20 Years Later: Hester Reunion

I love to brag that I taught my college friend Hester (okay, her real name is Connie) everything she knows about writing. When I was Features Editor for the JMU school newspaper "The Breeze," she was my Assistant Features Editor. The next year she became the youngest Editor-In-Chief in the history of the paper. Where ya think she got them skillz?

Hester and I have kept up intermittently over the years—I went to Allentown, Pa., to see Sheena Easton at a county fair there with Hester in the late 1980s, and she and her man Ray came to see me in Washington, D.C., somewhere around 1991—but it's been nearly 20 years since we last sat face to face. That was remedied last evening, when Hester, in town for business—now working in Pennsylvania as a PR exec—joined me on the Lower East Side at Croxley's for a gathering with pals for our buddy Bram-a-lam. Jesus, that bitch has not changed one damn iota! Hester and I stayed through the night, having one of those grand catch-ups that felt like we last saw each other two weeks ago, not two decades.Hester, Donna, Tina, Patrick, meese.Christa, Hester, meese.Hester, meese, Adam, Cindy.Bram-a-lam, Hester, Tina, Patrick, meese.Meese, Hester, Emmy, Bram-a-lam.