I was reunited with a very good friend from college, Melissa. She has planned to visit DC today from Charlottesville, Virginia. It had been almost a year since the last time I saw her, so we were excited to catch up with each other.
I wasn't sure earlier that the plan is still on. We relied too much on Friendster for communication, and true enough, it was down this morning! So, I crossed my finger and hopped the Orange Line to Vienna, hoping that somehow I could find Melissa there. She drove for about two hours and parked her car in Vienna station, at least that was the original plan. Lo and behold, the Orange Line was down as well! Vienna station was closed and people had to ride a shuttle to the next station. At about 11:30 AM, my train stopped at West Falls Church station. Passengers had to come down and transfer to Vienna via free shuttle. And just when I was about to exit, I saw a tall figure wearing hijab. Melissa!
Gosh, we arrived at the station at exactly the same time! We were cheering, laughing, and catching up with each other immediately and non-stop until we arrived at McPherson station for breakfast. We ate at Au Bon Pain and continued out conversation. Among other things, she told me that she has been engaged! I am so happy for her! And we kept chatting like teenage girls on a reunion. She told me that his name is Jahangir, and immediately I thought of the character from the Taqwacores, and she said there's a lot of similarities between the two.
After breakfast, we went window-shopping at the Fashion Center at Pentagon City. We didn't really shop (though she bought a couple items), we just a need an indoor place where we can talk and walk. At lunch time, we went to Old Town Alexandria and Salman joined us. We went back to the apartment afterward for pray and further discussion. We discussed a lot of things ranging from nostalgic moments in the MSU (the three of us served at the same year) to the philosophy of reincarnation. When we were in college, we had this type of discussion frequently, but it's more of a rarity nowadays. I'm gonna miss those moments...
Jahangir called and said that he could come by for dinner. He has been driving from Princeton, New Jersey to Virginia to visit Melissa. It turned out that he could come, and they would driving back tonight. We decided to pick him up from I-495 after we waited for three hours. There has been road constructions that just halt inbound traffic so we decided to "rescue" him from this traffic. Surprise, surprise, he actually had cooked Biryani rice so we all went back to the apartment to enjoy his cooking. It was delicious! Melissa has chose wisely indeed.
At about 10 PM, Melissa and Jahangir left to continue their journey. Thanks for visiting, guys! I hope I can see you again before I left, if not, well I'm just gonna wait for invitation in the mail. ^_^
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