A friend I made when I was young, but lost somewhere along the way is going to re-enter my life for a season. During my trip to Santa Fe a couple of months ago, a memory of her just jumped into my brain, pushed all of the other thoughts aside.
We were playmates as young as Elementary school years, and knew each other well in high school. We had more of a camaraderie than a childish BFF kind of thing going on. She supported me a lot when I needed it, that I do remember very well.
After high school, I went off to engineering school, and she graduated number one in her college class at UNM. It was too many years later when the grapevine revealed that fact to me, and I just became so proud of her! A daughter-sister feeling. I have the first email I got from her printed out and hanging up on my Dilbert-cube wall. It says "Chicago is cracking in ice, and it is hard to imagine the deserts of Rajasthan exist." She became a writer.
Three or four years ago, we found each other and shared our stories over a meal. She wore a shawl. I remember that she cuddled into her shawl at dinner a couple of times. I remember it was red or rust, but not knitted. Weaved maybe? She told me of her adventures. She was headed to law school after undergrad, and just decided to take a hard turn away from materialism, and went to Asia instead. She walked all over Asia. She studied various Buddhist practices. She took a vow of silence for a year. She learned what she needed to learn. Then she came back. To Chicago. Not to our little home town in Southern Colorado.
After that reunion, I proceeded to date and marry an amazing man, move to a different city, change my name. She has been busy as well, I learned when I googled her name (because of Santa Fe). She has published a book. It is called the CTA Chronicles. When the screen popped up, that daughter-sister feeling rushed over me, so proud!
I no longer had her private email, so I sent her a note at the book's web site. Guess what. She wrote back. I have to admit I was a little relieved she still had time for me. It turns out she is going to be in Colorado all summer! It is a sad time for her. I won't share that part, but she needs something soft and warm to cuddle into right about now.
Can you guess what I am making for her?
Normally, when faced with an endless array of beautiful yarn colors, like when I was in Creede, I have a very tough time choosing. Here is the excerpt from Marcy's book that made the color choice unusually easy for me:
So, if my truth isn't your truth and your truth isn't the truth of anyone else, how can we be true to each other? Satisfactorily, satisfyingly true blue.
Out of the blue, a large black man in a large shirt my favorite shade of blue leaps up to the front of the bus to chat up the bus driver as tenderly as he would a man tending bar. The driver's doing a good job attending to the bus but, meanwhile, he falls into a chat-rap with the guy. The guy's shirt is shiny as the night.
I bought five shades of blue, started with the deepest darkest shade, and I've decided to only use the two darkest shades. Being a new knitter, I had no idea how far each hank would go. This isn't exactly a secret gift, but Marcy's computer has crashed, so I'm not sure if she'll see this or not. She'll see it Friday when we meet and head to the Estes Park Wool market together.
Marcy, if you see this, here's to you! Congratulations on your book being published!
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