Breathing Room

Re-Connecting

Yesterday I was catching up on e-mails. I finally am in a job where I actually have serious work to do and I don't have time to go online and check e-mail and read blogs during the day. I have to admit I don't work very well as an assistant. Its not that I can't do the work, its just that I hate doing the work. Believe I do NOT in any way look down on assistants in any way (being that I was one and experienced many people looking down at me -not physically though since I'm more than likely taller than the average person - and acting all surprised when they found out that I had a college degree and actual goals. I mean you would think that administrative assistants were idiots the way people seem to scoff at the position. However they are very much needed.

BUT, I am no good as one because I felt like I wasn't moving in the right direction to reach my goal. I always need to have goals ato work towards and as an assistant that's about it. You really can't move any higher than that, especially at an architecture firm where I was previously working. I don't want to be an architect anyway.

So I was catching up on my e-mails and my "friend" Kelly crossed my mind. I ran into Kelly at Rite Aid here in Philly and was shocked to see her. I hadn't seen her since highschool, back in Cali when she was heavier with dark brown hair...I was now seeing a very skinny girl with a TERRIBLE blond weave. Mind you I now have locs so I'm sure she was just as shocked. We hugged. She gushed about just graduating from Harvard Law and I congratulated her. She gave me her forwarding e-mail from Harvard - no doubt to mention Harvard at every pause.

Fast forward 4 weeks. I've e-mailed Kelly about 4 times, checking and re-checking the e-mail she gave me to no avail. I give up.

So Dave and I are walking in the musuem area with my friend Amy's baby Sabrina, who is just a doll. And who do we run into, none other than bad weave Kelly. She's with a friend from Boston who came to visit her and she's showing him around. I told her about my attempted e-mails, this time I gave her my e-mail and put the ball in her court.

Mind you I'm still not convinced that we should re-connect. Kelly and I used to hand pretty tight my sophomore year in highschool. We were different but somehow we formed a friendship because we both had sarcastic humor and wit and we didn't care about what people thought of us. We weren't unpopular, just not caught up in trying to act and dress a certain way. Plus my parents weren't buying me all the chic stuff anyway -they had four kids. Anyway by senior year Kelly and I had drifted apart but we still spoke and weren't unfriendly with each other. I was closer to some other girls but when most of them started looking to Laurice as the end all be all and wanted me to do the same I parted ways. I am nobody's follower. So Laurice makes it her mission to try and get people against me and I'm graduating this year (they weren't) so I cared -not at all.

I basically chilled independently doing my thing. Our school was right near the beach and so many times I took lunch off campus and classes were a breeze. I had been accepted to college so high school was off my radar at this point.

I'm in line to get a drink and Laurice and her crew are further up. I see Kelly coming up and I smile and say hi and she walks by me completely ignoring me, obviously having heard me and then proceeds to gush to Laurice. This is someone she could have cared less about, at least when we hung tough. She was clearly trying to make a point, but I was just confused by her behavior. I was personally shocked. And that was my last interaction with her before running into her in Philly.

She e-mailed me and invited me to a cook-out but it was cancelled due to the weather.

It has now been several months since we last "spoke" so yesterday I e-mailed her asking her to lunch and to go see The Devil Wears Prada when it comes out. I figure we have a few weeks before it comes out (I think it comes out June 30th) and she has time to check her schedule. I don't know, I'm not holding any serious grudges (it was highschool) but I am interested to see what kind of person she has turned into...I mean she sports a terrible blond weave when she has "good" hair with nice length. I wonder what Harvard did to her other than giving her a good education...