You Can't Go Home Again Updated: April 30th, 2006 (RSS) But... you can get a pretty good massage while attempting to. Allow me to explain: See, this weekend was alumni weekend (for you non-military-school-folk, this is the equivalent of a class reunion) at the school I graduated from, Fishburne Military School. Not just any alumni weekend though, this was the equivalent of my 10th year reunion. And while my time spent in military school wasn't all wine and roses, I do still have some fond memories of the place and the people who occupied the school with me while I was there for 2 years. Plus, it's the 10-year reunion. Kind of a big one, right? So, I talked to MeLisa about it and she thought it would be a great idea for us to both take a trip down to see the school... and, since it also happened to be my birthday weekend, we should make a mini-vacation out of it. So that is exactly what we did. We drove down to Wintergreen Resort (where I had taken MeLisa for her birthday almost 4 years ago) and spent a day relaxing and goofing off. We went to the spa and got a couple's massage (hence the start of this update... and no, I did not get a happy ending) which was an interesting experience because it happens to be the first massage I have ever had. Thankfully, MeLisa had requested a female massouse to reduce the strangeness of the event. What can I say? I'm not a homophobe.. but the idea of a guy rubbing me down makes me feel a little uneasy. But even with the female massouse I wasn't completely sure what to expect... Do you get naked? (Only if you want to... and I did not.) Does she massage everything? (Apparently... yes. With the lone exception of the twig and berries.) Would it hurt? (A little. But the good far outweighed the bad.) Overall, I really enjoyed the massage. It took me a few minutes to stop grinning every time she touched me, but after the initial awkwardness faded I just laid there and let her work me like a lump of clay. I have to say, by the end of the session I felt pretty damn good. After the massages we got some dinner, went back to the condo and spent the evening watching movies and lounging in the jacuzzi in our room. Suffice it to say, it was an excellent getaway. We checked out of the resort the next morning and headed over to Waynesboro, VA to see my alma mater. While alumni weekend is technically three days long, all the good stuff happens Saturday morning. On Friday there is a tour of the library (no thanks) and a golf tournament (I don't play), and Sunday's only event is a brunch. Saturday is where all the action is... honor guard drills (people with flags marching around), a drill team exhibition (people with guns marching around) and the alumni parade (people marching around). We arrived around 8:30, checked in and stood around looking at the school. Which, not surprisingly, looks almost exactly the same as it did 10 years ago... I gave MeLisa a tour of the school just before the cadets started getting into formation for the parade: Since the parade would be starting soon, I headed out to the field to get in line with the rest of the guys from my class. See, this is the big draw of alumni weekend... you get to march around the field with the rest of your old classmates. Ironic, since we hated doing it then, but now view the activity as some kind of rare privilege. I got down to the field and found the "Class of '96" flag. I was the first one there... and continued to be the only person under my class banner for a good 10 minutes. Just when I started to think I may have miscalculated which year was the 10-year reunion, a few of my classmates showed up. I didn't recognize any of them... but they were there. All four of them. Yes, that's right... of our entire graduating class, only five people (including yours truly) bothered to show. Worst yet, I barely even remembered the few people who were there. Sure, their names sounded familiar... but that was the extent of my connection to them. Nonetheless, within a few minutes the parade began and my classmates and I walked across the field in all our glory: After the parade, I hung out and swapped stories with some of my old classmates for a little while and then MeLisa and I took off and headed home. Overall, it was an odd experience. I expected to show up at the school awash in nostalgia... like returning home after years of being away. Instead, I felt comepletely detached from the place as a whole. It felt more like visitng a historic landmark... it was interesting to see but I didn't really feel any emotional connection to it. It wasn't a bad experience, but I will be in no rush to visit the school again in the future. Two very good things did come of the visit to Fishburne though. First, when I registered for alumni weekend the school sent me a list of all my classmates (with their phone numers and email addresses), including my roommate Dave, who I had not talked to in years. I gave him a call and we spent a couple of hours catching up on the last six years or so of our lives. Dave's a good guy and we'll probably make an effort to stay in touch now. The second good thing was the price of gas in Virginia. $2.71 a gallon!? Hells yes!