Good Reminders

WARNING: What you are about to read is a true story. The names have not been changed to protect the innocent.. and the guilty already have aliases..

Tanya: You drive like how I feel.

Kristin: Yeah, I feel safe when I drive with Miss D.

These are actual Real Life quotes spoken just moments apart by people riding in MY CAR! While I was driving it! AND with NO provocation from me WHATSOEVER! Of course there was an immediate stopping of the car when I hit the brakes because I was dying of the laughter that quickly followed and trying to prevent my own death from the SHOCK and oh yes, the AWE of it all while wishing I had a tape recorder and other witnesses and things of that nature because none of my other friends would ever believe this ever in their Whole Lives!

And then Kristin happily repeated it again to Keith after we met up for late-night coffee on Tuesday, to which he said dryly:

Keith: Uh.. I feel stressed when I'm in the car with Miss D.

..which I expected because hi, I can.. uh.. scare people and I'm a rather.. assertive driver, which this city sorely needs more of, in my humble opinion. I mean, I just want to get where I'm going and everyone is in my way.. so when I drive with other people.. Keith, for example, I sometimes feel we're just never going to get there. Ever.

I don't know how it happened.. that I was born a speed racer. I just don't. It's a gift I suppose..

So the girls came into town and I haven't giggled like that in a long time. We ran around trying to find espresso in West Seattle after 9 pm. This proved to be a very trying task as this area of Seattle was explained to be 'sleepy' by the clerk at the local health food market whom we asked for suggestions. This was after trying on their array of fetching sun hats Kristin found by the entry and swore up and down she needed. And here we were, shocked.. me, especially, who had no idea, in the land of Starbucks no less, that there was ANY area in the entire Seattle metropolis that fit this obviously delusional man's description! And yet, there was not one single shot of espresso to be found! What madness!

As you can see, Kristin was not good at giving up and is slyly hiding the can of desperately needed caffeine-in-a-can because that's all we could find.. I ask you, what is the world coming to?!

The night ended with a round table of friends sharing stories over coffee we finally found in the hipper area of the not-so-sleepy Capital Hill. Keith and Paul had just finished an improv workshop, Paul was heading out to San Francisco the next day for work, and both of the girls, who were also headed south, were continuing on their road trip to meet up with some of our old friends and teachers and take in some theatre at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. None of this was especially significant, but I was just relishing the time with all of these people around me. Tho I didn't think of it then, it hit me a couple of days later that I've known Keith and Kristin both for about the same amount of time.. 17 years each.. almost as long as I've been alive, if you add them up. It was a quiet happiness I took in.. a good reminder of how much I love my friends, but even beyond that how every friend has the opportunity and capacity to become a long-term friend when their only purpose is to be in your company because they want to. And vice versa. It's pretty simple how just those two factors can bring people closer and then tie them together for years.

I dropped off everyone at Keith's home, after too much coffee and never enough Justin Timberlake and his Sexy Back, while still marveling at my Safety Skills. There were hugs and kisses goodbye for all and after I left and to the point I crawled into bed, we were still texting like excited school children.

What's not so surprising is I missed Kristin before she even left.. but what I figured out is that tho I'm madly in love with the friends that I've made here, I still crave the connections with the friends I made in college because we were all like-minded, but not so much that we were all the same. See.. I'm the hyper chihuahua in the group of my friends currently - at least most often - but in the theatre, um.. there were LOTS of chihuahuas. Ok.. dogs are probably a bad example here.. but you get what I'm saying. The things they talked about, what they were interested in - books, writing, theatre, poetry, arts, singing, directing, dancing, stupid musicals.. sure, my other friends could be and are interested in as well to a degree.. but theatre people are passionate about them.. in addition to already being extroverted, energetic, overly talkative and expressive to the point it could get annoying to.. well.. normal people.. So it was exciting to find others like me when I was just starting that direction, whom I had so much in common with and we strived together to learn and create and soak it all up like the eager sponges we were - before we learned to be jaded by rejections and before we lost some of our energy having to eventually earn a real living. Ok.. maybe that was just me.

Not surprisingly, Kristin is doing what we studied to do.. creating and teaching and learning and inspiring.. and hasn't lost one ounce of energy in the process. I have to admit I'm jealous of her ability and talent.. and her drive to get there because I certainly felt like I couldn't keep trying forever and eventually had to have some sort of back up plan, which is mediocre and stagnant at best these days. But I didn't want to wait on tables for the rest of my life and thought I'd better learn some other skills that could get me by and maybe came with benefits.. like insurance and sick days. Whoa.. what a crazy idea!

But I'm not resentful or bitter about my path or how I'm paving it. I've always been a late bloomer of sorts so finding the right career for me, not to mention the right guy, right location.. might take me some extra time. I'm ok with that even if some days I wonder if any of it will ever come together..

And when I need a good kick in the pants, I've got my friends to remind me that I'm growing and challenging myself and I'm good enough as I am. And I have a Kristin who'll come to visit once in a while, complete with enough giggles to tide me over until my next fix.