catching up

they say you can't go home again, and i suppose it's true, because this is what many of my high school compatriates have done with themselves over the last five years:

• n. is in san quentin for pushing drugs, as well as his alarming habit of building bombs and detonating them in the middle of fields.


• j. is in jail for being an accessory to armed robbery; she had a baby during her first month on the inside. it was taken away from her.


• l. is a devout zionist, living in israel. she apparently starts sentences with "those damn palestinians..."


• a. is married, mormon, and living in utah


• a.m. has impregnated so many girls in the area, that people who barely know him have taken to beating him up on the street in protest.


• b., the richest kid at my first high school, is working at a strip bar in san francisco, having avoided picking up any other useful job skills along the way.


• n.f., one of the bitchiest girls in school, has come out of the closet and has apparently become much much nicer since doing so.

there's more, but those were truly the highlights. it's funny, considering my hometown is such an affluent suburb, it sometimes seems that those of us who grew up there have had a hard time getting out without religion or law enforcement.