9am  I've been at airport for 45 minutes reading a really good book. The one morning rush hour traffic doesn't turn the expressway into a parking lot and I get to the airport waaaayyyy toooo early. I stand up and decide to line up to get my boarding pass and Rick Avera '80 and Karen Rogg '80 are standing in line already. I give them a blah hello and Karen about
bites my head off...I apologize quickly and give her a proper duckie greeting. :) I love you Karen. (I suppose it's just that I see her so often that I didn't jump up and down when I saw her this time ...or can I blame it on "duckie doesn't do mornings - my roomies only know the truth to that one <lol> ).

10:15am  Waiting in line to board the plane and a stranger tells us she was just talking to another lady in line behind us who mentioned the High School on all our T-shirts and asked if we were going to a Wagner reunion in San Antonio. The three of us whip our heads around and spot Jodean O'Harrow Bailey '68. We quickly introduce ourselves to her and start reunionizing. Because the plane was booked full, we couldn't sit with her, but we agreed to wait for her when we got off the plane and catch a ride to the Hotel together since she was traveling by herself.

10:35  Rick80 suggests to me that I take off my t-shirt and hang it up in the isle so we can find out if more Falcons are onboard the plane. Although I thought it was a good idea to find out if we had more falcons on the plane, I was NOT willing to remove my t-shirt. (this turns out later to be a very bad mistake)  Karen and I talk for awhile, but she decides to take a nap and I quickly bury my nose in my good book.

11:30  Karen wakes up with a start and says "ohmigod, I was just dreaming about painting my fingernails purple". I told her to "go back to sleep and paint her toenails". She hit me and laughed. We had been discussing this prior to her falling asleep. I guess it was the power of suggestion. I forgot to ask her when she woke again if her toes got done.

3pm  Rick, Karen and I get off the plane and wait for Jodean who was sitting a few rows behind us near the front of the plane. Jim Cook '75 and Shirley Deason '76 arrive to take us to the hotel. Since none of us checked baggage we quickly depart the airport to head for the hotel.

3:30pm  We arrive at hotel and the first person we see is Beldon Granada '75 and then John Prunier '65. I was in the back of our group, but I quickly dashed ahead and ran to greet them both with a warm falcon hug. I hugged so many people after that...no way am I going to try to list them all.

3:45pm  I'm talking with Beldon and find out he was on our flight. He was sitting in the back of the plane. We didn't know we all were on the same flight. "Remember my mistake in NOT taking off my Wagner Falcon reunion t-shirt"...well now I wish I had, or actually wish I had done something to find out if anyone else on our flight was headed for our reunion. Beldon
beat us to the hotel because he didn't check any bags either and he caught a cab all by himself, whereas we had to walk to where Jim parked his car and then get out of the lot. Oh Beldon, we are so sorry that happened. I would have gladly let you sit on my lap just to fit you in Jim's car. (It was a tight squeeze without Beldon).  Oh and BTW, Beldon's hugs are just
wonderful and I got 3 hugs from him in the hotel lobby before I felt well enough to mosey on up to my room.  Ladies if you haven't been hugged by Beldon, you don't know what you are missing.

4pm  I headed up to my room. The hotel staff told me one of my roommates had checked in. She wasn't there but her bags were, along with a stuffed animal on the bed. I was anxious to meet Gina Meiners Burrows (our adopted Falcon) who's father attended WHS, Bert Meiners '63. Gina joined the list group to help her dad get in touch with Falcons 4 months ago and she got hooked into it with all our wonderful friendships we have here online. Gina graduated from a HS here stateside in '87 and never has been to the Philippines, but let me tell you...after this reunion...she's a falcon all the way. She had a blast and I'm so happy we got to share a room together.  Now...since I have no idea where my roomies are...

4:10  I head to the Hospitality Suite to lay out the Bumper Stickers and other memorabilia I brought to share. The room is crowded with lots of people hanging out. I quickly register and give hugs to people I've met online, and I feel overwhelmed. So many people, I'll never remember every ones faces with the names I've already memorized over the past 2 1/2 years
working for WHOA here online. But it's nice to finally say hello and meet everyone. The reaction on everyone's faces when I introduce myself as "duckie" is almost the same every time. Huge smiles and words of praise/thanks for the WHOA team and me. Talk about warm fuzzy feelings. I feel blessed and lucky to have so many wonderful friends...all falcons are
my friends, forever.  :)

4:30pm  I head to the 70's party in Jim Cooks room. We sit around with drinks, talking and laughing. At one point we must have had 20+ people in that small room. Lots of sharing of old scrap books and yearbooks. Jim at some point shows up wearing a wig and the ugliest set of teeth you ever saw. I knew it was him, he should have changed his shirt, but a lot of people had no idea who he was. The teeth are so revolting you can't but help stare at them and when you don't know it's him...well you try not to react, but once he lets you know it's him, laughter abounds. He wore the get up many times through out the reunion, and every time the relief on others faces was funny to watch. It's hard not to be revolted by those teeth.

