Today I ventured into downtown Portland for business, which turned out to be a highly successful trip. Afterward, I was in such a good mood I wandered around the city a little and decided to drop by to see an old friend who works at Powell's Books as a cashier. His name is Nick Z.
His primary vocation is a playwright, as it happens. Four yeas ago, the last time I was in Oregon before this recent trip, I went down to Salem to see a production of one of his shows at our mutual alma mater, where he was an artist in residence.
At Powell's, I saw him at the checkout counter and snuck up beside him, hanging on the stair rail a few feet away. Finally he saw me, grinning like Puck. That got a big smile and laugh out of him.
He couldn't take a break from his work right then, so our conversation lasted only a few minutes. I told him I was only in town for the day, before heading back to Colorado for now. But I promised I'd be back soon and have drinks with him and his lovely wife.
In our abbreviated conversation he told me something funny that resonated with my new direction in life.
He said that he had been working on a new play over the last week, and that one of the characters was named Matthew. He said that whenever he typed that name into Microsoft Word, the program tried to automatically convert the name into my email address.
I don't know how I could possibly be in a better mood than I am right now, but that really put the cherry on top of it all.
See you soon, Nick! First round is on me.
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