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Misty Friday Morning With Maria

This morning my friend Maria was in Silicon Valley for a business trip.

Maria was one of the first of my yuppie friends.  We met at University.  She was in my statistics class, and one of us must have commented on the others' shoes, a mutual object of affection for us, and we became instant friends. 

I have loved her and been fascinated by her always.  For one thing she is an only daughter of Italian parents who immigrated to Canada long before her birth, where her father worked in the logging industry in the tiniest of towns on the west coast of Vancouver Island (wikipedia refers to it as a village of 300 people).  

When I met Maria, when we were both 18, she was literally fresh of the boat from the small village in a remote part of Vancouver Island.  But she was elegant, well read, cultured, smart, aware of world news, fashionable and a foodie.  At the height of Doc Martin fever, she would wear the cutest and daintiest of shoes and outfits that rarely included jeans.  And might I add that during the early nineties in Vancouver, there weren't too many foodies abound...

You could find her most mornings sipping her small coffee and reading The Financial Post before class.  She told me that she wanted to be an investment banker and I nodded and pretended that I knew what that meant. 


By the time I was 19, I had learned the concept of eating with gusto, enjoying a good glass of wine, and savouring a good life, all things that I am so grateful she has taught me.  She got me into understanding the joy of being a tourist in my own city, being curious about the latest and greatest as far as food, culture and entertainment were concerned. 

1999 Calgary Stampede

At 20, Maria would recycle her Christmas tree, grow herbs on her little balcony for her own home made pasta dishes, and would get hot blooded over talking about politics and financial markets.

At 29, she was my bridesmaid.


And today... at 37,  we sipped coffee at Tootsie, ate a very delicious Italian breakfast, and talked about life.  She, a successful woman in the financial field, and me, a happy UrbanMommy.  She an avid biker, world traveller and skier, just returning from a biking tour in some exotic place in Italy where she ate very well, and gearing up for the ski season in Whistler, and me, proud of my girl's little doings and sayings and excited about exploring new possibilities in my life with my UrbanToddler in school two mornings per week.  She, an only child caring for parents that are starting to approach a certain age, and me marveling at her heart and soul and everything she manages to get done...


What a lovely way to spend a rainy Friday morning in Silicon Valley.   Happy Friday.

I'd love to hear about the Maria in your life if you care to share...

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