The other night I went on a dinner cruise featuring several hundred computer scientists. One of my favorite people in that crowd asked in amazement Whatever are you doing on the Ship of Geeks?
I would never turn down a chance to go on a boat ride.
However, the trend of meeting other people from the past continued; the most amusing happened when we ran into someone Byron once had a fling with, and learned that she was working two doors down from our apartment.
The coincidence meant that we had to be friends, and she very kindly offered to be my surrogate mother for a shopping excursion; she picked out my new lipstick and then insisted that I try on dresses and show her each one. I’ve never had such a ladylike afternoon, nor have I ever found three new dresses that I liked and could justify purchasing.
Left to my own devices I never spend money on myself, and I left the tags on for a week – but all three eventually made it into my suitcase.
I didn’t run into anyone I recognized but nearly every night I met someone else who grew up on the peninsula. Conversations went something like this:
Stranger: Do you remember that time when those kids were murdered, except the one who just got an extra smile carved into his face?
Me: Yeah, my dad cleaned up the blood splattered restroom where he went to wash afterward. The sheriff took away the towel dispenser as evidence and still hasn’t returned it – my folks are still irritated twenty-five years down the line.
After Hometown Connection Number Eleven I was convinced that I would run into someone I’ve dated, and that they would foolishly try to speak to me.
I prepared to blithely introduce them around – This is X, that sociopath I’ve mentioned – we haven’t talked in sixteen years!
Or Oh, this is Y, my serial rapist ex. Don’t think you’ve met?
But my strange luck held out – the people I met remained familiar strangers, the final one spotted at 2 AM during our final visit to the Jade Pagoda (RIP). I nodded a hello, left a big red lipstick print on Jeffrey’s cheek, and headed back to the safety of Capitol Hill.