Monday morning, I met up with David, my former boss from the university, for brunch at Wishbone, a southern reconstruction restaurant (that's what they call it). The Brown line is undergoing some upgradation, so it didn't stop at the stop near the restaurant, and I ended up running six blocks, ended up all sweaty and flustered and 30 minutes late. It got better from then onwards though.The food was just great, if you ever go there, I highly recommend the salmon cakes.
I haven't seen David in nine years, I only recently reconnected via linkedin, so there is something to be said for social networking sites. I met him the first day I got at the university, and randomly asked him if he had any jobs for me. I worked there for two years, and he always kindly dropped me home after work, invited me to christmas parties and movies. It was great to catch up on all the exciting life transition markers - home, academic degrees, relationships. David also gave me a crash course on how to find ancestral history through internet records and genetic testing. I gotta try that.
One of the interesting things I discovered lately is that I now have actual life experiences to talk about, it's not all potentials and dreams. I guess I have accumulated enough thrilling events, heartbreaks, disappointments, rite of passage punctuation marks around me. I don't know if that makes me a more interesting person, or just a talker like my mom. The only thing I can control is to continue to seek out new and unexpected adventures, so that I'm not just talking about food, clothing and current affairs in my twilight years.
David and I hung out at an antique shop afterwards, where he introduced me to tiger oak and air force themed silverware. Like before, he was sweet enough to drop me off at Paul's. Thanks, David.
The other memorable thing of the day was when we were getting early dinner since we planned to see Prince Caspian. We went to a cool Italian restaurant in Andersonville (yummy calamari), and our conversation turned to Catholic church scandals. I saw recently that the pope apologized for how it was handled, but didn't quite know what actually happened or that it was a big problem. Religion and me don't mix well together, but I learned something valuable from the conversation.
After Prince Caspian, (which was great, but little too much catholic metaphor for my taste) we drove to meet Likivi and Erik, and I had the biggest shock of the day. Likivi and Erik stored all my belongings for nine years even after moving around so many times, and handed over photos that I thought were lost. There in the albums was the funeral note for my friend, Bernard, pictures of my late uncle who looked like Al Gore, pictures of people I once loved dearly, but now don't know where they are. I was so overwhelmed by their generosity that I couldn't control my tears.
here are pictures of Likivi's loom and Erik's bachelor pad couch.This is my lesson from the trip: good friends are priceless possessions, and they are even more valuable as they age, even if you tuck them away somewhere for years.
It doesn't matter if you haven't seen them in nine years (David, Likivi and Erik), five (Sunil) or three (Paul), when you finally catch up, it feels like not a day has gone by, and they have a way of accepting you just as you are, and continuing to make your life a better place.
And you can only wonder whether you would be lucky enough to even begin to return the favor someday.
