Eastern to Western Washington: Our Parallel Lives

Written June 11, 2019
Experienced July 2017 & January 2019

I have severely deep appreciation for close friendships and relationships. We all have people we can count on no matter what: People we can call at midnight knowing they’ll pick up. People we can cry with until we laugh, laugh with until we cry. People who offer non-judgmental ears, and unbiased, unconditional guidance, support, & love. I am blessed to have solid relationships to fall back on – a crash pad beneath me, ready to catch me as I fall from my climb, or carry me away in a crowd surf when I am standing on my stage in my proudest of moments. They’re there for my highs and lows. I love feeling the presence of my loved ones, though most of my nearest & dearest live about 3,000 miles away.

While I have many people I know can lean on no matter what, I can only think of a handful that supersede this connection. They go beyond – to the infinite, indescribable relationship that can only be mystified further by ideas behind quantum entanglement. In some subatomic particles, even when separated by large distances (like, distances across universes… I’m talking LIGHT YEARS), two particles become mysteriously linked… and match each others’ behaviors. If one starts spinning, the other starts spinning. At the same time. FROM LIGHT YEARS AWAY. Basically, it tears the concept of space-time and the particles are interconnected.

Well… similarly… there is a particularly incomprehensible, unseen, magical quality about some of my close relationships in which we’ve felt unusually connected.

It’s down-right eerie when you get on the phone with a loved one and it turns out you’ve had a similar dream… or go through life transitions at the same time. Albert Einstein exclaimed particle entanglement to be “spukhafte fernwirkung” — “spooky action at a distance.” And, wowee, it is spooky and weird… at a distance. (Einstein was pretty literal and smart, I guess.)

Okay, okay, I don’t have relationships in which whatever happens to me, happens to them (this is not admitting I practice voodoo, I promise), but I have some spoooooky friendships and relationships where we’ve used the phrase “parallel lives” to describe our similar life experiences.

Talia is one of those people. We’ve had a magnetic, indescribable friendship, in which our life experiences overlap in some way, allowing for deep understanding and connection. In the last year, we have shared some badass experiences on the west coast together, and I feel obligated & thrilled to express our journeys – photographically and textually.

Talia and I have been friends since we met in our freshman year of college as Division I athletes. She was on the swim team, and I was on the track team. Our teams attended sporting events together, and Talia and I shared many early firsts (including first alcoholic drink, which was classy boxed wine). Later, we shared our first big move out of New York, both chasing the salt life in the Sunshine State.

It’s been fun to keep track of all the ways our lives has ran in parallel: from beginning & ending our first serious relationships around the same time, to our obsession over mint chocolate chip ice cream & Rachel McAdams, to our calling to sandy toes & salty breezes. Hammocking under palm trees is one of our favorite past times. Also, hysterical crying to “The Fault In Our Stars” (Okay? Okay.).

We have found the ocean, the mountains, and ourselves through our life journeys. Now, despite ending up on entirely different corners of the United States, we’re still as close (if not, CLOSER!) as we were when we poured that classy red solo glass of wine in ’07.

It would be a blasphemous understatement to say I am grateful for the gal who was one of my life MVP’s, and could be awarded various titles such as:
Most Willing to Travel to Create Memories
Best Spontaneous Copilot
Creativity Muse
Most Likely to Get Excited About Similar Trivial BUT AWESOME THINGS
…etc., etc.

I love when I get to share my sacred spaces with sacred people, and Talia’s visits during my time living in Florida and now in Washington State have shaped some of my favorite memories. Seriously, she gets excited over the same ridiculous things and it’s so fun to be overjoyed together about AMAZING DAIRY FREE MOZZARELLA CHEESE, photoshoots with cookies, the hysteric delirium associated with carrying poinsettia blankets in the pouring rain and bunnies hopping across the street, etc., etc.

In July 2017, Talia came to Washington for the first time. I loved showing her the mountains in Washington, after all our beachy experiences together in Florida. It didn’t surprise me that our spontaneous awesomeness traveled from east to west without challenge.

We started with desert dancing in Yakima with two girls staying at the organic farm I lived on. (I should really share more on that later!)

We then circumnavigated Rainier via vehicle. It was actually my first time entering the park from the east side, and holy guacamole was it a beautiful drive! THERE WAS NOT A SINGLE CLOUD IN THE SKY.

We found ourselves chasing waterfalls and large, huggable trees in the Grove of the Patriarchs.

We snagged a walk-up spot at Ohanapecosh Campground, set up our tents & prayer flags, made quesadillas, then took a ridiculous amount of photos together. Thank you, self-timer.

We then took a nap before heading up to Paradise for the sunset, and hanging at the Paradise Inn while eating copious amounts of popcorn (Talia had to get some work done).

We woke up at 3am to catch the FIRST LIGHT on Mount Rainier… at the Sunrise Visitor Center, at sunrise.

We watched as the clouds crashed like waves over the evergreens.

And Mount Adams danced in the sun.

We laughed insane amounts in our delirium at a bunny hopping across the highway. And still tell the story with minimal comprehensibility.

On the way back from Mount Rainier and into the city of Seattle to visit my people on the west side, we even took a spontaneous stop at… SKYDIVE SKYKOMISH! This is the THIRD time we’ve been skydiving together now. Once on Long Island, once in the Florida Keys, and now with a beautiful mountain view in Skykomish!

Flash forward to a year and a half later in January 2019.

A lot changed since Talia last came to Washington, but our adventures were still abound – this time in the SNOW! Tal came to visit me in Everett to experience a different season in Washington! We got to SKI together for the first time EVER, which is bizarre considering we both grew up skiing and in New York. So, this was ULTRA special to have Talia here, again, in Washington to ski at Stevens Pass!

Since her visit in July 2017, Talia has converted to the vegan lifestyle, and I embraced all her dietary needs… so we cooked up a storm when she got here! We’ve always loved cooking and baking together (and usually our food is the product of close-up, staged photo shoots). This time was no different! We completely took over the kitchen, and even discovered our new favorite smoothie together: cashew milk + pineapple + turmeric + peanut butter! Don’t knock it ’til you try it!

Pretty much the entire weekend was a chain of ridiculous inside jokes, such as WHERE DO YOU GO, antique shops, WALKING IN TO FIND GARLIC BREAD, kitchen dance sessions in rainbow & American flag pants (with special guest: carrots).

We ended up spending TWO days skiing at Steven’s Pass, one time on the day that Talia was flying back to the east coast. She couldn’t get enough of the winter wonderland, and I couldn’t get enough with her!

Talia also tried rock climbing for the first time at Summit Everett! AND! Now she’s been doing some climbing in Florida which is SO awesome, and we’re totally going to rock climb outside together some time!

All this to say, there are some serendipitous people who enter our lives. We don’t always choose the people we end up sending most our time with, but gosh golly am I surrounded with positive people I aspire to be. I am so grateful for the memories I share. Though I wish the memories with people like Talia were more abundant and accessible, I truly treasure all the phone calls, GIFs, laughing fits, deep conversations, and travels we share together.

Talia, you are an incredible woman and best friend. You’re an entrepreneur, an artist, a visionary, and a confidant. I don’t know how I could or ever would do life without you, and I can’t wait to see where we go together! (Like Hawaii, for example… one day, one day…)

With gratitude,
Kristen ॐ