27 January 2014

Past to Present

Facebook Reconnection

Sometime last year or the year before, I decided to look up a girl (ok, no longer a girl) with whom I had gone on a summer home-stay language course in Guadalajara, Mexico.  We spent 5 weeks living with a family, attending classes in the mornings, and absorbing the culture in the afternoons and evenings.  Somehow we survived.

I was 16 and Kitty was 15.  Let me tell you, there was virtually no supervision!  There was so much potential for trouble!  We found some, but were fortunate enough to avoid much, much more.  Just as an aside, I will say that it was never a 'girlfriend' situation, or even a girl crush.  Just friends and roommates.

So, I looked her up and found her living in Anchorage, Alaska.  She has a son in college in Portland and said that she travels here periodically.  We tried to get together one time last year but the schedules just wouldn’t 
cooperate.  This time, though, it worked out.

We met for drinks at a pub near my house yesterday afternoon.  Besides her college attending son, her daughter has just moved to Portland to complete an internship in town.  So, she has twice as many reasons to visit the Rose City. 

I wasn’t sure what it would be like to reconnect with someone I hadn’t seen for nearly 40 years.  That’s a lot of water under the bridge!  As it turned out, she is a wonderful person and instead of having a quick, awkward drink and scooting out of there, we stayed and chatted for about three hours.  Three hours!  We reminisced about our adventures, about the other kids in the program, we had a lot of laughs and reminded each other of stories the other had forgotten.

I also got to meet her daughter towards the end of our get together.  A lovely young woman, a do-gooder like her mom; smart, sweet, and genuine.  I suggested that she take a self defense class at my school, and I think she will.  She is smart, but she has grown up in Alaska and Portland is a lot more like a city than Anchorage.


That’s something good that I can say about Facebook.  It sometimes helps people reconnect with friends from the past.  I'm glad we met up!

7 comments:

8thday said...

I love learning these little tidbits about you! Do you still speak Spanish?

How great to be able to re-connect. There are a few people in my past I wouldn't mind catching up with. Perhaps I'll start looking for them - although I don't have FaceBook. I'll have to do it the old fashioned way : )

Lastly, I will add that I am a tad jealous. I can't think of anything more lovely than getting a chance to meet and chat with you for a few hours. Maybe someday . . .

Middle Girl said...

What 8thday said, verbatim. :-)

Maria said...

That would probably be the only reason for me to join Facebook. I am the only one in my family who flat out refuses to go on there.

Jean said...

WONDERFUL! I love it when good stuff like this happens!! So happy for you!

I'm working on a trip to Portland sometime this spring. We need to meet up, doncha think? I'll buy dinner/drinks!

And how come we're not FB friends? What up with that???

e said...

I think you should all come to Portland and we would have a wonderful time! Drinks at the pub, a walk along the waterfront, hiking in the Gorge, a trip to the beach...

Come on!

8thday said...

And the carousel museum. That's definitely on my list.

Earth and Ink said...

This is wonderful. Glad you had such a lovely time.

There's a carousel museum in Connecticut too!