Thanks to her family experiences in such exotic locales as Albuquerque, Quito, Ecuador and other Central and South American countries, she was able to navigate the mysteries of my college world. Coming from CT and suddenly being assigned a Costa Rican roommate and meeting people from all over, having someone who could go back and forth in language/cultural explanations with ease was a blessing to me. Luckily, she also had had experience with my religious culture, so it was easier to bridge that gap as well. She was a fellow English Major who shared my love of language and literature, not to mention Sting! (OMG STING!!!), and those could understand the pressure of the Faire Queen, Schaumberger's hand-outs, Piccolo's piccadillos, Professor Pittman's international reading assignments, and COMPS! Dora's the reason I was exposed to many "new" culinary marvels, like Nutella, tapas, radishes with sea salt, and "stinky" cheese. To this day, I dream of her homemade molé. (Seriously, I do. I'm salivating right now, and it's been more than 10 years.)
Though the years have now found us on two different coasts, we have been able to meet up when she's come back to NYC. There was also a very special trip to Florida to Poopeh's wedding, which reunited us with other college friends. After the last trip we took together with its unfortunate incident that left her in a cast for months leading up to graduation and beyond, it was good to be with Doralice and have a happier ending.
Now that I've made it to Chicago to see Kari, I have to schedule a trip to California to see Doralice in her domain. Until then -- miss you amiga!
"Juntah"
My first memory of meeting you was in one of Dr. Perret’s classes the very first week of school. But that’s clouded by the second time I met you, in your dorm room in Spellman on the third floor. The floor I didn’t know about when I applied for school. For some reason I knew all the Latin students first because we were sent to a separate orientation. Anyone who had gotten their test scores overseas were made to socialize with each other prior to being introduced to the rest of their classmates. Odd, but thanks to that, I walked into your dorm room and met you, Becky, Paola and Karla and somehow I was convinced that it was my duty to crack this gang, break in and be friends with you.
My memories of you are as follows- not a stream of stories from dorm life or trying to keep up with you in class but those moments that became ingrained in my memory about true friendship and loyalty.
Having this bone disorder is a constant reminder of how different I am and how lucky I am to have loyal friends like you. People come and go and most people I know don’t know how to handle what happens to me physically. When I fell at Karla’s wedding I wasn’t worried about you not being my friend after. I knew you and I had a pretty solid friendship. But your helping me through that ordeal without losing your temper or ignoring me or generally doing what everyone else was doing…blaming me for being a nuisance really made an imprint.
It’s been 18 years since that accident- we may not talk every day and we may have different views on how to live our lives but you are still there. Every time I visit NY and we get to see each other it just builds me up with confidence and sets me right again. I don’t know how to explain it other than that.
I have a varied and widespread network of friends and colleagues. I have a business that I work hard at every day to make a success. But my closest friends, those who stand by me through it all, are few. I am proud to say you are in that circle and I am grateful every day for your friendship.
I only wish you the best for your birthday and look forward to more years of friendship with you….and molé.
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