It’s my good friend Pallas the Pink-Haired Girl’s aka the Diner Siren’s birthday . . . and so of course I feel compelled to create yet another honorific birthday post for her. What is this website good for if not that . . . ? There are so many good pictures from our long friendship, but I will do my best to narrow it down to like 20 (lol)~

BEHOLD:

Some of these are from summer 2019, which I spent with Pallas. That was one of the best summers of my life and Pallas was a big part of that. I remember in late July, nearly seven years ago now, I drove ten hours up I-5 to stay with her and her parents in Washington, just over the Oregon border and about twenty minutes from Portland. They were so kind and generous. During the day, Pallas and I would usually head into Portland . . . we went to the rose garden, saw a few movies, sat in some parks drinking our little iced coffees, chilled at the Elvis Room (RIP), and even drove all the way up to Kalama, Washington to visit the Twilight high school (lol).

At night, back at Pallas’ fortified compound, we’d hang out in the Finnish-style sauna in her basement (???), try on her fur coats, and play with her cat Bubb. The night before I had to drive back home to Oakland, we went up on her roof deck and lay down on a pile of blankets to look at the stars, and to watch out for the shooting kind, of which we saw many. I remember her falling asleep with her head on my chest as I held her. It was so sweet . . . I’m going to cry thinking about this!

Now that I think about it, I believe that’s the last time I dated someone in that straightforward old-school way that could only exist before the pandemic. By which I mean, the math of the thing was very simple:

“Pallas, I like you.”

“Ryan, I like you too.”

“Do you wanna date . . . ?”

“Yeah!”

I love it . . . I miss it!

RECENTLY . . .

Pallas remembered our Cartoon Counterparts from long ago, in a pre-dark mode world . . .

FINALLY . . .

Pallas, I love you. Thank you for keeping me around all these years. For God’s sake, happy birthday. I’ll see you again soon . . . in the City of Angels.

:,)