Lunch With A Mirror

Yesterday, I had lunch with my friend, Siri.  She used to work with me some years ago, but she left the office in 2016 or 2017, around the same time that Carmen had left.  They didn’t end up going to the same office, though I get the impression that they’ve done a better job of remaining in touch better than Carmen and I have.  I sent Carmen a text message a week ago and as of this writing, I still have yet to hear from her.

Siri happened to be back at my office yesterday, as she was conducting a training class for a bunch of new hires.  I didn’t know she was going to be there.  I just so happened to see her and almost physically bump into her as I was making my way out of the office.  I call it “escaping”.  I don’t think she recognized me at first and truth be told, I didn’t recognize her either.  If I’m guessing, we haven’t seen each other in well over a year.  I’d lost more weight in that time and I guess it showed.  It wasn’t until she saw my face that it occurred to her that I still worked in that office.  We didn’t have much time to catch up, as she only had about five minutes to kill before her training class was to start.  In that brief time, she had jokingly suggested that maybe we should reconnect for lunch and chat.  Again, we hadn’t spoken in a while, so maybe the conversation would do us some good?  I told her that I would send her a text message.  She said that her number hadn’t changed and that I’d better still have her number in my phone.

I did.

I just had to look for it in my phone, which didn’t take me long.  So, in the end, we ended up coordinating schedules and we had lunch at a local Thai place.  Many years ago, she, Carmen, and I had eaten there.  Siri remembered the place, which didn’t surprise me.  It was familiar and the food there wasn’t bad.  There’s a chance that if we have lunch again, we could end up eating there a third time.

Siri and I hadn’t spoken in quite some time.  She had always been a decent conversationalist.  I had jokingly told her that I always found it impressive that she wasn’t afraid of using words that had three or more syllables.  She was confused by that and she then proceeded to question the quality of her entire vocabulary.  She’s not the wordsmith that I am, but she speaks well enough.  Actually, that was one of the things that first drew us to each other.  She and I don’t sound like we look.  Siri is, for all intents and purposes, some kind of Asian.  I don’t know definitively what she is, but when she speaks, she sounds (by her own description, mind you) like a California valley girl.  She truly does and sometimes you almost have to see her speak to believe it.  I am Hispanic and I sound like I’m Caucasian.  So, we could have a conversation behind closed doors and anyone listening would be absolutely dumbfounded to see that neither one of us is Caucasian.  We don’t sound how we look and even we joke about it.

It had also occurred to me that she and I also do this thing, where we try to speak without showing any kind of facial expression.  It’s that deadpan delivery that I like to use and I had forgotten that she likes to do the same thing, so it almost felt like looking into a mirror as she and I spoke, as I found myself wondering to myself many times during lunch…

Hmmm, is she kidding?   

So, there were many times where I would say something in response with the same flat expression, almost as if to test whether I could confuse her the same way she just did to me.  The difference between us, is that if she is confused (which by her admission is a regular occurrence), she will come right out and ask for clarification.  I’m seldom willing to admit that I am confused and that I don’t understand someone or something.  I like to work through things, to see if I can figure things out.  Siri tends to give up relatively quickly.

Siri revealed to me that she suffers from ADHD.  She was recently diagnosed.  I told her that, out of respect, I would refrain from referring to her as ditzy.  It doesn’t seem fair to her to call her ditzy anymore, when in fact, she has ADHD.  I told her that I hadn’t noticed it, which truthfully, I hadn’t.  Even as I write this, I don’t think anything of it.  That’s just who Siri is and she’s quirky just like I am.  I’m not hyperactive though, not in the slightest.  She’s still a good person regardless.

Lunch came and went and once we returned to the office, we parted ways.  She finished out her training class.  I went back to typing and languishing in the ridiculously warm temperatures at my cubicle, even as it rained intermittently outside that afternoon.

When she left, she made it a point to stop by my desk and say bye.  She caught me off guard by doing that.  I might have given her a hug before she left, but because everyone who sits around me is ridiculously nosy, I was hesitant.  In the end, I didn’t.  I’ll admit that I was also too lazy to get up.

Maybe we wouldn’t have drifted apart had I initiated more text conversations through these last few months?  I don’t know.  I figure, she had my number.  She could have texted me as well, but she didn’t.  I’m not looking to assign blame here or point the finger as to why we didn’t stay in touch with each other.  We drifted.  We reconnected.  We’ll just have to wait and see what happens next.

Of course, we’ll also have to wait and see when we have lunch again.

Then again, I could actually just physically bump into her, though this time on purpose.