The usual, please

Byerly's in Roseville, August 25, 2010
Classmates Karl Tegland, Paul Strandberg, Stan Rolfsrud

It was eerie this morning at Byerly's in Roseville after the hostess seated Paul and Stan. There they sat, in the exact same booth used two years ago for their last breakfast reunion. And the waitress's name tag read "Katie." Whoa.

Today in the same booth.
Did Karl get the memo?

She brought Paul something called a fritatta, all eggy and cheesy and wrapped around some hash browns and sausage, to go with his own private pot of decaf. Stan skipped the senior menu and went directly to the 3-egg garden omelet, no cheddar, wheat toast and regular black coffee.
Most of the time not eating or drinking was consumed reviewing classmates. Stan and Paul graduated together (Paul with top honors. . . Stan not so much) from Jefferson High School in Alexandria, so a trove of historic photographs of their peers was displayed on a tabletop laptop as they shared all the inside snorts and jokes they could think of before turning to the unfortunate situation the Minnesota Twins find themselves in.
Paul greets one and all, as does his wife Susan, who probably dearly wished to attend this breakfast of memories, but opted instead for an hour with a dentist.