Life of Wry

I had a very sweet morning.

I met a friend for coffee.  This is someone I have known in a very limited context, so for the shy side of me, sitting down for coffee required a tiny bit of bravery. Not a lot, but a little.

We met playing tennis.  She’s a tennis instructor and I’ve been taking lessons on and off for a few years, trying to find my old game.  She’s an amazing player with a seriously impressive tennis resume, and really?, it’s wildly fun to hit the ball with her.

Over thousands of tennis balls and many short bursts of conversation, we found that we have a lot in common.  Besides tennis, we share an affinity for way super liberal politics, sailing and David Foster Wallace.  We are close in age, have similar world views, share raging disdain for a certain tea party, gun toting, self-promoter from Alaska, and both have little athletic sons who play tennis and baseball (well, hers not so little anymore).  Also, there’s this Scandinavian connection. (Funnily, our names both begin with Kari and end in son.)

For years we’ve shared small parts of our life’s experiences, but usually standing about 78 feet apart; never over coffee.

So, today we did that, and it was very nice.  And she gave me this Swedish crystal candle holder (the photo, above) as a belated birthday gift, which was so unexpected and so lovely.

Not a lot more to say about it all, but reflecting on how sweet life is sometimes.  And hoping it’s a friendship that continues.