E is for Ed

I first heard Ed's name in middle school when he was a faceless voice over the loudspeaker running for SCA president. I must have liked what I heard because I voted for him. A year later we were formally introduced.

Walking into my first day of a 9th grade Russian Language class in September of 1976 I found a seat next to the guy with the curly black hair. It was Ed.  He was a bit of a goofball. He liked to do things like steal my cool blue-handled comb from my brown sweater pocket. He was the kind of guy that would distract me long enough that our teacher, Mr. Miller, would turn around to see what was going on a second too late. Ed would be the straight-faced star student and I would be stuck with my head down and a smirk on my face.

Eventually, we hung out in the cafeteria during free mods and went to the language lab during study periods to listen to Russian language tapes. We also laughed a lot. As high school seniors, we laughed our way through an 8-day school-sponsored trip of Moscow and Leningrad.

The boyfriend/girlfriend thing never happened between us- the timing was always off. Even so, we went through a lot of drama as teenagers together. We found abandon dirt roads to share Malt Duck on a Friday night and did our share of drinking on local golf courses and in corn fields in the dark. 

During our college years we hung out in the summer and I would bring him dozens and dozens of roses from my day job so he could impress his summer dates. We spent humid mornings on high school tennis courts talking, laughing, and sort of volleying the ball back and forth.

After college Ed stayed in DC where he had gone to college and I was back home in Bel Air.  Unfortunately, by the time I made my way to live in DC Ed had already packed up and moved on to California- a place he'd dreamed of living for as long as I knew him.

So for a while, we lost touch. Ed got married and moved north from LA to Oakland and for almost 15 years we never saw each other. There were occasional letters and a few phone calls but once everything changed to email we never exchanged those addresses.

And then one day about 6 years ago I got a call. Ed was in Bethesda for work and what if we met in Georgetown for dinner? I was a little nervous sitting at the bar waiting, but as soon as I heard the voice behind me, "When did your hair get so blonde?" -I knew my old friend was there.

In the past 6 years, we've seen more of each other than we had the past 15 years. Ed came to town for the Women's March and I was happy to host him.  He showed up again the following Thanksgiving with his daughter on the way to see his parents in Bel Air. I happily hosted them both and we all did the DC touristy thing together.

Last year, we met up in Baltimore for dinner as he was home again to visit his parents. And then, back in March- right before quarantine really hit home- we had dinner to catch up on his father's Alzheimer's diagnosis. 

There's never a loss of conversation with good ol' Ed.  He continues to make me laugh as much as he did in Russian class. 

Life Lesson- Old friends are the best kind of friends to have.