Photos, old and new

Lorien and Xander met me for lunch today. Poor Lorien got trapped by a raised Interstate Bridge and was worried she'd be late. Once she arrived and parked, she realized she'd left her purse at home. Fortunately, she had her phone, and called me from the parking meter. I ran down to pay it for her. They'd intended to take me to lunch (at Xander's insistence, she said), but the whole lack of wallet thing dashed those plans. No matter, I was happy to front her a burrito in exchange for fine company. Alas, I couldn't do anything about the lousy weather. I do love a nice lunch date though.



A little while ago, I was working on a piece about Riot Grrrl (which is much harder than I thought it would be), and going through old photos to accompany it. In my piles, I ran across this gem:



That's Cesar, Iris, and me on the last day of CSSSA in the summer of 2000. The three of us had met in the Creative Writing program and become super close friends over the four weeks of the program. In this photo, we are standing in front of the dorms following a much-appreciated dinner bought by my parents. I stuck the photo on Facebook a few minutes ago, and received "Hey Angela!" as a comment. We are more than a little Rickie, Rayanne, and Angela, are we not? All these years and I never even realized. I sometimes wonder what my life would have been like if I hadn't attended that program, if I hadn't met Iris or if Cesar hadn't exclaimed, "Hey, you're that red-headed girl!" when he saw me outside one day. That single month set off a years-long chain reaction that led me to my current life in Portland, and I'll be forever grateful for it.