Day 146: Messy and Non-Linear Redux

I could just kill her. I swear.
The anxiety of the last month has taken its toll and the day is finally here. I am the kind of person that dreams regularly about being in the high school play and it is opening night, I haven't learned my lines and nobody has a script.

She said it would be easy!!
Write about ANYTHING! Well in my humble estimation it is a hell of alot easier to write about something than just plain ol anything. But she wouldn't even give me an assignment. At first she asked me to write for half of her vacation break(4 DAYS!). When I asked her who would be following me she replied nonchalantly ..."Oh George..." (for God's sake: George is a scriptwriter, her former writing partner, a published author and numero tres in the Cinco Grande) My heart started to pound.
What about the 'invisible' and, might I say, judgemental audience! The comment section is one of my favorite parts of the blog! What if someone thinks I'm stupid. Or worse yet what if no one comments at all? What will 'michael' think?? My palms were sweaty.

Have I mentioned that I am not a writer?

I said I would do one day only because I love her.

I first met Karen in the early 1990's here in Rochester, NY where I still live.
She was the music critic for the large daily newspaper and I was the photographer for the alternative news weekly. We were at a birthday party for a mutual friend who owned the bar where we both hung out. Someone introduced us and gave us the job to write some kind of birthday speech together and that was it. We totally bonded over way too many cocktails and much later that night, when I was to drunk to drive home , she said I could sleep on her couch. This was WAY back in the "Garp" days. She talked about him that night ( the out of town boyfriend) but even in my drunken state I very clearly remember thinking 'this girl is gonna hit on me'. She never did. (Thinking back now, I'm sorta insulted....What was wrong with ME?)
just kidding.

I have never met anyone else who I have become instant best friends with.
Just like that. It is a rare and fortunate thing. We called ourselves 'evil twins seperated at birth' and we were pretty much inseperable from then on (well, until Sophie came into the picture! and then it was the three of us) It was the most carefree and wonderful time and it lasted less than 2 years.

I will never forget the day she told me that she had been accepted to the American Film Institute and was moving to Los Angeles. Yeah, I think she actually drove out of town three days before my 30th birthday. Double whammy. We remained close and in touch until the late 90's when she slowly started sinking into a 'black hole' of a relationship...the details of which are still sketchy even to me. The last time I saw her was in the Winter of 2000 a couple months before I got married. She wasn't able (or perhaps, wasn't allowed) to attend.

After that I resorted to reading her EBay item listings just to hear her 'voice'...
(that girl could sell icecubes to eskimoes, believe me.) Finally, there were several years of no communication at all. She didn't know I had a baby girl in 2002 and a baby boy in 2004.

So imagine my suprise when I get a call on a Thursday last August
saying "hey MK...I am in town until Saturday!?!? and I'd love to see you.
So of course I sped down to the lake to see my old freind and we picked up where we left off. No questions asked. Just like that.

I am so grateful that she has re emerged into the world with that wonderful voice of hers and is making such great progress in her 365 day experiment. Writing this single entry has given me a profound respect for what it must take to put it out there day after day after day. And with great relief that my duty is done I happily go back to being a reader.

Karen...please go down to the hotel pool bar. Get a float and order a 'Lava Flow'. Points be dammed.