Desirée

Desirée and I went to middle and high school together.   We have known each other since 1989, and I am fond of telling people that we have know each other since the 80's.   We actually weren't close friends back then, but we got close our senior year of high school.   Freshman year at Berkeley we lived in the same dorm complex.   We were across the street from each other, and often we would wave at each other while on the phone; every once in a while I would flash Des just to make her laugh.   She lived with Rita and Joanna.

Sophomore year, Des and I lived together.   I met my subsequent roommate, Cindy, through her.   I first wrote about Des in my diary on 19 October 1997.

Des is part of what I refer to as "The Jew Crew".   This refers to a group of (mostly) Jewish people who happen to (almost) all be from LA and happen to be a very tightly knit group of friends.

Here's what I wrote about Des and various Jew Crew members when I lived with her (sophomore year):

Desirée is the best roommate anyone could ask for. If she's in a bad mood, all you have to do is buy her some donuts from Kingpin, which we conveniently live across the street from. I am thankful that she is a vegetarian. I'm a vegan. We have tons of fun cooking together. Once Aurora, Desirée, and I ate an entire apple crisp together. Des and I have the best apartment. We have bay windows and we live next to the video store. What more could you want? And as a bonus, we live right next to the eatery which is open the latest at night on the southside of Berkeley. Thus we have the pleasure of hearing all of the drunk frat boys stuffing their faces with bits of barnyard animals well into the morning.

Dréa is going to be a famous storyteller someday. She is dating Mike, whom I have heard is a "sex god of the world," but I just think of him as Dréa's plaything. Mike is Desirée's ex-boyfriend. It gets more complex. Dréa lives with Jen and Adam, who are now dating each other. Adam is in a fraternity with Harel, whom Desirée dated last semester. In between Desirée and Dréa, Mike dated Betsy. Betsy goes rockclimbing with Yoni. Yoni lives in a house with Cory, Phil, Joe, and Brian. I lived with all of them in the dorms last year. Cory is my one of my best male friends (along with Ben, but we'll get to him later. Phil . . . well, you have to know him to understand. He gave me my first persimon. Joe is so cute and all the ladies are after him. Brian, too. He has the most irresistable dimples. I think that Yoni is adorable beyond belief. Don't think that I don't tell them this ALL of the time!

Ok, so back to my one degree of seperation story. Joe's semi-ex-girlfriend is Barbara, who lived with Jenny in the dorms last year. Desirée and I went to highschool with Jenny, as well as Shannon. Shannon lives in a house with David, Aaron, Sarit, and Taryn. Aaron and Sarit are boyfriend and girlfriend. Tarin is one of Susie's best friends. Susie knows everyone! Susie's ex-boyfriend is Jeff, who used to be roommates with one of my best friends, Ben. Ben and I dated last year, but now I just torture him and provide excellent girl advice. My favorite part of this story is that Ben and Betsy went to a date party together last week. Nothing like making the circle just a little more complicated! Susie knows Rich from the dorms and Rich is in drama class with William. Confused yet?.

I spent last Halloween doing volunteer work with Charles, known to everyone else as Chuck. Charles is now dating Ida, who is friends with both Desirée and Aubie. Aubie spends a lot of time with Karlyn, who lives with William, who spends a lot of time with Robyn. Karlyn and I met through friends of friends last year and now we have become so close that she lets me cut her hair. Karlyn and William met at Peirce College, which is also where they met Aaron. Karlyn and I like to have crazy adventures going to museums in San Fransico, though most recently I went to the Ansel Adams museum with Steve, who is a co-worker of Aubie. I have also gone rollerblading with Steve and a bunch of his co-workers, who were very nice about my inability to rollerbalde. Karlyn and I once made vegetable tempura without a recipe, which was quite the challenge. But it turned out delicious.

I love to cook with my friends, or for them. For William I made vegan pancakes more than once, while Ben and I discovered a wonderful roasted pepper dish together. One day I will have all my recipes on this cyberspace information exchange forum (aka: the web). Did I mention Ben's roommate Andrew? He dated Jen for a brief time last year. Not to mention Aaron, who pledged and de-pledged Ben and Andrew's fraternity twice. Rich only did so once.

The last time I saw Des was Tuesday, 17 July 2001 when we spent the morning catching up one each other after two years. We concluded our meeting by walking around a local cemetery. This is what she looked like on that day.

Des is moving to the east coast to go to graduate school.

I am looking forward to meeting her boyfriend before she goes.