4:45pm  The infamous "red dress" shows up on the body of Jeepney Jen '80. Jen start introducing herself to everyone, and she starts to introduce herself to Gary McClellan '75 when she notices who he really is and screams "oh Gary I didn't recognize you". Then Gary, or was it Jen, immediately latched on with the biggest and longest hug. It was a Kodak moment and I left my camera in another room. darn!

5pm  Jim passes out lottery cards to everyone in the room and tells us we have to scratch the tickets one at a time while he takes our pictures scratching the cards. Gary's card is a $50,000 winner. And we all stand there in awe and disbelief while he reads the card with a puzzled and dumbfounded look on his face. Suddenly he smiles and passes the card, which everyone then reads in turn. It turns out the joke was on us, two of the lottery cards are bogus joke cards. One card (Gary's was a 50,000 winner), the other a 20,000 winner had to be collected in 10 seconds by presenting it to the Tooth Fairy or Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny...or some such nonsense. I'm not sure if any of the rest of the "real" lottery cards where winners or not. I know my Bingo card was not a winner.  Gary shared with us later that he was really disappointed that the card was bogus. Before he realized the card was a joke, he was thinking of a family that couldn't pay for a funeral that he wanted to use some of the money to help with funeral expenses. While the rest of us at the time were shouting that he could pay for the SD/CAB2000 reunion for all of us in the room and then some. That kind of sharing with Gary made me realize even more what a great wonderful guy Gary really is. We are so lucky to have him as our "Creator".

5:30pm  Gary and I have been on the bed for some time looking through a yearbook together, talking about all the people we knew and being amazed at how many common friends we had.  I was stretched out across the bed on my belly, feet up in the air. Gary was sitting and Shirley Deason '76 tells Gary he'd better keep one foot on the floor at all times. Gary went "huh?"
and then a light bulb went off and we all laughed. I started thinking of times I wasn't allowed to even have boys in my bedroom and when I did, some pretty heavy petting went on that didn't involve any feet on the floor. But I did maintain my virginity till June 6, 1976. (any 76er will recognize that date)

6pm  I left Jim's room to get ready for the Tex-mex Cocktail Party. Gina was already in the room getting ready, but no Bull. While I was in the bathroom, that unmistakable voice of Bull Durham '71 entered our room. Hip hip hurray, all the roomies are together. Man is Bull tall with a deep voice. I've heard the rumors about how tall Bull is, but until you meet him....wow! I gave him a big hug, almost like hugging someone around their waist till he bends over and gets down to my size and I'm not short by any means. We all hurry with getting ready for dinner while we laugh and talk, getting to know each other more. Bull immediately finds his shirts are very wrinkled and us two girls fall over ourselves to iron his shirts for him, so Gina ironed the body and I ironed the sleeves. I told him I'd like a foot massage in return for ironing his shirt later after we go dancing. But I never did collect on that massage. Bull I'll let you slide on that debt just because I love you so much.  :)

7:10pm  We arrive at the Tex-Mex Party and it's in full swing. My first mouthful of food was a tear jerker. I bit into something so hot and spicy I thought I was going to die. I was sitting with Jodean '68 and had my breath taken away so bad by the spices that I got a bad case of the hiccups which only got worse as my mouth was on fire and I was in a panic about it. I finally calm down and start holding my breath to get the hiccups under control. By the time I do, my mouth is no longer on fire. But I am starving and want to finish eating the rest of my food. I get up to try to buy milk at the cash bar, no milk. Then I ask if they can make a white Russian and no such luck. So I go back and sit down to try to eat some more food. I start taking very small bites avoiding the first thing I tried to eat. Nothing is spicy. I'm still hungry though and start trying to eat more from the first thing I tried. No spices there either. I don't know what was in that first bite, but I'm glad nothing else I ate was spicy after that. I'm still hungry, but I didn't dare chance having fire in my mouth again. I decide I'd try to get more "normal" food later. (only then I had no idea how much later that would be.)

