An unexpected encounter

This happened over a month ago, but still blogworthy.

I was walking down the street pretty close to my house, on my way to pick a friend up at the nearest T (subway, for those not in the Boston-know) stop. All of a sudden, I hear..

"ARIELLE!"

I realize that the voice is coming from the roof deck of the bar around the corner from my apartment. I immediately grimace, thinking it's one of my classmates (none of whom I'm in the mood to see).

I look up, and I see, not a classmate at all, but my ex-coworker Victoria.

Victoria was my best buddy in an office full of morons. We used to bond over our mutual distaste for everyone around us. She also used to keep me updated on her secret romance with a fellow employee. We worked in HR, and he was in a group that she supported - not technically an off-limits relationship, but probably still frowned upon in some circles.

In January of 2008, Victoria informed me that her boyfriend was being transferred to our company's Mumbai office in April. And...she was moving with him. So the boyfriend went in April, and Victoria went in May. It was only on her last day at the office, during her last hour of work, that people finally found out that she was a) moving to India, and b) that she was moving for her boyfriend, who worked at our company. I pretended to be shocked along with everyone else.

So in May of 2008, Victoria moved thousands of miles away. We tried to meet up when she came back to the U.S. for a visit in November 2008, but it didn't happen.

And then all of a sudden, nearly a year later, there's Victoria, enjoying a beer at the bar not sixty seconds' walk from my house. Insanity.

As it turns out, she was in the U.S. for a few weeks, gravitating between NY and MA, where she grew up. Though she didn't grow up near where I live now, she did go to my current school for one miserable year (before transferring to the school down the road), and still knows some people in the area. And decided, on a lovely September day, to have a beer with one of them. Around the corner from my house.

A lovely surprise indeed.

Winner winner chicken dinner!

Alright friends. The $25 Best Buy gift card contest is officially over.

After assigning numbers to everyone based on the order of their entry and how many entries they received, and using random.org to generate one super lucky number, our winner is..

ELYSE!

I cannot link to Elyse's blog because she doesn't have one. But I will say that Elyse is one of the more enthusiastic real life readers of this blog. Plus, her winning this contest is particularly appropriate (and I swear, not rigged) because a) she was, in fact, listed as someone else's favorite Jew (thanks Lala) and b) I went to a Weezer concert last night (excuse me, Blink concert with Weezer opening but WHATEVS ON THAT HIGHWAY ROBBERY) and Elyse is a fellow Weezer enthusiast.

Send me your address, woman!

And thanks to everyone who participated. If ever I should come across something else I don't want that others would find valuable, perhaps there will be another giveaway. Until then, please enjoy this extra little reward that Elyse gets, which is a photo montage of her 21st birthday weekend (for the record, she's 26 now).

Rebekah presents Elyse with her birthday cake

Pregaming. Rebekah, my soon-to-be ex-roommate Jenny Bon Bon, me, and of course, the birthday girl/super awesome contest winnaaaaa.

Aw, remember the days of non-digital cameras? Elyse is clearly not the center of attention here and she looks horrifically bored by it. Cheer up, Charlie!
Tequila, bitches! This was back in college, of course (when I was not yet 21, shh), and now I live literally around the corner from this bar. Weirddd. PS, check out LizzieB's awesome face way on the right. Someone doesn't love the tequila.
Everyone loves the birthday girl
DONEZO

Hope you all enjoyed this brief flashback. And congratulations to our winner!