This photo, this longtime friend, this growing family

At Couples Baby Shower

There’s something special about this photo. Something precious about it that made me pause when it was posted on Facebook. There’s a good friend who is expecting and eating pizza. There’s Chris wearing a quinessential dinosaur t-shirt (this one is about how great it is to be an onomnomnom-saurus). Then there’s me, being opinionated and making awkward jokes.

Behind us are baby photos of guests present at the party. In the shade of all, we are chatting, resting. I don’t know exactly when the photo was taken, but I was feeling itchy. I don’t always meld that well with people in San Francisco. While socializing, I have tired completely of small talk, of the introductory who-are-you-and-this-is-who-i-am. Instead, I floated from food table to food table, looking for the cupcake or piece of fruit. I would offer mild comments to people nearby, but I wouldn’t enter into deeper conversation.

The baby photos was one of the activities. To vote for the best hair, looking like going to poop, best tool, etc. But there’s only so much you can do while staring at photos of babies. After awhile, I didn’t want to look like a creep, admiring the younger version of ourselves. So I sat down and begged Chris to sit next to me while we people watched. And the guest of honor sat next to us. One of those rare moments like at a wedding when we reminiscenced about when and where. I remember the day we met on the first day of graduate school orientation. Not spectacularly about the moment that we likely shook hands and exchanged names. But how we took a bus to Target to buy household supplies with two other classmates. We all momentarily sat outside on the sidewalk. She and I joked about something. And for a moment, I remember thinking, I have achieved a life that I wanted to have. Just to have normal, healthy friendships.

And it has been that ever since. It has been more than 10 years since that day in August 2004. We love food and we love to have fun.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.