Sometimes - I will pass you. Get over it.

Facebook is a funny place. In high school, I was kind of the middle of the road kid.  I wasn't popular but I wasn't some big skeezer everyone was scared of either.

Well, I don't think so anyway. lol.

But on facebook, I've been able to reconnect with most of my classmates (around 55 of them) and fb has pulled us all back together again.  We're that class that finds a way to get together about every single summer at least once if not more.  Most of my class feels more like cousins, than classmates.  After all, most of us spent 13 solid years together.

Shelly was a popular girl and while we didn't hate each other, we also didn't run in the same circles.  Funny thing was, way back when, Shelly was someone I always felt kind of connected to.  She's also one person I always seem to blurt out stuff to that I normally would keep private.

Reconnecting on fb, we kind of realized we have so much in common that it's bordering on ridiculous.  She's one of those people that I connect with in such a way, that I'll think about her randomly, and 4 minutes later I'll have an email from her.

Only Gene and I seem to do this.

Anyway, Shelly lives out in Oregon on the coast.  Like 1/2 mile from the ocean.  Yes, be jealous.  Well, except she hates the weather there so she comes home on a regular basis.  Over the weekend she had a reunion so she invited me and a few of our classmates to come hang out at the ONLY place in our home town to meet up - the local pub.

{Rhonda, Sydney (our music teacher), Shelly, Me, Angela}

We had a great time getting together and I was SO POPULAR after the cop came into the bar looking for me.

Oh, I think I forgot to tell you that part. ;)

I grew up in Iowa, and I live only 10 minutes from the Iowa/Missouri border.  If I wanted to visit friends, I was going to head north.  Between my house and the border, out in the flat part of the country, there was a car from Iowa in front of me.

In Missouri the speed limit on the highway is 60 and he was going 57 with no signs of speeding up.  I decided rather than ride his butt, I'd just pass him and get ahead of him a bit.  WELL, that plan infuriated this guy.  As I tried to pass him, he sped up going faster and faster until I had to go nearly 70 to get around him!  Then he rode my butt.  I knew I'd made him mad, and it seemed like he was trying to get my license number.

There's a small town right on the border where the speed limit goes way down.  I decided that I'd smoke him when we got there and try to lose the nutjob.  Unfortunately, that plan was temporarily foiled by another person from Iowa (they all drive soooo slloooooow.    About 3/4 of the way through town, I had the dotted line so I passed the second car so I could smoke the other guy that was now livid.

It worked and then I look up a couple miles later to see him also passing that car and flooring it to ride my butt AGAIN.  Guy's crazy.    We make it to the Iowa border and he calms down.  Iowa speed limit is 55, I decide to drive a little over the limit to get him away from me. 

In hindsight, I should have just pulled over and let him pass me and sat for a few minutes, but he was starting to freak me out a bit.

As I pulled into my home town a few minutes later (just on the other side of the border), there's a cop sitting right inside town.  I pull up main street, go into the bar and meet up with Shelly.  As we're talking, said cop comes in and and I hear him talking to Mike, the owner about a green jeep.

I actually went to school with Mike for the record.

I said "That green jeep is mine"... sighed, rolled my eyes to myself, and went outside with him.

Seems the guy that I pissed off called the police department and said I was speeding in Missouri.  I relay the story to the cop again, but kind of laughing.  And said "Well, I WAS speeding... *in Missouri*"  Knowing full well there's not a darn thing anyone can do about anything.

He reminded me to slow down, and "I don't think he's going to file a report".  To which I laughed... "and if he did, it's his word against mine."  The cop agrees.

I'm disappointed that I'm not getting a ticket that I can fight for entertainment value alone.

As he's walking away I say "Oh Hey Tyler, didn't you just have a baby?"
"uhhh.. yes?"

"You're sister in law, I shot her wedding.  I'm a photographer"
"oh YEAH!  Good thing I didn't give you a ticket.  I might need photos, that would be awkward"

Gotta love small towns.  His wife, sister in law, mother in law and MIL's sister are all my facebook friends.  And thus the circle of life facebook continues.