The superlative brotherhood

The other night, I had the happiest thing happen to me. I went to the gym for a good muscle-building session. OK, ok. But I went to the gym and had a great workout. Love the Main Street Muscle and Fitness! But aside from the iron-pumping and treadmill-walking, I had another happy surprise. I ran into two guys from my high school graduating class, and I loved it!
One was my old pal Rudy. The man is notorious for many reasons, but I'll always remember and appreciate him helping me get my Crown Victoria out of the mud when we skipped out early on a drunken brawl of a party. I was never much for the party scene, and Rudy could have stayed longer, but he helped me out. I see him from time to time when we end up at the gym at the same time, but we're generally on different schedules. In fact, I don't think I'd seen him since before my last European jaunt, back in October, so a chat was long overdue.
The other happy surprise was Alex, an old chum from ninth grade on. Alex was a super nice kid in school-- very smart (I remember him getting an award for a superb presentation on the praying mantis in Mr. Cole's Bio class), very athletic, and very handsome. I was the secret president of his fan club back in the day.
Anyway, we all took about 15 minutes to shoot the breeze and catch up, and it was positively energizing. For that quarter of an hour, I stood between two boys I wasn't ever super-tight with, but we had some kind of fellowship. Maybe it was this weird link of Senior Superlatives. I stood between the boy Most Likely to Live to Be 100 (Alex) and the boy voted Most Likely to Succeed (the only reason I remember is because I was their female counterpart-- tangentially speaking, I don't remember who was voted my male counterpart for "Most Likely To Discover A Cure For Cancer" but I do remember the Smartest [Josh Jolly and Josette Arvizu] and the Most Likely to Become A Famous Actor/Actress [Justin Cook and Melanie Maez] and those Most Likely to Need A Liver Transplant by 30 [though I'll not name them here]). So far, these guys aren't disappointing us. It strikes me that I like spending time with remarkable people. It makes me work to be better.
In totally unrelated news, I did something today that wasn't necessarily remarkable, but I would call it a little gutsy. Maybe in High School I would have (and should have) been voted "Most Prudish" but I feel good about this one. I was in Hastings with Ma and Pa, and let me tell you-- the place is appalling. And I'm not talking about the lackluster service or selection. No, basically the local media stop is a regular porn dealership. Not only are the "adult" magazines out on the racks (on the bottom shelf, right at toddler eye-level), but also, the Playgirl calendars were by all the registers! Who knows what else was there? I certainly didn't do much digging to find out.
So, even though it was scary, I did ask my cashier what the deal was and if the store had considered some kind of roped off area for their smutty content (don't worry, I was nicer about it than that), but she just said that's where the employees are told to put stuff. There's also a HUGE selection of adult DVDs in the movie section, I might add, right by the new releases. Ick! Anyway, it looks like I'm going to have to start my letter-writing campaign to the higher-ups, but I feel good trying to do something about this. I like the idea of being someone who can affect change.
OK. That's all. I'm happy.