The Guy in White Pants

Here is the story that starts way back...way way back...

1989-1990

When I was growing up I spent every summer in a rented house in the country. River, board games, card readings and boys...well what do you expect when there are 3 teenage girls hanging out together. Yes there were three of us and I was the youngest, by 3 years which was huge age difference when one is 11 and the rest are 14.

Neither one of us actually had a boyfriend but we sure did talk a whole lot about the opposite sex, hormones raging and all. Yes, we were just three girls dreaming of one day we would fall in love. All the days were pretty much the same until one day when I walked out to the street in the morning and saw a cute, tanned guy in white pants heading towards me. That's the vision I still have in my mind, 17 years later and I still remember it as if it happened just a little while ago.

The guy in white pants was a friend of one of my girlfriends. He came up to me and asked me where he can find her, so together we walked to her house. I will never forget the look on her face, she was pale as a ghost. It turned out that this boy was in love with her and actually came all the way to our summer haven to see her. If that isn't the most romantic thing I have ever seen a 14 year old boy do for a girl, I don't know what is.

We all immediately fell for the guy in white pants. He was handsome, funny, and well he was the only handsome, funny guy who wanted to hang out with us, three dorky little girls. He always treated me with a certain tenderness, probably because I was so much younger, I was only 11 or 12. I was infatuated with all the attention but of course I knew better, he was completely in love with my friend. That still didn't stop my heart from breaking when I saw them kissing at a bus stop.

I don't remember now but I think we were friends for a couple of summers and then life took us all in different directions. We all lost touch.

So the story brings us to now...

2007

Of all the joys of the internet, reuniting with old friends is by far the most incredible. It is nostalgic and emotional. It brings back memories and hopes for the future.

I was looking for my girlfriends from all those years ago and was having a hard time locating one of them. Without any hesitation I looked up the guy in white pants, uh-huh I remembered his full name but for the sake of anonymity I will not reveal it in this post. I sent him an email that basically asked if he remembered me? To my huge surprise not only did he remember me, but he had a picture of the two of us from 1990. The cliche is "a picture says a thousand words" and it did! I couldn't believe that I made such an impression on this boy 17 years ago that he would actually keep my photo for all this time. I was incredibly flattered.

He told me that the girl he was so in love with back then is now married and lives in Paris. That didn't surprise me, I knew she was France-bound all along.

So our paths crossed yet again. Is this story to be continued? Only time will tell.

My Way Back Home - part 1

San Francisco is undoubtedly my home but let's look back...way back to 1978 - 1992

I was born in Moscow (Москва) on September 24th 1978. I lived the first 13 years of my life in the city that's one of the greatest and most beautiful, the city that is the capital (столица) of the ever majestic Russian Federation (Российская Федерация).

The summer when my childhood ended and teen era started was the same summer I moved to United States. The only life that I knew was immediately a part of my past and another path was ahead, waiting for me to embark upon.

This photo is the last image of my childhood, a moment truly frozen in time

I went back to Moscow in 1998 (6 years post my move) and it was amazing, very different experience from my life in California but a pleasantly unforgettable one.

9 more years went by and I had a son, got a college degree and started a successful career.

It's time to go back home and see it with the eyes of a woman whose heart will always be in that city, a mother who wants her son to love it just as much as her, a friend who misses those who never forgot her and are anxiously waiting to reunite.

I am going back.
We are going for a vacation this winter, me and my son.

to be continued...