lunch with caroline (lyn)

I used to work with Caroline.  Actually, I’ve worked for Caroline twice.  The first time was in 1991, when she hired me as head of marketing for CNBC, and the next time was in 2005, when she hired me as an interim head of marketing at a start-up.  Caroline is personable, friendly, warm, and scary-smart.  She knows things about things that most people don’t.  She never flaunts her brilliance.  She wears it casually and unpretentiously.

We haven’t seen each other in a while.  Today we meet for lunch.  Caroline has a meeting at 3, so we meet at 1, thinking that should be more than enough time, which of course it isn’t.  There’s just too much to say.

Caroline is fit and thin and about four years younger than I am.  She wears little makeup, and never ages.  She has no wrinkles.  And honestly looks the same as she did when we met twenty years ago.  We both think of each other as thin, because we have both only known each other that way.

But surprisingly, in the past two years, I have gained and lost 40 pounds, and she has gained and lost 30 (also on Weight Watchers).  We wonder if maybe we had seen each other sometime during our heavy stages and just didn’t notice.  I think when you are accustomed to seeing someone as thin, the residual effect of that visual sticks, even when they are no longer that way.

While in the past we may have ordered burger and fries for lunch, today’s order is a vegetable salad (dressing on the side) for Caroline, and bagel crisps with cream cheese and salmon for me.  Our meal choices may have altered over the years, but our ease of conversation hasn’t.