high school pictures

I was a wreck earlier tonight. I dunno why -- Gretchen's absence just keeps hitting me out of nowhere. I was doing the dishes and I kind of just crumpled up into a little messy, sobby ball. I keep telling myself that crying isn't going to make her come back. It doesn't help. I have this playlist that I put together of all songs that Gretchen liked or that remind me of high school. I lose it everytime "Total Eclipse of the Heart" comes on.

Anyhow -- this is this evenings attempt at solace through the scanning of old photos.

This is (from left to right) Julie Saccente, Sandy Macias, Becky Degler, Gretchen, Me, Gaetan Spurgin, and (in the back) Shawn Proctor. Sandy brought her rat with her too but you can't see him in the picture (he was in a carrier). It must have been an inservice day or something (which would explain why Rachel isn't there). This picture is in the cul-de-sac outside of Gretchen's house. We basically started walking through Chesterbrook and picking up friends on the way to the park.

We went over to Valley Forge Park to this place that Rachel had found once while horseback riding (I recall her not being so thrilled that large groups of us were going there). Basically, it was this old building that you were, uh, perhaps not supposed to go so close to. But we always went and picniced on the roof. You could see people going by on the path below, but there were so many branches that people couldn't really see you. It was amusing. It was really hard to get up there though -- the 'easy' way involved climbing up this steep wall with lots of slippery dirt and sliding rocks. But we always made it. There was also a creek nearby and a small gorge that we liked to play in. The gorge had a giant tree that had fallen down at one point and you could climb halfway up the side of the gorge on the tree. I also remember and old rusted out car, but I'm not sure if I'm making that up in my head.

Anyhow -- here is us just before the picnic. I think, perhaps, the park authorities would have rather that we didn't go up there.



Here's a nice picture of Gretchen and Megan dressed up as preppy schoolgirls. I have no idea why. Gretchen always did try to wear the shortest skirt.



I had totally forgotten about this until I found this photo. Gretchen and I were both in probability and statistics and the night before the midterm (I think) we went over to Langdon's house to study [I think that was the first time that I really spent time with Langdon]. We all studied, I remember there being lizard stickers (Gretchen put one on the steering wheel of my car, which stayed there until, well, until the car was no more). In our studying silliness, we became obsessed with "Mr. Fishie" (alpha) and, after the test, we went over to the classroom for our Prob-Stat teacher (totally don't remember her name) and Gretchen wrote this on the board:


Here's Gretchen with Langdon in the doorway to the classroom right afterwards:


Because Tommy Kelleher emailed me this week, I have two photos of him and Gretchen to share. This first one is just after the junior prom. For reasons I don't understand, Megan, me, Gretchen, and Tommy felt the need to all pile on top of each other in the bus seat on the way to the afterparty on the boat. I think that the person in the stripey shirt is Gaetan. No idea who's sleeping in the seat in front of us.


And this is me, Jeff Taylor, Gretchen, and Tommy before my senior prom (they were all juniors). This is one of the few pictures from before the prom where Jeff doesn't have a small stuffed cat in his vest. We're standing on the back deck of my parents' house.


And, just to be surreal, here is Gretchen in a large ceramic frog:


-Christine