Postcards: An Evening of Frozen Zombies
Since I helped run three livers in two days the previous Friday/Saturday, my partners generously let me have this first Friday evening since the start of Transplant free. And so I had just enough time to whip my jacket on and rush down to Cafe Felix several blocks away. By 6:45 our cozy little gather was in full swing...
There was dreamsquirrel, one of my newest partners in mischief and adventure, met just a few months ago. There was missysedai, one of my oldest and closest, who first happily dropped into my ICQ box a winter's night more than five years ago to begin it all. And there was annewashere and Jesse, who came chronologically in between. With each countless stories had together in months and seasons and years past. Countless stories told here in these pages before. This evening, together we gathered for yet one more.
There was the happy chance to introduce one of my newest friends -- dreamsquirrel to one of my oldest -- missysedai -- and a cozy dinner over tapas amongst us all. There was silliness waiting in line at Border's with annewashere and missysedai at my very first book signing. There was annewashere kindly helping me get a copy signed for dreamsquirrel and she got her own. And then was the way the grandfatherly jovial George RR Martin's eyebrows went up when missysedai made her autograph request The full story I leave to her to tell, oh so much better than I, but at the end missysedai was the proud posessor of a copy of A Feast for Crows emblazoned
- Frozen zombies are coming -- GRR Martin
by Martin's own hand. I understand that as part of the backstory, there's chocolate involved. ;-)
And there was still more chocolate -- and more warm, easy conversation -- afterwards in the basement of La Dolche Vita, the classy retreat nestled between Gratzi and The Chop House here on S. Main Street, just missysedai and Mark and annewashere esconced on couches. Threads of conversation and shared memories as only can be shared between friends who know each other well, and toasts, to many things important, celebratory, and personal.
It was during the course of that post-signing dessert at La Dolche Vita that missysedai laughingly pondered us doing much the same thing many, many years from now. And why not? resonance42 and I have shared adventures together since the earliest days of our medical school educations, closing in on a decade ago, now. hoya99 and I have shared friendship since the earliest days of high school, closing in on fifteen years ago, now. And in this past year, both men -- resonance42 and hoya99 alike -- from the academic circles of my life having the chance to be introduced to many of my friends from the non-academic circles of my life. resonance42, from medical activist days, came to celebrate the end of my sabbatical with the folks of Cynnabar. hoya99, from high school times, getting to spend much time with missysedai and dreamsquirrel up here and texas_tiger down there. And more: missysedai joining the folks of Revel Grove; and mdrnprometheus the medical activist coming to the Conservatory, and culfinriel of the Medical Society of the State of New York hanging out with the rasfwr-jians, and so on. In this past year, circles of friends and narratives of my life finally, after so many years of flowering in separate gardens, beginning to bloom together.
I am someone who is lucky enough that the relationships people kindly invite me into virtually universally begin and grow and flower steadily over seasons and years and decades, rather than go through radical ups and downs and breaks and reconcillations. Not like the volcano at sea, with steam and storm and wave bursting up and crashing down. But like the slow, gentle rise over centuries by which a green meadow flowers and blooms and grows into a mighty forest, a cathedral of ancient trees. I'm not sure why that is so. Why, for example, the close friendship I am so lucky to share with hoya99 has remained as constant and unshakeable through a journey which has literally taken us across half a lifetime and around the entire world, from a time when I took notes in homeroom to a time when I work with human kidneys in the operating room. The world changes, our lives change, but somehow, my friendships remain sure. I think it's because my friends have been, all along the way, pretty special people from the get go. And so I have quiet confidence we happy few will be continuing to pick up where we left off, just as we did together at Cafe Felix or at La Dolche Vita, years and years from now.
A toast I offered at Cafe Felix, amongst us all of so many stories: a toast to friendship. And I have quiet confidence the answering clink of our glasses, admist friends newer and older, we will still yet hear together in so many years to come. :-)