ms. j
the phone rings twice before she picks up.
"this is j."
"hey, j."
"what's up? you in town?"
it's been a year since we saw or talked to each other and she sounds like we just had coffee that afternoon.
"yeah. flew in about a week ago."
"dinner?"
"and coffee?"
"of course."
I've known J. for about six years and most of that time was spent over the phone. Even when we were in college together, most of our interaction occurred with us puttering about our dorm rooms, cordless handsets crimped between ear and shoulder, making comments about the Star Trek episode that we were both watching. Our lines picked up crosstalk from the hi-frequency radio antennas in Waltham and sometimes it sounded like Rush Limbaugh was butting in on our conversations. Harry Met Sally brought to you by AT&T.
Our conversations dropped off after she graduated and moved back to New York. Neither of us could afford the long distance bills, and our conversational habits didn't transfer well to e-mail. But we would still ring each other up whenever either of us happened to be in the other's neighborhood, and just picked up where the friendship last left off. We both had bad habits of not updating each other on our lives until these few moments came by. I never knew she moved to San Francisco until last April, and only because I called her folks whilst looking for her.
"this is j."
"hey, j."
"what's up? you in town?"
it's been a year since we saw or talked to each other and she sounds like we just had coffee that afternoon.
"yeah. flew in about a week ago."
"dinner?"
"and coffee?"
"of course."
I've known J. for about six years and most of that time was spent over the phone. Even when we were in college together, most of our interaction occurred with us puttering about our dorm rooms, cordless handsets crimped between ear and shoulder, making comments about the Star Trek episode that we were both watching. Our lines picked up crosstalk from the hi-frequency radio antennas in Waltham and sometimes it sounded like Rush Limbaugh was butting in on our conversations. Harry Met Sally brought to you by AT&T.
Our conversations dropped off after she graduated and moved back to New York. Neither of us could afford the long distance bills, and our conversational habits didn't transfer well to e-mail. But we would still ring each other up whenever either of us happened to be in the other's neighborhood, and just picked up where the friendship last left off. We both had bad habits of not updating each other on our lives until these few moments came by. I never knew she moved to San Francisco until last April, and only because I called her folks whilst looking for her.