strange radiation: the pool of radiance archive
Adventures with an unreliable narrator.
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Feb 16 03: social update
Just got back from Todd P’s housewarming party. Todd is one of my oldest friends. I’ve known him since I was…what, eight? And now, after seemingly endless threats, he has finally moved to NYC. Harlem, specifically. After three weeks, most of us would still be trying to locate all of our flatware. But Todd and Steven have got their place utterly under control. It’s excellent, and when Paul sees it he will seethe with real-estate-glamour jealousy.
Also at the party: Kelly T and Erin M, also now New Yorkers. Erin got here about the time I did; Kelly has been here since 1999. I hadn’t seen either of them since high school, or shortly thereafter. Call it fifteen years. And the startling (and joyous) discovery is that it felt like the lacuna was something closer to twenty minutes. Sure, we had a lot of catching up to do, but the bond of friendship picked right back up where we left it off. Only now we had the added benefit of all those years’ worth of unpacking our emotional baggage. I am proud to say that all the Danvillians at that party had managed to transcend the specific miseries of our youth. We’re doing just fine. Todd is an actor. Kelly designs sets for theatrical productions around the US. Erin teaches Shakespeare to inner-city kids all over NYC. (She’s also beautiful. Something about her looks reminds me of Mary McDonnell.) Just realizing that—that we’d all survived the dark years of teenagerhood and turned into actual adults, not merely functional but fabulous—was grounds for a number of group toasts over the course of the evening. And don’t we all crave evenings like that?