Once upon a time back in the fall of 1993 an Orange County girl (who had just dyed her brown hair burgundy) drove her Honda up to Santa Cruz to start college at UCSC with vague imaginings of becoming a lit major. Our heroine was fortunate enough to have been placed at Kresge College, where there were no dorms, only apartments. Fate smiled a second time and placed her in a room with Cheri Hatanaka.

Cheri and I hit it off right away. She wallpapered her side of the room with X-Men, I did mine in Elfquest and anime. Her love of the Giants rubbed off on me, and I got her singing along to the Smashing Pumpkins and Belly. We both had our disastrous first-boyfriend experiences at about the same time (neither of us had dated in high school). She had a car and took us grocery shopping every week to stock our kitchen, even though my cooking skills never rose above Spaghettios, frozen pizza, and the occasional beef stroganoff. She went home to Stockton every weekend, leaving me free to invite strange boys back to our room. We snagged a coveted Kresge East apartment together for our sophomore year. We stood next to each other in the front row at graduation.

Saturday I drove down to Santa Cruz for the first time in months to watch Cheri marry Paul, the love of her life. She was radiant in her traditional Japanese garb, and I remembered the nights we would lie awake our freshman year plotting our lives and loves. As more of my friends marry and settle down, I am finding that I am filled with joy for them at the same time that I am really enjoying my life as a single girl. I no longer see marriage as a milestone in life that must be reached as quickly as possible, if at all. I'm fully willing to admit I might be singing a different tune once crazy in love again, but I'll have to get back to you on that one. Meanwhile, two more of my girlfriends announce their engagements.

One last big thing this week: I was laid off from my job due to a reduction in work force. In other words, a big client went bankrupt, and that client was paying my salary. My company left me a comfortable severance, so I'm not panicking too much yet. I'm hoping to find a new position a little closer to my heart and home than this last one. I'm very sad I won't be working a block from SFMOMA anymore though.

But the sun is shining, the days are long, and I've got a 60-mile walk I'm in training for. Life is good.