It came a little out of the blue--my friend Bill, who was a year behind me in the math PhD program, and who still lives in Ann Arbor, but who I don't see that often--emailed me to let me know a bunch of mutual friends from grad school were all getting together this weekend.
So, Saturday morning he picked me up at my place and we drove the 45 minutes to Monroe, Michigan, where our David, who was in my cohort but left after a couple years, and who I had no idea was even in the area any more, has a house and a family. We were early. He and his wife and three kids all seemed to be doing pretty well. She (and the two elder kids, from a previous marriage I assume) are from England. While offering us drinks she noted that squash and ribena were available.
Eric and his girlfriend had arrived Friday and stayed there overnight. Chris S. and his wife and two kids showed up a little later, as did Scott. There were vegetable skewers, hot dogs, hamburgers, a couple salads, various drinks and snacks, and ice cream and cookies for desert. We sat around talking till probably 7 or so, then headed back to Ann Arbor to pick up Sara for dinner, which we had at Grizzly Peak.
It was good to catch up with that particular group of people. But I'm reminded of why I didn't continue in academics. Everybody was doing fine, it's not that--despite a certain amount of griping and self-deprecation the two that had gone on as professors sounded like they were doing well--but it just didn't sound like what I'd want to be doing.
I had a bad stomache ache when I got home, for some reason. It lingered on through Sunday, which I mostly spent laying around reading, but nothing really bad came of it in the end. Today I'm fine.