August 18

It's quite possible that the last time I saw Shari was 19 years ago yesterday --at my wedding-- but neither of us could remember for sure. But I do know that when she messaged me to say that she was visiting her brother in the Bay Area and wondered if I would like to have coffee, I said yes right away.

Although we've already established that I hadn't seen her in I'm-not-sure-how-long, we worked for the same company 20 years ago. Back then she was probably the person I was most likely to engage in idle chit-chat with during the workday, but since then we've both gone in very different directions: she went into nursing back in Baltimore, and I raised kids and drive the Mom Bus out here. (And did the freelance writing thing for a while.) 

So today, she did me a solid by driving over from Oakland (and into our smoky, smoky valley) and we had coffee (along with brunch) at Bill's. And we spent a lovely couple of hours catching up.

Anyway, she's a very, very kind person and it was truly wonderful to see her in person. It's always a blessing to reconnect with old friends, so I am grateful that she reached out.