Fashion Board 2-3-04 to 3-5-04

[robustpuppy]

Last year I surprised a friend whom I hadn't seen in nearly a decade by showing up at her (post-elopement) wedding reception, thrown at her father's home in one of those ever growing towns in California that's a couple of hours east of LA. My college roommate, a lifelong friend of the bride's, likes intrigue and went to great lengths to hatch the plan and keep it a surprise. I flew in on Fri. night and left on Sun. morning and didn't get the best air, hotel, or car rental rates, but it was totally worth it to see the look on her face. I would do it again; in fact, I wish more such opportunities would arise. Got to seize those moments.

When I was in graduate school many moons ago I drove 12 hours, mostly through the middle of the night, and after a sleepless night finishing a paper, to get home after my brother called me to tell me my mother had been diagnosed with cervical cancer. We didn't yet know that it was as serious as it was (cervical cancer is highly treatable, if caught early, but hers turned out to be neither), and I'm sure my mother would have told me not to come until I could have put things in better order at school and work. She surely would never have approved my driving alone overnight. When I got home, I found my mother sitting on my bed, staring at my bookshelf, which was full of pictures of me and friends & family. She looked up to see me in the doorway, and I don't know that anybody has ever been so happy to see me in my life as she was to see me at that moment.

I don't know if this is even a good poll answer, because who wouldn't have done that, and who wouldn't have found it worth it. But hell, I typed it, and I'm not deleting it.