New Friends

They met when my friend joined the Board of a social service agency devoted to the needs of homeless women and children.  When she decided to move to Tucson, my friend put us together. 

"You know I love connecting smart, Jewish women," was the final line of her email. It made me smile; I so rarely think of my friends' religious affiliations.... perhaps because so few of them have any to speak of.  My friend was right, though.  Five minutes into our first conversation, my new friend and I were sharing Yiddishisms and giggling at shared memories. 

You can take the girl out of New York, but you can't take the New York out of the girl.

We met at my favorite French café, home of the best tuna sandwich in Tucson.  I have always thought that finding the best tuna sandwich in a new town turned the strange place into home. Ghini's seemed like the logical place to meet. 

The fact that she only had to get onto her main cross street and drive west added to the attractiveness. She's relocated from New York City; she didn't own a car.  "I suppose I'll get used to driving everyplace," was her kind way of saying that she misses the buses that stopped outside her apartment and her work and her grocery store, that the subways that whisked her uptown and down were much easier to navigate than a 2,000 vehicle on unfamiliar streets.

She agreed that the lack of late night dining options, and the total absence of dinner delivered from anyplace serving anything other than wings and pizza, were bigger bones to pick.  She'd never had to find parking in a crowded downtown, so my screed on Tucson as a parking friendly downtown would have fallen on deaf ears.  I kept it to myself.

We shared family histories and dying mother stories and sisterly interactions.  We didn't get to our brothers.  I know about her best friends and their children and she knows about mine.  We touched on work and style and furnishing her new house, but what I remember most from our two hours together is how much we laughed.... and cried... and finished one another's sentences.

I think you'll be hearing about her a lot.  I'd better come up with a good blogonym.