Attention: ladies of the Bay Area

I am here to inform you that the two men pictured below are, in fact, single:Pay no attention to the lady with the baby. No need to worry about her right now. But the fellas? Good with kids!
Quote from Hang: "That's the most dangerous game I ever played. The kid has a floppy neck and a dad in the Navy."
And what need I say about Abe? Suave, even when pushing someone else's stroller.

I give you the least-nerdy nerd reunion ever. Abe, Hang, Melanie and I were among a group of about twelve in AP Calculus, nine years ago, at Coral Shores High School (go, whatever our mascot was!). We all had to work together to pass the AP exam, by which I mean Abe and Hang had to help us learn and we had to put up with their rolling their eyes so hard they sprained them. HA! But we all made it, then went to college and lost touch. Mel and Hang reconnected years ago, and this week it happened that we were all within a hundred miles of one another, so we met in the middle for lunch and a reunion. And we had such. a great. time.Mel and I drove to Santa Cruz from Monterey, with baby Nason, and Abe and Hang each drove from Mountain View, where they live less than a mile apart. But they didn't know this until today! Mission accomplished. We walked about ten blocks to Saturn Cafe, a great vegetarian restaurant where salads, fries, pad thai, and many veggie burgers were had. The guys gallantly fought over who got to pay for lunch. Since they were the only ones at the table with, you know, jobs, Mel and I demurely averted our eyes. Even Nason got a snack, and I'm sure the nursing baby didn't make the guys uncomfortable at all. No problem.
Then, because life is awesome, my flip flop broke and I had to walk barefoot to a shoe store. So if you're wondering why anyone would Google "is it possible to get chlamydia of the foot," now you know. But I bought new flip flops and we headed to the gorgeous boardwalk and seaside, schlepped the stroller across the sand, and enjoyed the sunny weather.
Abe and Mel had shaved ice, but I was too cold for that.

It was really incredible catching up for an afternoon. Mel is really the only Coral Shores friend I keep up with, other than the odd Facebook update. Hang and Abe are both in the tech industry, doing great, and seemed so different than my memories from a decade ago. I wonder how different I seemed to them - if, like them in my eyes, I seem more at ease in my skin, happier, softer around what used to be some harsh edges, and altogether wonderful. I hope so. It's funny about getting older. I can see in the photos how my looks have changed, but I forget how much growing up I did in college and beyond. How sure I was of, oh, everything in high school, and how this lifelong march toward loving moderation has progressed.

I guess all there is left to say is that I could have hoped that these old friends could be good friends again, years later, but I wouldn't have put money on it. What a gift, and I hope we can shorten the distance between this visit and the next.