Guilty Pleasures-- As holidays roll in, so do old acquaintances, good and bad

For 20- and 30-somethings, there's a strange phenomenon surrounding Thanksgiving and Christmas. Guilty Pleasures calls it the "holiday-weekend-class-reunion" phenomenon.

You know, when those who've moved away from any given town and those who never left all show up at the same bar after eating turkey or opening presents. It's an inevitable occurrence that Guilty Pleasures always anticipates with a sense of excitement and dread.

Like a real class reunion, there are the people you really hope to run into and those who still want to shove you in a locker. (Why do they always like to hang out at the same place?) And like the movies that use this plot, the night usually ends with some kind of rekindled romance -- or a fist fight.

A couple years ago when Guilty Pleasures was dating a Yakima local, the "holiday-weekend-class-reunion" of his choice was at Jack-sons and McGuire's, which are sure to be packed this weekend.

In the ol' hometown of Vancouver, Wash., the Elbow Room is the bar where Guilty Pleasures' high school friends still congregate -- and where 12-year-old grudges and crushes die hard. It's also small, which means there's nowhere to hide from your past.

Still, you'll probably find Guilty Pleasures there tonight, knocking back a PBR tall boy and catching up on all the juicy and mundane gossip.

Because, really, it's better than another occurrence that tends to happen when visiting for the holidays: the "totally-bored-watching-TV-in-your-childhood-bedroom" phenomenon.

* Guilty Pleasures is a weekly look at whatever Guilty Pleasures wants to look at.

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