Under-reacting

Through the years, there had been many times when I'd met people who I hadn't seen for a while, or did not expect to see. The standard reaction would be a squeal, a little jump or a series of little jumps perhaps, and definitely a hug and many giggles. I'd seen friends do it, and had done it myself. I repeat, it is standard reaction.

Recently, due to CS's wedding, many friends who'd not seen each other for ages were brought together. My old friend, SL, whom I had not seen nor spoken to for 8 years called me on my mobile phone a few days prior to the bride's side wedding dinner and gave me such a shock (a pleasant shock, though, it was) that I jumped and squealed and jumped and couldn't say anything except squeaky 'OMG's for a full minute. On the day of the wedding, towards the end of the 'cocktail' portion, I finally met Princess E, whom I hadn't seen since 2006. We hugged and chirped simultaneously at the top of our voices, continuously for the first few minutes. When we got to our table in the ballroom where the dinner reception would take place, we noticed another friend whom we last saw several years ago, and yes, the usual ensued - three a-squealing, three a-hugging, and three a-grabbing each other by the arms while engaged in some small, quick, stationary hops. Aaahhh... the delight!

I'd wanted my friends to feel the same sort of exhilaration, and I had the perfect opportunity to do so because SL and I had a few common friends, and some of them who hadn't seen him in since the last millenium had no idea that he was physically back in this country. So I sent a few messages, made a few phone calls, and finally got the meeting set up. And what an eye-opening experience! The guys had no idea that SL would be with us that evening. I didn't believe their reactions:

First Guy: "Hey... you're here also!", a hearty hand-shake, followed by some basic how-are-you sort of questions.

Second Guy: "Oi! You came back?", a hand-shake, and then the predictable when-did-you-come-back sort of questions.

I confronted Second Guy - where was his reaction? That was supposed to be the surprise of his life and he did not react!

"Got, just now already reacted lor"

You call that a reaction?! Gah! I am not trying to over-react here, but that was waaaay under-reacting. I expected bigger, more intense expression of feelings after all the trouble I took to set the meeting up! At least hug each other, if you feel it un-manly to squeal. GAH!