An afternoon reunion

Today I had my first In'n'Out burger. The first time I visited my cousin in California maybe ten years ago he raved about the burgers. He told me that before I left I had to try them. We never did. Today, SuTi helped me realize that dream.

I hadn't seen SuTi in years. We were friends in high school. I was her date to her senior prom; if it wasn't for her I would never have been to a high school prom. The night of our prom I was singing in the all-state choir. In college we lost touch, though we kept one good friend in common. Four or five years ago she was in New York for a few days and I invited her to stay with me. I was about to leave for France on a week's vacation, and I remember spending very little time with her, unfortunately.

In general, her memory is much better than mine. She surprised me by telling me I had told her that there were no school buses in Idaho Falls. I apparently told her they had experimented with them for one day but it was a disaster. I have no recollection of the incident, let alone passing the anecdote onto her. She surprised me again by remembering my birthday. Hers is at the end of the month.

She picked me up at 11 and we went to Hobee's for brunch. She managed to get one of the waitresses in trouble after she asked the head waitress for more coffee. There was a confusion over the color of her coffee mug and her request for decaffinated coffee. Afterwards, we drove to Stanford to see the Andy Goldsworthy piece installed in front of the Cantor museum. She had thought to take me to an Egyptian museum in San Jose, but our friend told her to take me to Stanford.

With time left on our meter we wandered the Rodin sculpture garden and then walked to the Stanford Memorial Church. While I had been to the campus when I was in high school, I don't remember touring the church. The interior is beautiful. SuTi had been to a number of weddings there, and pointed to the spot where couples inevitably light the unity candle. Then we adjourned to her house to sit and look at photos of her wedding and her trip to London with PaKa.

Her house is beautiful and tastefully decorated. It rests on the edge of Sunnyvale, just on the border with Cupertino. She resides just over a mile from my aunt. Her lawn is comparatively huge. A trellis hangs over her patio and as we sat pouring over her wedding album we were pelted with unripe fruit, shaken from the vine by the wind. Posted by eku at June 8, 2004 1:38 AM