out to dinner tonight in the middle of downtown oakland i didn’t expect to see a familiar face beyond the one i was having dinner with. imagine my surprise when we walked toward the door after our meal and i glanced at a woman who looked too familiar to not take a second look. so i did…and i stared a moment…and she stared back. only she didn’t stare in a “what the heck are you looking at?” kind of way, instead she was staring at me in the mirror image of mine.
in a moment it registered and we hugged like old friends do.
only we aren’t old friends…at least not in the conventional sense. the thing is, i’ve only met her once, it is simply the circumstances of our meeting.
about 6 years ago, while visiting china, i ran into this woman (and about 5 other black women who spoke varying degrees of chinese) and hung with her for the day. we all met up at this market and created quite the spectacle, first for just being 7 black women in the middle of non-tourist beijing, and second because like i said, they all spoke varying degrees of chinese (enough to haggle prices at the market).
we took this photo to remember the day by, all of us lined up looking at the camera. i remember someone’s mother was there and she took the picture with each of our cameras.
i haven’t spoken to any of those women since. but there she was, sitting at a table with her husband and two other friends. so we chatted for a few. gushed over the strangeness of seeing each other – all the more so because i just got here and she is soon to depart (headed to LA).
even so…i’m excited to keep in touch (i plan to this time). good people are good people..
Tags: bay, crazystuff, friends, travel
i really enjoy reading excerpts of your journey.