austin to his flag football game. His team won again, they are undefeated with one game left in the season. At the game, I asked my parents if they minded still watching the kids for us that evening so that we could attend the reunion. They said that they had been around sick kids in the past and that they would watch them for us. Big props for that to Mom & Dad. Courtney also came to the game and she took Avery home with her, thanks. After the football game I took Austin to a birthday party. I do not usually go to the hundreds of birthday parties to which my kids are invited. Austin & I had a good time at the party, but thanks Jen for usually taking the kids for me.
We returned home and loaded up the family truckster and took the kids to my parent's house. Addy had not gotten sick since about 7 AM and was in good spirits. Jen and I arrived at the Moody Gardens Hotel around 4 PM. Jen wanted a snack and I wanted a margarita so we headed for the lounge on the top floor of the hotel. We found out that they do not offer any food, just a bowl of mixed nuts. The waitress said that they also have gold fish crackers. We asked for some crackers, a coke, and a margarita. Another Jennifer arrived a short time later and met us in the lounge. She ordered a small bottle of champagne. She finished it and felt pretty good going to the reunion. When the waitress delivered our bill, we found out that we were charged for the gold fish crackers. I guess the 200 percent profit in the alcohol was not enough for Moody Gardens.
We returned to our room and a short time later heard Terry & Mary in the hallway. They were supposed to have the room right next to us. Terry used the key that the desk gave him, walked into the room and there was a woman working on a computer in the room. He quickly said sorry and backed out the door and headed to the desk to get things fixed. Terry returned a short time later and found the new room to be unoccupied. It was about time to head down to the reunion, so we all got dressed up and then met in the hallway.
We were one of the first to arrive at the reunion, it was held in a ballroom at the hotel. There was a bar in the corner, a buffet on the other end, a dance floor, and about 20 round tables that sat 10 to a table. The DJ arrived and started spinning the tunes and dinner was started. The food was good, salad, chicken, rice, sliced steak, veggies, and rolls. There was iced tea on the tables and each person got three tickets for drinks. I stated with a margarita and Jen had a glass of wine. About halfway through dinner, Jen noticed that there was a nat in her wine. Jen is not confrontational and before I could do anything about it, Aimee who was sitting with us called over a waiter. She said, "Her wine has a bug in it, can you get her another glass". He scurried off and returned with a fresh glass filled to the rim. After dinner it was time to mingle. A few times Jen was caught my eye from a few tables away and waved me over. I thought that she wanted to introduce me. No, she was calling over camera boy. I dutifully took a few pictures. I did not take the big camera, so we only have 30-40 pictures instead of 300-400 pictures.
Eventually a few people made it out onto the dance floor. Every time the floor started to fill up and there was some momentum and people were enjoying themselves, the DJ would change the music completely and kill the vibe. That happened at least 4 times throughout the evening. Later in the evening, the DJ played 40 minutes of Tejano music. There were about 12 hispanic people in the ballroom and half of them worked there. I felt like I was in a taqueria on Navigation by the ship channel. It just seemed like a strange selection by the DJ. Terry was on the dance floor quite a bit throughout the evening and eventually Mary and Jen joined him out there. They were able to get me out there for about 10 minutes. Luckily I did not pull anything and there is no video of the event, that I know of.
At one point I was standing by our table and a woman walked up to me. She said, "Who are you?" I responded, "I did not graduate from LaPorte, I married in." She said, "Good enough" and walked away. The most interesting outfit of the night had to go to a graduate's date. She wore a black dress that stopped just south of her rear. Almost the entire back of the dress was see through. Her black panties was on display to everyone. I am not here to judge, but only strippers and porn stars wear dresses like that. It made for a few laughs.
The reunion closed down at midnight and the after party was at Woody's on the seawall. We decided to skip the bar and headed up the room. Terry ordered some dessert and we unwound and discussed the evening over chocolate cake and Italian creme cake. When I noticed Jen starting to fall asleep while leaning against the headboard in their room, I knew it was time to call it a night. Overall, it really seemed like everyone had fun. Jen had a great time talking to all of her old friends. People seemed more open and less clique-ish than at the 10 year reunion and there is already talk on Facebook of a 25 year reunion.
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