The man sitting next to me fumbled through his wallet in search of a few dollars. I looked out my window, annoyed that my flight to Oakland had been delayed 45 minutes and I’d probably miss my 5 o’clock meeting.

My level of annoyance rose as I realized I had forgotten the free drink coupons I received in the mail a few weeks ago. ‘Dammit,’ I thought, ‘a beer would have been really good right now too.’

A frazzled Southwest Airlines flight attendant with blonde hair approached our row and asked, “what would you like to drink?” The blonde business professor in a sleek black suit chose Coke, the tired middled-aged man with a 60-gig iPod asked for white wine and I chose my usual on Southwest flights, ginger ale (it goes well with the peanuts).

An hour later, the plane touched down in Oakland and I said goodbye to the man next to me who was kind enough to give me his peanuts. He said they didn’t go well with white whine.

Unfortunately, my travel plans once leaving the plane weren’t as smooth as they should have been. I took AirBART to the Coliseum BART Station and then boarded a train toward Berkeley. That part was smooth, but I second guessed myself and got off at the wrong BART station. I finally ended up near the campus and walked the 15 minutes with my luggage to the campus.

I wasn’t happy when I got to UC Berkeley’s Eshelman Hall. I was tired, hungry and not in the mood for a meeting that wouldn not end until 9 pm.

I set up my laptop and began to check email and the news on the rally at UCLA surrounding the taser incident. A few seconds later, I forgot that I was frustrated and hungry and in a bad mood.

Chispa sent me the following IM.

CINDY
I PASSED!!!
I PASSED
I PASSED

I cried with happiness at the news that Chispa had just passed the bar. The day before she told me she’d be getting her results. She was nervous… very nervous.

Chispa had just received the news 5 minutes earlier and was still in awe. She was crying and utterly elated. We both lamented the fact that I was a few hundred miles away and could not drive over to take her out and to celebrate. This wasn’t one of those times when my friends share their success and I feign happiness (César/EMC describes this quite well) while secretly harboring feelings of jealousy.

We’ve prayed for each other many times over the years. Sometimes, the outcome wasn’t one we wanted or expected. But this time, it was perfect.

Chispa: we’ve come a long way since then*
you’re in a phd program
and i just passed the bar
wow

Yeah, we have.

Congratulations, Chispa. I’m glad California has one more of the “right kind of lawyers”.

*First year at UCLA, when we used to giggle over our statistics professor’s pronunciation of “focus” as “fuckus”.