“Could we see again when and where we are to meet again, we would be more tender when we bid our friends goodbye.”~Ouida, English novelist
Another Goodbye Selfie is taken, but my friend prefers privacy, so I’m sharing our story instead.
We met in an Archiver’s scrapbook store in Michigan, oh, maybe in 2008 or 2009, a lifetime ago. Remember those? As I recall, she was crafting alone at an empty table. I was newer to the area, and I know creative loneliness, so I introduced myself with some friendly chit-chat. She talked with me, which is not always a guarantee with strangers. After that afternoon, we were no longer strangers. We’ve scrapbooked together since.
Today is our last crop together for a long time. I thought last week was, but we squeezed in a bonus day together. She’s worth that, for sure. I arrived at Baker’s Scrapbook Studio first. I printed photos at the nearby CVS, a tornado process until you download their app. She arrived just as I finished, so we walked over to Dagwood’s Deli. I passed on my usual egg salad sub for chicken salad. I brought the chips, as I always do, and we ate next to our cutting mats. In the tick of the wall clock, the store closed and I took my second, bonus Goodbye Selfie with her.
“You’re the only person I’ve had two Goodbye Selfies with,” I said.
“I should hope so,” she replied. “I deserve it.” Of course, she was right.
After this, I’m packing up my scrapbook papers and most of my art supplies. I don’t know how much time or space I’ll have in temporary housing to create, so most of it goes with the movers in two weeks. I am packing a separate bag of essentials–as in, my overload of adhesives–for the Great Lakes Mega Meet in May. I’m leaving that bag at my in-laws when I drive across Pennsylvania and will pick up in May. I have a smaller bag of materials to finish my husband’s overdue annual calendar. Or should I say his annual overdue calendar? That’s the amount of art I’m limiting myself to: the project delayed by me and the small fiasco with CVS photos.
And let’s face it…right now, scrapbooking without her is lonely.
