pegging meg

You never know what you are going to find at breakfast.

On a Saturday morning, about twenty-three or so years ago, I was working in the legal office on the Oregon Air National Guard base. My fellow attorney, Dave Kramer, asked if I was interested in breakfast. He knew of one of those local eateries that have built a repution as The Place to Go.

Cameo Pancake and Steak. It advertised itself as the home of the acre pancake. Who could resist such high culinary praise?

The food was fine. Nothing to five-star on Yelp (if there had been such an application in the 90s).

I was halfway through my meal, when I noticed Dave continually looking over his shoulder at a young woman eating alone at a table near the windows. He leaned over and whispered to me: "I think that's Meg Ryan."

I scoffed. "Sure, Dave. A big movie star is going to be eating breakfast alone at a dive on Sandy Boulevard." I did concede that whoever she was, she certainly looked a bit like Meg Ryan.

I had been reading The Oregonian just before we started Our Sighting conversation. When I resumed reading, the next article described how a movie was filming in Portland -- starring Meg Ryan.

This time, I tried to subtly glance over at the woman near the window. In all of our staring, she never once looked up from whatever she was reading. But it certainly looked like her.

I poked Dave and pointed at the article. We both turned aeround for another gaze.

If this was a movie script, I would have walked over to her table introduced myself, sat down with my coffee, and charmed her with my wit. That, of course, did not happen. I shared nary a phrase with her. But it was fun to see one of America's cutest actresses.

This evening I will get to share an entire evening with cute girls. And because it is my class reunion, I will get to talk with them as long as I like. And it will be even more fun than my non-conversation with Meg Ryan.

I am looking forward to the evening. It will be a bit melancholy. Two of my friends from grade school, Paul May and Neil Hodgin, recenty died. I was looking forward to seeing both of them. And, if there is any credit in my religious faith, I will. One day.

But I will not need to wait to see most of them -- because they will be at the Monarch Hotel in Clackamas tonight. I have known a large group of them since grade school.

The nice thing about the 50th is that all of the pretence should be stripped from our lives. We have learned how to settle for what we get. Fancy cars. Big houses. Soaring paychecks. They all pale in the light of who we truly are.

It should be quite a night.