The Maastricht office of the COC celebrates its 35th birthday. Every person who have volunteered over the years were invited to come and celebrate; I accidentally became one after writing a paper on the legal position of the non-biological mother in a lesbian relationship. (Eventually, it formed the basis of my thesis.)
I "Hyved" a few friends I knew from those days, but hadn't seen in years. (Hyves is the Dutch version of Facebook. Sorta.) They in turn notified people they knew from back then... I was looking forward to seeing old friends and reminisce.
This picture was taken 10 years ago, at COC Maastricht's 25th birthday bash. And a party it was! Can you spot me? (I'm the one who adds some color to the bunch *snickers*) This was taken after the Sunday brunch. I think it really is too bad the picture is that small!
After we got name tagged (which also enables us to get free drinks throughout the evening) we each got a slice of (fruit) pie and a cup of tea or coffee. Old footage was being shown in two rooms (from way before my time), and someone had made several collages from old photographs and news clippings. I suddenly found myself looking at a younger and slimmer version of myself. I'm not sure who made the collage, but that picture was so me: I was playing the guitar... The things that bugged me a little bit was that I couldn't remember for the life of me when that picture was taken or whose guitar it was. Cos it certainly wasn't mine!
It was great catching up with old friends. At one point I wished Krista was there, so she could hear firsthand from a couple of friends I'm not as straight laced as I appear to be!
Seeing my buddy Ro felt like seeing a brother I hadn't talked to in a long time. It was great, and it felt a little like old times. We reminisced about the our days at the COC, and concluded that some memories were shrouded in an alcoholic haze *lol* We both remember drinking an entire bottle of whiskey during one weekend. And then going back to college/university on Monday morning. Sober.
I also caught up with several female friends from those days, but I somehow ended up chatting with the gents for the greater part of the evening. One of them (whose name just escaped me) put an arm around me and confessed that if only I were a boy... Well, some things never change ;p What did change was that a friend of ours - we considered her "top dyke" - is now in a relationship with a man. If it had been any other lesbian friend I wouldn't have been as surprised...
Ro and I went for sushi for dinner, and caught up some more. He's still that sweet guy from back then. Too bad it was raining, otherwise we would've gone for a walk through a nocturnal Maastricht. Now we went for coffee and tea at another place we used to frequent back in the days: de Perroen.
When we got back some time around 21:30 hours, there was room to boogie (only I didn't feel like dancing...) I had another whiskey - for old times' sake, as Ro would put it *lol* but after midnight I started yawning and felt it was time for me to drive home. I offered Ro a ride to his parents place (he's traveled in to attend the reunion) and that basically concluded my Saturday.
Ro and I are planning on keeping in touch: he's going to the Sarah Bettens concert at the Paradiso, too!
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