**Super Long sorry
When I first heard about the Reunion I of course wanted to go, but Doug and I have done so much traveling this year, I just wasn’t sure how we could swing it. I started to get texts from my good friend Shauna from High School who still lives in California, telling me I have to come! When I talked to Doug about it he says,” you have to go, this only happens every 10 years, let’s go!” This is the kind of man I married, he is always so supportive of me!
We flew into Burbank super early, picked up our rental car and drove straight to Valencia and hoped to be able to check into our hotel early to catch a little nap… we had been up since 5 am. The hotel desk told us our room wouldn’t be ready for another hour or two so we hopped back into the car and headed straight over to Final Score. There are two places that I think of when I think of home, that’s Thrifty’s Ice Cream and Final Score ( the best sandwich shop). Growing up My dad’s office was in the same building as Final Score so I would strategically plan my visits to my dads work around lunchtime in hopes that he would take me there. More often than not it worked!:P My dad was a frequent flyer there, so the odds were actually very good! It has moved locations since back then but it felt the same once we walked in. We placed our order and who do you think we see as we sit down, the owner Joe Sr. He was so friendly and nice and we got to talking and he of course totally remembers my dad, I even snapped a pic to send to my dad.
I can’t get over how good this man looks, I mean he has not changed at all! The sandwich was just as good as I remembered too! This was a great start to my trip down memory lane. We then decided to kill some more time by driving by the houses I grew up in. Actually I only drove by two of the three because to be honest I don’t really remember how to even get to the first house I lived in… we moved out of that one when I was super little. I have not been back to my home town in over 15 years, our last two reunions were in L.A. so I never even got to see my hometown when I went. I actually had to use my GPS to find one of these houses, that’s how much Valencia has changed!
I still can’t believe that Olive tree is still there! Me and my siblings and even some of my friends practically lived in that thing, it’s amazing the amount of hours we would spend playing out there and using our imaginations turning it into a spaceship or our office, kind of sad kids don’t do more of that now. Oh and being hit by a flying olive was the norm back then, those olive fights were the best and man those things hurt! LOL
After that trip down memory lane we headed back to the hotel for a little rest before meeting up with Shauna and Wendell to go see a taping of The Titan Games. This was a fundraiser for Shauna’s daughter who is in the Choir at Hart, I would like to say the only reason I went was to support my old alma mater but I have to be honest, the reason why we went was because it was The Rock’s new show (Dwayne Johnson) and I was super excited to see him in person, hoping to get to chat with him or better yet get a picture with him. But those dreams were crushed when we were told we all had to leave our cell phones in the car. But my rebel friend Shauna snuck hers in and snapped a few pics for me!
I am not going to lie, I was pretty sad that Ole D.J. wasn’t very interactive with us (the audience), he was all business which I get, but come on we were clapping for him and his show for over 4 hours, our hands were so sore afterwards! But it was a fun experience and we were with good company so it was worth it! We didn’t get back to our hotel room til close to 1 am. Whew! what a long day!!
After such a long day we were exhausted, we ended up sleeping in which was so nice. Once we were up I noticed something weird-looking on the door of our room. It looked like a smashed mouse or something. When I got up to take a closer look I see that it is not a mouse but a BAT!! What?! Talk about a wake up call, I was wide awake now! Hoping this thing was dead Doug pokes it and nope it was alive! He hurries up and captures it in a trash can and calls down to the front desk. All I can think about is what was that creepy thing doing to us while we were asleep?? YIKES it still gives me the heebie jeebies!!!
After our bat adventures we got ready and went out to do some more driving down memory lane. We drove to Meadows, My old elementary school, I was hoping to walk around and swing on the swings and climb the monkey bars but the whole campus was now fenced in! I was pretty bummed out, but the place looked pretty much the same as I remembered besides the sad fence.
