Like a duck in water

I received a gift Thursday night. It came straight from the internet and revealed to me the person behind those well woven words on a screen of blue. Jessica and I chose a little spot on Washington, and when the door opened and I saw her there, I grabbed on to the oddly unique feeling of meeting someone I already knew. Where do you start? A handshake? We hugged. And then we started talking.

There was more than one bottle of Veuve Cliquot, a couple shots, several glasses of water, and non-stop talk. And by non-stop, I mean from the minute after that oh-my-God-I-can't-believe-I'm-meeting-YOU hug to the minute I shut my car door when we left five, oh come on let's be honest, six and something hours later.



She tells me she is one of five and she unravels their story for me like a rising moon makes a thousand glistening stars on the sea, she loves them that much and is that proud. I think she grew taller in her chair when she talked about one sister in particular. I tell her to go to China. She tells me to do something with my writing. The underlying message is that there's risk even with a net but some things matter more than others. I think it's the nature of women to inspire and support. At least it's the nature of this woman.

I have a friend who uses the word, delightful, so often that it has become common in my ear and I forget what a wonderful word it is. But right now I think that I'll take the word and make it my own because I can't think of a better word to describe her. Indeed, she is delightful.

We absorbed each other's stories, curious, asking questions, excited, talking with our hands, answering questions, changing subjects, and very few times pausing for breath. I thanked her in person for all her support over the past year, and being able to do so was an incredibly good feeling.

The hands-down coolest part of the entire evening though was when she said to me: I have webbed feet. *

I couldn't believe my ears and had to ask her to repeat what she said. (It's not exactly the kind of statement you want to assume that you heard.) And when she said it again, I excitedly said to her, I do too!

And before either of us could stop ourselves, we were taking off our shoes and showing each other our feet, which is not something that I usually find myself doing and I'm sure she doesn't either, but nonetheless, there we were waving our bare feet in the air in our kindred me-too-ness.

That right there, that was cool.

* I don't mean webbed, as in webbed. What I mean to say is wide. Yeah, wide.