A Long Overdue Tale

So this is a much much much overdue post but I while it is a distant tale...it must be told for many reasons.

As you who read MansionMogul know, Brooke and her co-hab fled back to the Best Coast to leave me here, abandoned, missing them like crazy, and thinking I am out of my mind to stay here! (Ok really the cohab in all his smartiepants geniusness landed an offer in Seattle and so off they went). Anyways.

Brooke and I met up one final night at Matchbox (E- it really is a DC thing) to drink some beers, eat some pizza, devour some donuts and say our "goodbye for nows". Dinner was a usual display of our random, disjointed-but-some-how-we-follow-each-other conversation that reminded me that Brooke was honestly such a blessing to be brought into my life.

To back up and provide the back story. Brooke and I met at a Law School party where we were pretty much the only two non-law students. It was like finding a life raft to cling to in all my I-hate-dc-and-I-have-no-friends start that I got off to here in DC. I remember going home the night we met and telling my cohab at the time "I made a friend! Well I think I did. I hope she likes me. I hope she wants to be friends!" (gah just like elementary school all over again..no?). Well we did become friends. And not only is she from the Best Coast, she is from SEA and so basically it was freindmance. I know that Brooke and I will always look back at the time we lived in DC together and I know she is a friend I will always keep in touch with and have in my life.

I have to say I have started to really miss stories about B's crazy, dysfunctional co-workers and laughing about all the crazy cohab shit that goes down when you live with someone as well as just general girl talk. Somehow I am managing without her here :)

So back to the story. We have dinner, we walk to an ATM so I can get cash. True to form I never carry cash. We stand on this street corner. I was shifting from foot to foot trying to not be the total girl I am. It didn't work....

the flood gates opens and one tear turned into a lot of tears! Meanwhile cabs would slow down and look at us because you could tell one of us was going to get in a cab soon. Finally Brooke gets me calmed down enough and I pile into a cab that had pulled up. I give him my address and we speed off. I didn't want to be sobbing so I did the girl thing where you let tears slide down your checks and you wipe them away when they reach your chin and are about to pile into your lap. Well I finally had to sniffle and the cab drive looks in his rear view mirror and exclaims "Oh! Are you crying! Don't cry! Goodbye's are not forever". I kind of do a sniffle smile and he was like "I actually saw you two saying goodbye and knew you were going to need a cab so I circled a few blocks to come back for you. Is she a good friend?"

Me: "Yes, she is from Seattle which is were we are both from and she is moving back there"
Cab: " Well my family is very far away and I moved here to make a living and I miss them a lot, but it is so easy to keep in touch with people. There is email, skype, text messaging, cell phones and planes"
Me: I finally start to stop crying "Yes, we will keep in touch for sure"

So we pull up to my apartment and I go to pay and he turns off his meter and waves his had "No tonight is on me"

me: "No no, please let me pay"
Cab: "No, you needed a ride home and saying goodbye to a friend is not fun. Keep your money"

He finally accepted a small tip. But I entered my apartment and crawled into bed, and while I started crying again it was one of the most comforting things to know that in this big city some random stranger did a completely random act of kindness for me.

Warm fuzzies all around.

Ps...Brooke I miss you!