I started remembering all the fun things I would do as a kid, one of them was anytime I would find an extra quarter or two me and my friends would take a walk down to Sunrise to buy some candy. So I told Doug we need to go find Sunrise that would be a total trip to see that old place. Once we get there I see the sign that says sunrise But I am pretty sure it wasn’t the same Sunrise I used to walk to, there is no way my parents would have let me walk to the liquor store to buy candy! LOL
After that we met up with Shauna and Wendell for lunch. We went to a place called Cathy’s. Shauna says it was there back in the day, but I do not remember it at all. I should have taken pictures, but I forgot, but all I can say is do not order the Chicken and Waffle. It was literally a half of a chicken cut in half, bones and all, breaded and deep-fried and sitting on top of a tiny waffle! lol live and learn!
After lunch I met up with my good friend Diane. Diane moved to Valencia her junior year, so I only knew her for a little bit, but we became really good friends and she wasn’t going to the reunion so we decided to meet up at Rite Aid for a Thrifty’s ice cream and a quick visit. Man it’s crazy how quickly we can pick up after so much time like nothing has ever changed! I wished we had more time.
After I headed over to the High School because I read that a few were meeting there to take pictures at the Marquee, since I was so close I figured why not!
After checking out the high school I headed back to the hotel to get ready for the reunion. I started to get nervous. When I tell people how shy I am most of the time they won’t believe me. I can pretty much talk to anyone one on one, but put me in a group environment and I get pretty anxious and nervous. Then there is the added pressure of maybe nobody will even remember who I am, I mean I moved away when I graduated and never came back! I had to remind myself that not only did I go to high school with these people, some of them I’ve known since Elementary school! I was a pretty shy and quiet girl back then, so everything leading up to walking into this reunion was high anxiety for me! But once there I was surrounded by a bunch of familiar faces, I may not remember the names to the faces, but surprisingly it gave me a sense of calm. I also realized I am probably not alone in feeling this way. I also loved that it doesn’t matter anymore what group or click you belonged to before, everyone is able to be nice to each other, jocks, cheerleaders, the smart ones, nerds, geeks, whatever group you belonged to, it really doesn’t matter anymore, or maybe it was just me who felt like I did not belong to certain groups because I wasn’t the smart, pretty, popular, athletic one, or whatever it was. I guess the only difference now is maybe I don’t care about those things. I guess that’s the only area that I feel like I have grown up in, I used to care so much what others thought of me, now that I am older I don’t really care, I am who I am and if you don’t like it too bad! The only thing I care about is if you are a good person or not. For the most part we are all just trying to live our best lives and are doing the best we can. So after I put all my anxiety away, I had a really good time chatting with and catching up with old friends and classmates. I totally didn’t take enough pictures, I ended up putting my purse in the car because i didn’t want to be bothered with it, and forgot to take my phone out, so Doug did manage to take a few pics… Wish I would have taken more. But what a fun night.
Sunday we didn’t have to fly out till 6:30pm. Doug and I slept in and relaxed until we had to check out of our hotel. After we headed over to William S. Hart Park. it seemed fitting to go visit the place that our high school was named after. Doug loves old westerns and things like that so I figured this would be fun. I remember going to visit the museum back in the day for many field trips. William S. Hart was an old silent movies star and he left his house to the city of L.A. when he died. We took a tour of his house and walked the grounds.
After we headed back over to Shauna’s house, they had invited us over for Sunday dinner. We had a great time visiting with them and their girls and reminiscing about old times. What a great weekend. I am so happy we were able to take this quick trip.
After dinner we had to head back to the airport. Shauna starts texting me all these old pictures she found while showing her girls pictures of us from back in the day. Some of these I have never even seen before so this was a perfect ending to a total Blast from the Past Weekend!!
It’s crazy how one bad short haircut, resulted in most of my high school years sporting the most awkward growing out stages of that haircut. I am so surprised I even had any friends! It also made me wonder what people were thinking at the reunion when they would say I look exactly the same! Dang, I sure hope not!! LOL Note to self… never get a boy haircut ever again! hahahha
Janna's Journey 