Last night I found myself laughing with someone I'd met no more than eight hours before, conversing as easily as if she and I were old friends taking in the events of years spent out of touch. To drift into friendship while playing chess with a stranger is something that cannot be sought out, only accepted.
I can't properly describe why it means so much to me to stay up late becoming acquainted. Of course I was lonely and feeling slightly out of context, and she was attractive and so forth, but all of that was secondary. Her mindsets and memories and realities are so different from mine, but not so much as to be meaningless. Knowing other lifestyles is in itself interesting, but knowing that they are options open to me is most encouraging, as I feel more and more often that I have little tying me down to mine.
Her name, by the way, was Katie. But I doubt whether our exchange of contact information can make her much less ephemeral.
posted on Sunday, July 18, 2004
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