Real Kato Blog: The Michigan Weekend: Part 3

... in which I talk about Javi's induction into our High School Hall of Fame. Finally.

Saturday, 6:00 p.m.

So this is what we've all come for: Javi's big moment. He's getting his gold star.

The evening starts with a one-hour "social", also known as "your opportunity to get sufficiently liquored up, in order to endure the event to follow". (We've heard that these shindigs can get to be pretty lengthy.) When I get there, I don't see anyone I know, but Javi and Lorna and Jen show up presently. We start drinking immediately. Hooray!

Other people trickle in over the next half hour. I'm thrilled that in all, seven of my high school friends (plus our high school theater sponsor, the esteemed Des Ryan) are there, making this event into a mini-reunion. For this, I have to thank my good friend John, who largely arranged for Javi's entry to the Hall of Fame and who told us all about this ceremony.

We socialize and drink a bit before getting ushered into the room where the ceremony is to be held.

Saturday, 7:00 p.m.

John has arranged two tables for Javi's entourage, and I claim the seat next to Javi, so I can reap the benefit of his comedic commentary during the course of the evening. We eat our dinner, which consists of a fruit cocktail, a "Michigan salad", warm dinner rolls (which are the highlight), a chicken something-or-other dish, and either cheesecake or chocolate cake for dessert. It's actually not bad.

We take a few photos before the ceremony starts. The funniest one is probably this one, of Javi and Earl:

No doubt, someone in the "javiminions" group on LiveJournal will pick this up to make an icon before too long.

After dinner, we launch into the ceremony, hosted by an uncomfortably perky radio announcer from a local AM station. It's not very long before we can see that this event will, indeed, be interminable. It reminds me a bit of my cousin's wedding in Japan; apparently, the custom at wedding receptions in Japan is not to dance or have fun, but to listen to a parade of people give speeches about the newlyweds. Only in this case, it's like being at a wedding reception for six different couples, and you only know one of them.

John and Des give a blissfully short speech for Javi, which is a credit to their social grace and, um, compassion. We aren't quite so lucky with the speakers for the other inductees; some of them drone on for over twenty minutes. I completely tune out through most of it, paying attention only when there's a lull in the speaking and it's time to provide some polite applause. Javi is the second inductee out of six. Unfortunately we can't leave early, and not just because it would be Frowned Upon: Javi is required to stay until the end so they can take group photos. Again, like a wedding.

Mostly I occupy myself with taking pictures, though many of them don't turn out very well because I don't want to distract people with the flash.

Here's the lovely Lorna, looking a little listless. I think we're about halfway through the speeches at this point.

Here are some new friends I made.

Here are Javi and I near the end of the ceremony. We are feeling a little bit punchy. (Har, har.)

At last, it's over. One last photo of Javi, with his prestigious award:

That'll probably also be a LiveJournal icon before long.

10:30 p.m.

It's all finally over, and we pick up our commemorative wine glasses and get the hell out of there. We go to Frazer's, a loud but charming-in-its-own-way neighborhood sports bar. Jen brings along photo albums full of pictures of us from high school. There is a good deal of drinking and reminiscing that goes on, the details of which I will spare you.

I think it's about 1:00 a.m. when the party breaks up. John drives me back to my hotel, and after an appropriate amount of blog- and email-reading, I pass out.

(And now a note back in the present: it's 1:00 a.m. on Monday night and I think I'm too tired to finish writing the weekend story right now. I'm taking another vacation day from work tomorrow, so I'll write some more in the morning. Tune in for the conclusion, where I reveal the Big Surprises that were awaiting me when I returned!)

Permalink 7 Comment

Posted by Ken in: life, travel

Comments

Comment #1 from Javi (Guest)
2005 May 10 - 1:48 am : #

dude - thanks for the report! i linked it to javiminions - so maybe your prediction about the iconage will come true.

for the record, i have spent the last 48 hours dreaming of those warm dinner rolls. because they were - you know... warm.

Comment #2 from Speaker (Guest)
2005 May 10 - 9:43 am : #

I want warm dinner rolls!

OH! and:

javi earl

award

(Edited by Ken)

Comment #3 from Speaker (Guest)
2005 May 10 - 9:59 am : #

Hey, for your LJ friends, I set you up a syndication feed here: http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=real_kato

they can add that as a friend and get your entries delivered straight to their friends list!

Comment #4 from Starrox (Guest)
2005 May 10 - 1:17 pm : #

*ROFL* I knew you wouldn't be able to resist, Speaker!

Comment #5 from Travis Tidmore (Guest)
2005 May 10 - 2:28 pm : #

Thanks for your report. I'm gonna have to add you to my daily blogs, your very funny.

Plus any friend of Javi's is a person who I will one day stalk in order to become Javi (j/k of course)

Comment #6 from lornahorna (Guest)
2005 May 12 - 2:11 pm : #

After a weekend with you guys, I have been seduced into the world of blogging. So it's nice to see that the first time I've ever been mentioned (that I know of) in a blog I got such a lovely introduction - thanks Ken! From Lorna

Comment #7 from olafandyjon (Guest)
2005 May 20 - 9:06 am : #

Labatt Blue...good choice in friends! Hmmm...looks like I'll have to add the feed over to my LJ, if you don't mind.

Comments are closed for this post.

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