Long Lost

A short but sweet update

Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away — ok, 30 years ago in London — I met a wonderful human by the name of Vicky Fang. Oh yes, she’s as cool as her name.

Vicky and I were both students studying theater at college, and were spending a semester at BADA in London, England, in order to focus on our craft. Also to live in London. I wrote a little bit about this experience once before, what matters here is that Vicky and I were sorted (no hats involved) into Group B for the first 6 weeks of the semester, and I could not have been luckier. Vicky and I, I felt, were the type of actors who didn’t get too high on our own supply. We loved acting and wanted to get better, but we weren’t the kind of acting students who brought the drama offstage. Therefore, she was often my point of eye contact when things got… eye-rolly.

Vicky also introduced me to the X-Files, and we spent many a Tuesday in her flat, watching back-to-back episodes on BBC1. Or BBC2. Possibly BBC4. I’m just not really sure, it was quite long ago now. We were seated at the same table for Thanksgiving — something that our teachers wanted to put on for the homesick American students, but didn’t really know how so they took us to a restaurant and got us quite drunk while serving us turkey and pumpkin pie. I also remember The Beach Boys being piped over the sound system.

I’m telling you about Vicky because I get to see her tomorrow. She is now a successful children's book author, and happens to be jetting into Minneapolis for a reading at Wild Rumpus Books and is carving out time to see me. We haven’t seen each other in person since the epic goodbye party in London in December of 1996, though she was kind enough to do a Zoom author talk with my class this year.

Vicky is the only person I keep in contact with from that semester (besides Katharine, but we both went over from Macalester so that’s different). I do a lot of bad-mouthing of social media and the ills it has brought on society, but without it, I wouldn’t still know Vicky. So there. (Also, I like the birthday messages.)

Short and sweet this week, Dear Readers, but I leave you with this thought: is there a friend from your past that you lost touch with, but could maybe find through the magic of the internet? I encourage you to do it. Why not try?

Thanks for reading.

Love, Susie