Visiting Seattle/Mercer Island is always a trip down memory lane. Sometimes more so than others.Especially when in my old neighborhood, Capitol Hill. Like today.
Today I exited I-5 to take Lakeview drive and drove past the old apartment where Chris and Kyle lived, "the" apartment, the apartment I associate with the time in my life that led me straight into my car accident. I drove by remembering those times. I drove by on the way to get a massage at a place 2 blocks away from where I shared an apartment with a friend after moving back from Sedona, after my divorce.
And then after my massage, I met up with "the good Adam," my "summer fling" from the summer of 2000. I met with him and his wife for lunch. The last time I'd seen them (other than running into Adam in January) was shortly after my wedding to "the Hungarian Adam", which they had been at, and shortly before my divorce. 5 years ago by now? And we go to a restaurant I hadn't been to in years, a Thai place on 15th that my ex-husband and I used to go to. Sounds so strange. Ex-husband. I was married? To him? Yes, I was.
"So what happened?" Iliana asked, referring to the divorce.
Shortly after we separated, she and her Adam had seen my Adam at a Red Robin in the U District with another girl and figured something was up. But they never got the story, until now. And I made it brief, very brief. I've gotten quite good at summing it up, and without an emotional charge. Isn't it great how time heals?
It was good to see this Adam and his wife. I wondered about my 3rd Adam, "the bad Adam" and his wife. I tell the good Adam that the bad Adam had just emailed me a couple of days ago after no contact in quite a while.
"The Adams seem to come in waves," I say.
"You and Adams just don't mix," he says.
"I know! No more Adams for me. That's for sure!"
And then I tell them about an Adam at Heartwood. "When he told me his name I told him that I'd sworn off Adams. And then he changed his name!" He didn't change if for me. But he did change it.
"But deep down he's still an Adam," Adam said.
"Yes, and so I wasn't interested."
It was a good lunch. Good conversations. And they're going to visit me in Anacortes and teach me to ride a bike in August if not sooner.
And after lunch I drive down 12th street, which is Memory Lane central! I drive by the old apartment I lived in when I was the wife of an Adam. Two blocks later, I'm driving by "the bad Adam's" old apartment. What a crazy time that was. Unhappily married and living so close to an-- can't really call him an ex, but he was something; he was really something. Someone influential, in my growth and liberation. Something like a muse, my writing muse, on and off for years.
AND THEN I go to my old boss's birthday party. I haven't seen him and his wife since I was in law school (other than running into them a couple of weeks ago, which is when they invited me over). Their babies can walk and talk. They're not babies anymore. It's so good to see them and to catch up.I remember how much I loved working in that law firm, how I even thought about going back after dropping out of law school. Sometimes I miss the excitement and intellectual stimulation that job provided. Sometimes I want to go back to that world. Sometimes I want to move, even though I do love living in Anacortes right now. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like down here in Seattle or in the surrounding area. Sometimes I wonder.
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