I have no idea how long we all mingled and hung around before Vincent Slupecki '70 (VJ) start the auction to raise money for the association and WHOA. But the auction turned out to be fun, although it took way too long (in my opinion). I managed to win a bid of $2.00 for a item I thought was a patch (the words from VJ's mouth) of the Philippine flag. I was excited that I could add it to my hip hugger bell bottom jeans, but it turned out not to be a patch and I'm not sure I can sew it on my jeans. It's not made of material that appears to be washable. It was a small miniature banner that would serve better suction cupped to a window or mirror. Another item I managed to snag was a wooden caribou that was donated by Linda when she
cleaned out her fathers attic. She was thrilled to learn I got it for a mere $15.00. I always wished I had one of those things and now I do. The most amazing thing auctioned was a San Miguel t-shirt. It went for well over 50.00 and one of the ladies that was bidding on it just couldn't go any higher to snag it. She was so disappointed. But about 20 minutes later (I'm sorry I don't remember all the names here) one of the guys attending the reunion is seen wearing a black version of the t-shirt and they ask him if they can auction the shirt off his back for the fund raiser. I saw him shake his head no and say "no" many times, but VJ started the bidding and auctioned the shirt anyway to the lady for $50.00. They had to chase him around the room several times before he finally gave the t-shirt up for the great cause and much to the thrill of the women in the front of the room <beg> he stripped while we sang the appropriate strip music. WHOA'o... ladies if you missed the naked chest on that guy...!!! He was hot under that shirt and he looks like he keeps in shape by working out lifting weights or something. I got an eye full as I was in the front row for that one. Lily Duke '80 managed to snag quite a few items that she bid on. I think she collected more items than anyone else in the room. She got the 3 tiered lazy susan cheap, $10 bucks. I thought for sure that would go for more. May-be it was the size and not wanting to lug that home on the plane.

I'm not sure what time the party broke up, but let me tell you the party was far from over. It was friday night and not many wanted to sleep. A huge group decided to go dancing at local bars. I opted to go to the Pajama Party in Gary75's room. Being a veteran of reunions I knew I couldn't dance all night friday and dance all night saturday too without suffering horribly for it. So hanging out with falcons and talking the night away sounded good to me.

1am  Some wonderful person had ordered 3 pizzas in Gary's room and I realize how starved I am. I hardly ate anything all day. I gladly chipped in for the pizza and ate a piece when it arrived. After sitting around and seeing how many people actually don PJ's, Juanita Wade '74 and I headed out to get in our Jamie's. Juanita and I talk in the hallway with no one around and decide to arrive in Toga's and we quickly head out to strip our beds of sheets. I of course put on one of my Victoria Secrets and then tie the bedsheet over it. If you don't believe I had Victoria Secrets on, ask Gary and John about it. I showed them the tags on the PJ's. So now you all know at least what one of my Victoria secret outfits looks like that I clean my pool in. <lol> (I showed Bull and Gina too!)

We got tons of laughs when we arrived to the PJ party in our togas. Some chanting of Togas, Togas went on too! But no one else joined us to don sheets. No matter, we loved being different than the rest of ya!  :)

2am  Nancy Ward '76 is wondering why her nose itches so much. Lena '76 chimes right in with a straight face and tells her "you have a big booger hanging out of your nose" and Nancy believes her for just long enough that we all roared over it. We had lots of great laughs like that for hours all night, but that one stuck in my mind...or was it Nancy's nose!!!

3am  I am amazed that a great mystery for me is finally solved after 24 years. We are back to looking at yearbooks again and swapping WHS stories and Nancy is sharing a story and suddenly the mystery of the ugly toes is solved. There is a photo in the 75 yearbook of some ones feet and I have always wondered who's feet (and toes) they were on that bus. They belong to
Nancy Ward. I never knew that. Wow, it is truly amazing what you can learn at a reunion.

A photo opt happened sometime around this sharing where we decided to all pile up on the couch and take pictures. I laid across everyone's laps and ended with my head buried in Jim Cook's lap and we all thought he'd need a cold shower after that was nicely pointed out. To make matters worse, I had to continue to lay there like that until a million photos were shot with
everyone's cameras. Poor Jim, sorry to excite you so only to not be able to finish the job. <weg>

I headed off to bed around 4am, my roomies were not in the room yet. Bull came in shortly after I had just crawled in bed. But he quickly fell off to sleep. I felt I had just drifted to sleep when Gina wandered in around 5:30am. I slept a little more before rising at 7am because I couldn't sleep anymore. I wanted to get back to partying with my friends and I was hungry
again...
lov you all

duckie '76

love ya

Mr. Tish "75"

Frank Davila

kitty "CAT" Braxton '87

Cool:   Watching Dary do his own balcony dance at the Saturday reunion dance.
WayCool:   Watching a falconette put a dollar in his pocket.
UltimateCool:   Hearing countless Wagerites cheer and applaud. :)
Gaye,missingallofyoualready,74