What Game?

Well, the day I visited my friend in San Francisco happened to be the same day the Giants were playing some sort of big game. I hadn't really been paying much attention, honestly, and if it hadn't been for carpooling to work with my sports-crazy friend I would have been completely clueless.

I called Cam to see if he and Cass wanted to meet us for dinner, then remembering about the World Series I added, "Do you need to stay home and watch the game?" And my son, in all honesty asked, "What game?"

My thoughts exactly. How I love that kid!

On our way to dinner Cass received a text from Sis asking if they were watching the game. When she texted back that they weren't Sis' reply was, "You guys are horrible San Franciscans!"

We went to a little hole in the wall Indian restaurant and of course the game was on. About halfway through our meal the other diners in the restaurant erupted in screams scaring poor Cass almost out of her chair. We looked at the TV screen and figuring that the game was over we then debated amongst ourselves whether they still had another to win or not. None of us were brave enough to ask one of the revelers.

Thankfully the players were soon wearing their World Champions gear, so that little mystery was solved.

As we were leaving we noticed that the folks from the bar down the street had spilled out onto the street where they commenced hooting and hollering and had stopped traffic. Luckily our car was parked facing the opposite direction.

Cam drove us up to Twin Peaks where we could overlook the whole city. We noticed that the dome of City Hall was lighted orange along with the other landmarks. From our vantage point we could hear sirens, horns honking and see illegal fireworks being lit off.

As we drove back through the city people were on the street corners celebrating while others, I think, just got in their cars and decided to drive around honking their horns. We saw one faithful reveler out in the street waving an orange and black bandanna. We obligingly honked for him. We were kind of afraid not to.

All in all it was pretty exciting to be in the city on such a momentous occasion (that I couldn't have cared less about). There's something infectious about city-wide enthusiastic celebrating.

Old Friends Are The Best Friends

Ah, old friends. There's nothing like them. They're the ones that know you best. They knew you when. They've been through it all with you. I was lucky enough to reunite with one of my best old friends yesterday.

I met K way back in 1975...(go ahead and say that in an old lady voice in your head). She was out from Wisconsin visiting her big sister (my neighbor) for a month. We became fast friends and spent a lot of time together during her stay. She was 14, I was 11. When she left we became pen pals.

Pen pals was much more popular back then. Long distance calling was only for very special occasions, and of course this was looooooong before email! We were very devoted pen pals. We wrote on a regular basis, probably at least once or twice a month, and never forgot to send a birthday or Christmas card.

I had 2 other friends that I also wrote to. I remember sitting down some days and writing out 3 letters, one to each friend, similar in content, but personalized to them. I can't even imagine my kids doing that. My girls have a friend that moved to Oklahoma about a year ago and I have to really encourage them to sit down and write and then to write more than a few sentences. I think it may be a lost art. Sigh...

So, doing the math, K and I have been friends for 35 years! Imagine that! (Dang! I'm getting old!) We've seen each other a total of 3 days during those 35 years. The first time was in 1996, when she was again visiting her sister (who was now in San Francisco), then 2 years ago, and again, yesterday.

For some reason we have a really strong bond, and we don't feel awkward when we see each other. It's like seeing a friend I just saw last week. Strange but really cool at the same time. It's never a feeling of "I need to get to know her again", we just start right in chatting and catching up on each other's lives (because we don't write as often as we should anymore!)

It was a beautiful day in the city yesterday, and we had a great time window shopping and visiting the beach. It was fantastic.

Funny when I arrived, her sister commented on how similarly we were dressed.

Hoodies, jeans and black boots. Yep, there's some sort of wacky bond going on with us for sure! What a blessing old friends are!