Chapter 2: Comforts
The Marin Independent Journal headline on January 1, 2006 read:
“December 2005 was the wettest December in 50 years after a deluge from a ‘Pineapple Express.’”
The article said: “More than four feet of water rushed like a river down San Anselmo Avenue, scattering cars randomly along sidewalks, flooding the Ross Valley Fire Station headquarters and turning the Town Hall lawn into a mud bog.”
“Do you think Comforts has re-opened yet?” I asked Carolyn over the phone two days later.
“Oh…that’s such a good idea,” she sighed in her breathy, lilting way.
Most of the shops and restaurants on San Anselmo Avenue were closed. When I called to check, I was excited to hear that Comforts was open. Right before the flood, this infamous and iconic San Anselmo cafe had been doing renovations. Because of new building codes, they were forced to install flood gates which ended up saving them the destruction that all the other shops experienced. When the flood came early New Year’s morning, the new metal barricades at their doorway prevented a major disaster. Just a day later, Comforts was open and serving their award-winning Chinese chicken salad to the clean-up crews and shop owners all along the Avenue.
“I’ll leave the girls with Eric, pick up our usual, and bring it over,” I told Carolyn over the phone.
Carolyn and Cameron lived just around the corner from us. Cameron often said, “If we just put a zip line from your tree to that tree…” and he’d point the straight line towards his back yard.
The first time I met Carolyn, I was actually dreading her arrival. It was just after Christmas back when we were all unmarried. Eric, his friend Nick, and Nick’s cousin Cameron had been friends, roommates, and bandmates since college. I was Eric’s girlfriend and their band’s primary groupie during our years at UC Davis together. After graduating and working in a variety of entry-level jobs, the three of them started working at a film company in Marin County. Nick had landed a job there first as a Production Assistant. His new girlfriend, Lauren, was a Producer there. Eric and Cameron got jobs in other departments of the company soon after. It was a highly creative place filled with fun, energetic, young employees. The company parties were epic productions. The employee pranks were endless. Eric, Nick, and Cameron quickly built up a community of friends among their coworkers. During the winter, a group of them decided to pool their resources and rent a cabin in Tahoe/Donner for the entire snowboarding season—from December until April.
About nine years before the 2006 San Anselmo flood, Eric, Nick and Cameron drove up to stay at that shared cabin for the entire week between Christmas and New Year’s. Their company was shut down that week and the snowboards were calling. Lauren, who was also in on the rental, and I couldn’t leave for the mountains on the same day as the guys, so she and I drove up together in her Saab the following day.
I was nervous about the three-hour car ride with Lauren. She scared me. What will we talk about? She was older and cooler. Successful, well-traveled, smart, and confident, she always knew about the next hot thing before anyone else. She was adventurous and made plans for all of us to go to hip restaurants in the city that I couldn’t afford. Lauren and the guys had split the cabin rental equally with their coworkers. I was allowed to come—without contributing financially—as Eric’s girlfriend. It was generous. Realistically, I couldn't afford the cabin expense and lift tickets on my entry-level publishing salary. Instead of feeling grateful for the chance to stay there, because I wasn’t paying for the house, I felt like a mooching guest. I couldn’t relax and I spent a lot of energy trying not to take up too much space. I didn’t feel worthy of their generosity and worked hard to hide my insecurity.
It was snowing during our drive together and Lauren told me all about her friend, Carolyn, who was coming to visit the cabin for the weekend. I heard about how she and Carolyn went to college together, lived in San Francisco together, and how Carolyn had moved to Italy to work as a graphic designer.
Lauren’s friend is coming? And she’s from Italy? Oh no. Lauren was intimidating enough on her own. I already felt like I didn’t belong and now another cool girl was on her way. I imagined the worst.