Patti and Andre - one generation later

So on Friday Isabel and I ran around Belltown a bit and generally enjoyed the fresh air and sights near the harbor. It rained in the morning a bit, but we slept through most of it. Ignorance is bliss.

We arranged to have dinner at the home of our friends Patti and Andre Bilokur, who live in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. We were at SCI-Arc around the same time, Patti and Andre graduated in '90 and I graduated in '91. Isabel had graduated some years earlier but was still working around the school. The last time we saw each other was in October of '91, shortly after they had moved from LA to Seattle. At the time they had two kids, Max, 3, and Lida, who was just turning one year old. We had our Max with us too, he was six months old. One big sleepless family packed into a little house in Wallingford. It was great fun, actually.

Fast forward to 2009 and Max and Lida are both in college, and our Max is just about to graduate high school (we hope!) In the meantime, they had a third - Henrietta - who is almost 11 now. (fill in your favorite cliche about the passage of time here...) I think we all had just a bit of trepidation to see each other again after such a long time. Isabel said to me "They're going to think we're so old now!" I told her not to worry, they're older too. I'm afraid Isabel was more right than I was. ;-)

P & A are both practicing architects. Most recently Andre worked at Calisson, where he did business development for projects in places like Mumbai and Russia, and was frequently on the road. Patti has her own office. Like a lot of folks I've met on this trip, Andre was laid off recently, so he spends his days working in Patti's office, and they both are enjoying his time closer to home. We discovered we had a Boulder connection in common - John Ward - who used to work at Comm Arts and started his own firm a few years back. Andre and John pitched to many of the same overseas clients. Small world.

Andre cooked a lovely dinner of grilled chicken, fresh pasta and vegetable, and we sat around the dining table talking about old friends, most of whom are surprisingly still around and one who is not, tragically. We talked about old schools too. Andre went to Haverford, the same school my brother Stefan went to. Turns out Andre and Stefan had a few of the same professors, Desjardins and Stegman. Andre began to get suspicious of the connections I think. Healthy Ukrainian suspicion fueled by several bottles of wine.

With the by-now familiar regret, it was time to leave all too soon. We kissed our goodbyes and headed back to the Ace Hotel. Tomorrow we drive to Vancouver.