Finally

Paula and I went out to two parties.

1st Party -

It was a French Skii party. There were skiis leaning on the door frames and some guests even went as far as wearing skii boots. A French guy went up to me and said he was from a place I had never heard of. I told him my name and said I was from Minnesota. He then explained to me he was joking and that the place he said he was from was a famous Skii resort in France. I said, "Oh, haha ok," but before I could think of a skii resort in Minnesota, he said, "You could say you're from a famous skiing city in the U.S. Like Aspen." So I said, "Yeah, Aspen. That's where I'm from," but he just turned away from me. Ok...

After that I had trouble getting into conversations cause everybody was, well, speaking French. Paula speaks a little French cause she spent some months there for school. She left a crowd of people she was talking to and came over to me. She said, "You gotta follow me around and get to know people that way instead of standing alone." I said ok but we ended up talking just to each other for the rest of the time was stayed at the party. Then I confessed. I brought up childhood and the opportunity presented itself. I told her about the time I sat by her on the risers (which was actually before a recorder concert I think) and that I remembered she was wearing a red dress. I confessed about the note I wrote about her after that night; I told her about how I wrote about her red hair and thought she was pretty. Paula thought the story was cute. After telling her that I liked her, she said she knew from the start. I laughed. Then she reminded me of a letter Michael sent to her. At the bottom of the letter was, "P.S. Stoddy likes you too." I actually think I remember being there, writing it with him. I'm sure we did. Then Paula confessed that she and Michael were sort of an item, in the elementary school sense ("He likes me, I like him. And he gives me heart erasers."). I was a little bummed cause she didn't say she ever liked me that way but I was relieved that after all those years, she finally heard it from me. She said that Michael brought her a red, heart shaped eraser once and then turned red and ran away. That made me miss Michael.

Then something broke my heart. She said when she came back to visit two years later, Michael never got to see her. I vaguely remembered that. After she left, Michael apparently called her and asked her why she never told him she was coming back. That changed my idea of bragging about seeing Paula. Instead, I'm going to email Michael and apologize for never telling him about Paula coming to visit. I could have easily called him but I know I was jealous so I'm sure that caused me to "forget" to tell him. I brought up to Paula the possibility that Michael was mad at me for a while because of this. Anyway, she lifted her glass and said, "To our past." It was a good sewing up moment.

2nd party -

We got there and the cops had just been there because of a noise complaint. The host of the party kicked everyone out. Paula and I then met a guy waiting for a cab and he hit on Paula after she offered for the three of us to share a cab. He asked us to go to a party with him. Coincidentally, Paula ended up knowing the host of that party too and she recognized most of the people at it as the friends of her younger brother. That was strange.

We got back and had cereal together. Throughout the trip, Paula and I shared a lot of interesting conversations about religion, civil rights and politics but most of all, joked around a lot. It ended up being very fun. I'm so glad I went to Vienna.