Saienga!

It was a Thursday night. Mike and I went to a show at a local theatre. The show let out, we chatted with a few friends, and we left. As we were walking out of the theatre, Mike turned his cell phone on and listened to his voice mail messages. "Guess who called," he said.

"I don't know. Ashley?" I said.

"Nope," he said.

"Um, do you think I'll guess it?"

"No."

"Okay. Who?"

"Mark Saienga," he said.

"What? Really?" I said.

"He's in Bellingham," he said.

And, it was true. Mark Saienga was in Bellingham.

For those of you who don't know Mark, I suppose a bit of exposition might be useful: Mike and Mark were friends through an English course or two during college, and Mark and I were dear theatre friends. Since graduating, Mark and his wife moved to Los Angeles where Mark drove trucks, did some film-acting, and then drove trucks again. We kept in touch loosely during those three/four (or so) years. He had a kid in there somewhere, and we, too, moved to the west coast (duh, right? - I mean you're reading this blog). It was his second round of driving trucks that led Mark to Bellingham, though.

We tracked Mark down at a gas station where his truck was camped out. He gave us a tour of the cab of his rig, which was much more spacious than I expected, and then we took him with us back to the Contezac-Kaminski B&B.

After his bed and his breakfast had been served, Mark received the day tour of ol' B'ham. We took him to Whatcom Falls and the boardwalk and walked around downtown a bit. It was a short visit, but a sweet one nonetheless. The spontaneity of it all was quite fun, too, I must say. We didn't see him coming, and we barely saw him go, but I think he left with a semi full of apples.