The artful conversations continued in March, when I was lucky enough to spend an afternoon in the city with my friend, Eve.
Eve amazes me. She’s a young mom with two daughters. Her girls are beautiful, smart, and a bit mischievous, my favorite kinds of kids. I like it when kids test their limits and question things. It reassures me that they are developing their critical thinking and creative skills, and this makes me hopeful.
While being a Mom is part of Eve, she is also an incredible teacher and a witty friend. We met while working at an international language school in DC. I remember walking past her classroom and seeing her students tossing a ball back and forth. Whoever held the ball had to answer a question in a full sentence. As someone who believes that we can retain information best by associating it with a physical movement, I loved this technique. I admired Eve instantly.
We started meeting on a regular basis to chat over tea or cocktails. Thinking back, we chose some great places to meet, namely Kramer’s Bookstore and Cafe in Dupont Circle and Tynan Coffee & Tea in Columbia Heights. I miss those places, and I miss my friend! In our conversations, I learned that, like most of my ESL teacher friends, she had lived or traveled all over the world—England, Sudan, Nepal, and Iceland, just to name a few places.
Eve and I liked to talk about travel, politics, issues in education, our students, and our families. We shared our favorite books. She suggested that I might like a series by the mysterious Elena Ferrante, “a pseudonymous Italian novelist whose true identity is not publicly known.” I was immediately intrigued, especially because this elusive person has been quoted as saying things like “books, once they are written, have no need of their authors.” I picked up a copy of the first book in her Neapolitan series entitled My Brilliant Friend. I have several other books going at once (my bad habit), but I can’t wait to begin!
Recently, because of Eve’s incredible generosity, I had the pleasure of staying at her house while she and her family were in Europe. I fell in love her book collection—everything from Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott to 150 Movies You Need to See. The sunsets from her place were gorgeous, and her big old friendly kitchen table was perfect for my writing and research. The only thing missing was her, but I am comforted by the fact that she plans to take the train back up in the fall and meet me in the city again for another lunch date. Yay!
