Starfish and Coffee

Have been reflecting a bit on my Prince dream (see previous post) since my friend Jake (whose wife Rachel was featured) asked me what I thought it was all about. My informal analysis, I’m sorry to say, has induced me to revisit the 80s, a period I would much rather forget altogether. And yet, somehow, I’m pretty much confronted with it on a daily basis lately. This undoubtedly has something to do with the fact that I (grudgingly) live in a town 20 minutes from where I grew up. I run into people I went to high school with way more than I would like. I even encountered my prom date on a preschool fieldtrip last fall. It turns out he lives a few miles away and has a kid in another class at Henry’s school. I have to say I was a little nauseated when I made the connection. It wasn’t really about him per se. He’s a perfectly nice guy, and there wasn’t anything serious between us. I just don’t want to be reminded (yet again) of that chapter of my personal history. Facebook, by the way, does not help either. I can only thank God that, so far, no one has posted any embarrassing pictures of me from that most horrible decade (the ever lovin’, I should note, has not been so lucky).

Anyway, Prince, in my opinion, is quite possibly the best thing to have come out of the 80s (besides my baby sister, that is). And I can’t think of Prince without thinking of my old friend Kim. She pretty much single handedly saved me from total geekdom in high school. A year ahead of me, she was a glamorous badass who took pity on me and started driving me to school when I was a sophomore. She convinced me to quit band (absolutely the key to leaving one’s loser status behind) and introduced me to Bartles and Jaymes. I knew about Prince before, of course, but didn’t truly become a convert until I heard Sign o’ the Times in her room in 1987. Kim now lives in Ohio. She’s a former television newsgirl, now a pharmaceutical salesperson, with a devoted husband and three gorgeous kids. We haven’t stayed close but were at each other’s weddings and are occasionally in touch by email. She’s still a knockout, of course.

So, how does Rachel fit into things? She and Jake live in NYC. They got together after I had left town, and I’ve only had a chance to spend time with her on a handful of occasions over the past few years. She’s an interesting woman, with a PhD in history and a great laugh. Certainly someone I’d like to get to know better. I have concluded that my subconscious has singled her out as the kind of gal I’d be hanging out with if I still lived in New York. So you see, it all comes down to my quest for female friendship. So there it is. Eat your heart out Carl Jung.