Byron has been in California and my co-editor and co-author have been either sick or working so there hasn’t been much progress on the books in the past few days. I would have been stressed out but Erin Scarum arrived for an unexpected visit.
One of the great things about moving away from Portland is the fact that people tend to arrive and stay for days at a time. When we lived in the same city, even when we used to sing together every week, normal life was so chaotic that I never really had a chance to talk to most of the people I considered true friends.
I remember the first time I ever talked to Erin. We were asked to work the door at an event because we were arguably the toughest chorus members – and would make everyone pay to get in. She was wearing regular clothes, work pants and a shirt, but I had on some kind of costume – my see-through orange dress with a ruffled bosom, or maybe my green square dancing dress. I kept the door receipts wedged in my cleavage and we sat there on stools, not talking, while people glared at us as we collected the full cover charge with no discounts for friends.
During various lulls in the event we realized two things. One, that we both felt compelled to check our teeth even if we had not been eating; and two, that we share a birthday.
Our lives are not, in the abstract, very similar. But we have so much in common that it is almost eerie. This is true of everyone I know who was born on the same day as me, regardless of the actual choices they have made. No matter what they do or believe, they react to events and encounters in much the same way I would.
Today when we picked the boy up at school he had one of those little paper games where someone asks a question and picks a number and he showed Erin. I talked to the teacher for a moment and then we walked out of the building.
My question was Will it snow?
Erin said I asked if it would rain. I
picked the number four and she said I picked four!
During the visit we went to museums and thrift stores, cooked greens for supper every night, and talked. I am so happy to know someone who makes sense. My general reaction to socializing with people (even those I love) is to wonder exactly what they are talking about.
But folks born in the winter are not mysterious; they can decide on a plan and stick to it.