She finally resurfaces

She’s been MIA since about 1989. She was always capricious, but missing for eighteen years? Good heavens.

I discovered Min in the eighth grade,1982 - great saucer eyeglasses and a tendency to not draw attention to herself in class - and I said to myself “She’s about to become a remarkable woman and I know she’s going to be important to me! I’ve got to make her a part of my world!”

And so she was for many years - vital to my emotional health as we grew from saplings to confused trees. The confusion increased until in 1989 or so she slipped away into the outer chaos. I was too beset by undergraduate cares to track her movements and so we were sundered.

Fast forward to the present. Nicole and I are living in L.A. and purchased tickets to go to my 20-year (is it possible?) high school class reunion (thank you *again* Karen for all your organizing, you are a wonder worker on the level of Annie Sullivan). Unfortunately, due to our challenges this summer, we couldn’t make the scene. Later I did receive a booklet with contact information for former classmates, but I thought, “What’s the point? So much time has passed, people are busy and caught up in their lives.”

Then up pops an e-mail from our Min. I could not believe it. To make a long story short, she also lives in town and Nicole and I made plans to meet her for dinner. We went to a very popular Chinese dumpling restaurant about three blocks away from our new apartment. Afterwards we brought her home and stayed up late trying to catch up.

One of Min’s many characteristics that have not changed is her squeamishness about having her picture taken. I got her to pose once with Nicole and me but I still blew it and the picture came out blurry. The one food photo I took was of something Min ordered from the menu that was called simply “appetizer”. I think it was strips of tofu, maybe some ginger in there. When she ordered it I had a funny feeling that it was going to look unusual.

Anyway, I can’t properly convey the importance of this event, it’s like the restoration of a limb, or having Marvin Gaye raised from the dead.

Nicole is getting better, my job is getting better, I love our new apartment, and now the sea gives back one of the departed. Let’s have a great year!