i am glad that once upon a time, i worked at a gallery. nika? are you there? do you still read this? thank you for hiring me, a long long time ago, as your assistant. only because i like to go to galleries, sometimes, and it always makes me think of you, and karl, and dana, and amy (i am being VERY selective in who i'm choosing to be nostalgic about!). maybe its the paint fumes.

my old friend had a show at an appointment only gallery downtown. the show actually opened in early february, i think, but we went to the closing on saturday, in the midst of what started out to be a ridiculously over-booked weekend (since when can i not say no? since when am i social?), but turned out to be very low key.

overbooked mostly because i knew about this thing for a couple of weeks in advance, and told a lot of people about it, who all seemed to want to go, and i told all of them that they could go, they should go, and with me, no less. as it turned out, most of them didn't go, with me or otherwise, but had they i might have had an entourage of 11 people with me.

as it turned out, we were four: perfect for my mom's car. it was me, the boy, the mom, and mj, ANOTHER boy that i went to jr high school with.

i think i've stated this before, but it is really strange to make friends with people again, after 10 year absences. it is so much of the same. which, i know i know, i've gone over and over.

but its good. it makes me feel humble and appreciative and responsible. it makes me like my teenage self more, because really, i had very good taste in friends. i still like them all and, moreover, i think that if i met these people, these people i'm re-making friends with, now, i would like them. i would want to be their friends now. i like that idea.

mj's voice sounded different on the phone. they all do, these boys, their voices change. and he came over and we went to panns for lunch and he took secret photos of our waitress and made jokes about people we knew back when, and was just generally the same. smart and funny (smunny. which is much better than the other word combination). tall. but not as lanky.

they all make me feel like me. does that make sense? i like feeling like me.




anyway, the old friend's work amazed. i was proud of him, and not at all surprised.

which made me prouder.

mj is now a animation/storyboarder. which also makes me proud, and not surprised, as i might still have a comic book that he made in jr high school crammed in one of my jr high school boxes.


what was also hysterical is that we went with my mom. my mom who always seemed to be a pretty central figure in my jr high and high school exploits. my mom who picked up a car full of girls each friday night at the ice skating rink on sepulveda and drove us all home in her pajamas. my mom who would make mama celeste pizzas for my friends when it was late and they were facing a long drive home. my mom who once stapled five boxes of black garbage bags to the inside of our garage to make it spooky for a halloween party. who regularly hosted dinner parties for up to 25 of her friends, my friends, and our family. who made me the most fun slumber parties for 6 years straight.

she drove us downtown, got us lost, laughed us out of it, and remembered almost every single person mj, the boy, and i were reminiscing about, down to haircuts and crushes. and then stood in the street with us, when the gallery closed, and talked car parts, hip hop and photography.


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