negotiations
One of my oldest friends called me to break my heart all over again by telling me that between wildfires and art commissions and biology finals, she just couldn’t make it to the conference in Portland this week, thereby wrecking my carefully crafted plans to walk the city with her in the middle of the night as we’ve been known to do, and having my adopted city seduce her with its charms so that she will finally agree to pack up and move here.
But she’s not coming after all, and I guess this makes us about even in the heartbreak department after all this time, and luckily I had enough presence of mind to use her guilt about canceling to wrangle a number of concessions from her, getting her to agree that this is the year she will start dating again, and that she’ll make time to visit this coming April, which is a far more effective time to get someone to visit if you really want to impress them with this fair city. I did all this without giving up a single concession of my own, which is all well and good because I think I may have committed to running two marathons this next year already, and not too long ago I pinkie-swore over a pint that I would bike the Seattle to Portland ride like I’ve wanted to for years.
In the meantime I can console myself with the knowledge that I will be completely overrun with visiting friends this week, who will cure me of any lingering heartache, and not a moment too soon. I’ve been burning the candle at both ends this week at work, trying to crunch my way through all the work created by our clients trying frantically to spend all their money before year’s end. I’ve spent the last few days so hopped up on caffeine that I live through a handful of subjective minutes for every one that ticks off the clock on the wall, and it seems like Friday should have been here several times over already. I’ve probably aged an extra two years already, but I’m fine with that because I plan to laugh so much the night after next that I’ll no doubt age five years in reverse and come out ahead.
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