SINGLE-SERVING FRIENDS

Some people exist as moments in time. They're temporary, showing up in our lives long enough for us to notice then exiting stage left (or stage right, depending on which side of the stage they came in on, I guess). I'm thinking, in particular, of a pair of girls my brother and I met when we were on a cruise last summer. Now they may have a different take on the whole thing, they may, if they recall us at all, consider US the temporary ones. But since I knew them for maybe forty minutes of my life and have no proof that they still exist while I'm reasonably certain both my brother and I still exist, I am going to exercise my authorly powers and declare them to have been the temporary part of this particular relationship.

It was late-night buffet night on the ship. Actually, every night was late-night buffet night, but on this particular night they made a bigger deal of the buffet than usual (even giving it a fancy title which I cannot recall). It was, in fact, beautiful. Several ice carvings sat along a VERY long set of tables. The food itself was no less attractive than the ice carvings. The chefs had taken pains to cut and arrange the food into some absolutely delightful designs, plus a few bizarre ones (if you've never seen a mermaid carved out of a watermelon, you're missing out). There was an aquarium of fish in the middle of the table and it took me several minutes to realize that the fish were made out of cantaloup, carrots, and other fruits and vegetables. Certainly prettier and much more creative than any of the sculptures I've made out of my mashed potatoes.

This whole set-up - the size of the buffet, its general location, and the mass of people gawking at it - interrupted the typical table arrangement in the dining room so the staff came up with a new arrangement. As we came off the line they funneled us, with speed and efficiency, to the nearest available table of their choosing. My brother and I found ourselves sitting across the table from a pair of high school girls. I can hear some of you rolling your eyes already. (Yes, hear. I can't very well see you from where I'm sitting, but enough people have rolled their eyes at me that I KNOW what it sounds like...)

Now for those of you who are not rolling your eyes, I should probably explain why the others are. See, it has become something of a running joke amongst my friends that my girlfriends tend to be younger than I am. Now this might be because I dated a freshman each of my four years at college (college freshman, you sickos!). I did, also date girls my age or older during this time, but for the purposes of mockery, my friends (even those who I actually dated, or tried to date as the case may be) conveniently manage to forget such things. Hence the collective eye-rolling when I mention that my brother and I met a pair of highschool girls on a cruise. It's unjustified, in this case (and really in any case involving highschoolers). I'd like to remind everyone that I had nothing to do with the choice of seats.

I don't remember most of what we talked about except for their theory about jello and dreams (alright knock it off, this was an entirely platonic discussion). They claimed that if you eat jello right before going to bed, you have some really freaky dreams. They try to do it as often as possible (and were, in fact, eating a fair amount of it as we talked). Thinking about it, I have to agree with their theory, although I'd say ice cream instead of jello. That might be because I buy ice cream fairly often, but really haven't made jello in a while. So my experience with the jello dream phenomenon is rather limited, but I can tell you ice cream right before bed does make for some weird dreams. Try it sometime.

Really I don't remember the rest of the conversation. I just remember it was a lot of fun. The four of us sat there talking and laughing (about some really dumb things) for a long time. And that was it. We left and went one way. They left and went another. Never saw them again (and on a cruise ship that's quite a feat - part of the reason I'm convinced they only existed for those moments we talked with them). To be honest, I had no real desire to spend any more time with them. I'm pretty sure that with more exposure they would have gotten pretty annoying pretty quickly (kind of like me). But for that brief moment in time, the four of us thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.