It's kind of like long-lost friends...You know those friends who you haven't talked to in years, but when you see each other, it's like you picked up where you left off?
Enter Wendy. Back in college, we were waitresses together at The Noodle House in San Diego. Aside from its novel and creative name, it was a small Japanese restaurant consisting of 12 tables and two waitresses. I credit my stellar multi-tasking skills to this job. Between the two of us, we had to welcome customers, take orders, deliver food, manually calculate the bill (and you all know how much I suck at math, sorry Kumon! What a waste!), run the register and clean up the dirty tables, all while looking cute and not dropping stuff.
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| Wendy is even more gorgeous on the inside than she is on the outside. And I should get a refund on my MAC primer powder because it obviously doesn't work! |
I loved working with Wendy because she was super efficient, friendly 24/7 (I would secretly sigh when I saw a family with little babies come in...um, can your child possibly dump more rice on the floor before you leave? Because I think you missed a spot...), and she was cute to boot. Hellloooo tips!
It's been YEARS since those yakisoba and nabeyaki udon days, but the stars aligned and we're miraculously both up in the Bay Area, which is such a treat. And, (drumroll please...) after running around in our shorty shorts with black aprons and chopsticks, we're now going to be running around the trails together! Hooray for new running partners!
And speaking of The Noodle House, one of our fellow waiters also happened to manage a bike team. He gave me a loaner bike to use for my first sprint triathlon. I didn't even know how to shift gears, so I did the entire race in the same gear. During slow days at the restaurant, he would draw on napkins and show me the formation for drafting off a wheel when the wind is coming from the left or coming from the right. This was only the beginning.
I emailed him today to tell him THANK YOU. Little did he know that he planted that seed and provided me with the tools to get started in triathlon. Hopefully this summer, Wendy and I will get to see him in San Diego and I'll get to thank him in person.
Funny story...this waiter also miraculously pulled some strings so Wendy and I could ride track bikes at the Velodrome in San Diego. I remember arriving early so we could "practice" with the fixed gear bikes and getting used to not braking. Holy sh*t. Now I realize what a risk he took with us! Luckily, we didn't take any guys out or crash ourselves.
I think there are so many individuals in our lives who have shaped us or planted seeds, and they don't ever realize the incredible positive effect they had on us. Reconnecting with Paul, the waiter, was a blessing, because he really had no idea what a huge role he played in my life by just providing me with that blue bicycle, and the joy that I've experienced from riding on two wheels.
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