I had a previous engagement in terms of the Houston Trans community meeting about the Delgado v. Araguz case that I wanted to get more up to speed on that was starting at 1:00 PM I couldn't be in both places, so I decided sleep was the ticket, then got my behind up a little later than I wanted to anyway and ended up getting to the TG center in Montrose after it started.
Was an informative afternoon of getting up to speed on the Araguz case and the ramifications of it, and got to meet Nikki and have a loverly conversation with her as well. That meeting ended a little after 3 PM, but ended up running my mouth until 4:30 PM and not getting home until almost 5 PM..
After checking e-mail and double checking the location for tonight's formal dinner I started getting into glam mode. Falcon sisters can rock some clothes and Moni was going to come correct. I already had a pretty good idea what I wanted to wear unlike the previous night where I changed clothes four times before I settled on the outfit I wore to Friday's event.Our venue for 'Gazing at the Stars' was the Downtown Plaza Club on the 49th floor of One Shell Plaza. To me it was an appropriate and perfect venue because at the time we were matriculating at JJ, 50 story One Shell Plaza was the tallest buildings in Houston.
It has long since been eclipsed by the 75 story Chase Tower and other nearby buildings that went up and were completed in rapid succession during the 80's .Its location on the western end of downtown left us with a beautiful unobstructed view of the west side of Houston and the Galleria area just eight miles away on another picture perfect Houston fall day slowly turning into a cloudless starry night.
I arrived about 7:40 PM and walked into the venue to see a gigantic decorated number 30 in our school colors and a mini version of Sir Frederick, our Falcon mascot perched nearby on the table.
I entered the dining section and found a table close to the video screen and projector that was set up, and began circulating around the room. Once again greetings and hugs were exchanged, people took photos until it was time for dinner to be served.
After we got our grub on our hardworking reunion committee said a few remarks and passed out the ballots for the reunion awards before segueing into a prayer from one of the ministers in our class.
When that was completed, we launched into another tradition of our reunion weekends by taking a moment via video presentation of remembering the classmates we lost. That total is now up to 17 Falcons soaring above the clouds..
I was having a wonderful time along with everybody else in the room. My conversations this evening ran the gamut from discussing where I got my outfit and my weight loss to having a discussion with the fellas about the game we lost on a last second shot to Wheatley in '79 that cost us the District 20-4A district basketball title and losing the district title on coin flips despite beating Jack Yates in '78.
We took our reunion class photo, photos of the assorted groups of cheerleaders, class officers, cheerleaders, majorettes, band members and athletes (was on the tennis team) before the announcements for the reunion awards.Since I'd already won the 'Most Changed Award' in 2000, I wasn't expecting to do so again but my classmates had other ideas. I became a repeat winner, and this time it was because I've dropped 60 pounds since the 2000 reunion. Got a nice prize out of the deal as well..
The picnic is tomorrow at Adair Park and they will have perfect weather for it, but I won't be there. I'm a little bummed I'm missing it, but i will however be at the homecoming game October 16 next weekend at Barnett Stadium.
But it's already been a wonderful 30 year reunion weekend for me. Our reunion committee once again outdid themselves and topped the 2000 event. I'm looking forward to our next one that hopefully happens in five years.
We definitely ain't getting any younger and I hope and pray we don't have more Falcons Above the Clouds between now and whenever we do meet again..
