Monday, March 19, 2012

From Logroño to Roseburg, and Back Again

A few years ago, my uncle Tim met a woman on a flight from Great Falls, Montana, to Hartford, Connecticut, where he was traveling to for my mom's first art show opening. Being from the West, and oh-so-friendly, he struck up a conversation with Marjorie, his seatmate, and found that she was living in Great Falls, but that she was originally from Hartford. Tim explained his reasons for traveling east; Marjorie mentioned she was also a painter. He invited her to the opening, and she, oh-so-friendly and living in the West, eagerly accepted. Sure enough, she drove from Hartford to Brattleboro, Vermont for the opening, and met my mom. So began a very close friendship, full of bridge playing and painting and cooking and wine and cross-country phone calls as Marjorie moved from state to state with her cardiologist husband.

Fast forward a few years. I go to Spain for a year right after college to "improve my Spanish", "live abroad", "gain life experience", "drink wine before 2pm" etc, etc. That year turned into two (which turned into three, and now four...), and that second year, an American friend of mine lived with a Spanish girl named Marina. Although she was shy at first, especially when it came to speaking English with all of us, we soon became fast friends. Marina is from a city called Logroño, which is about three hours by car from Santander in the province of La Rioja (yes, where the wine comes from). She's working on her PhD in Geotechnical Engineering right now; as you have probably guessed she is really quite slow, mentally. She's been one of my closest Spanish friends for the last few years, and even came to the US with her lovely sister Elisa last summer to visit me and some other american friends. Marina has a cousin named Jaime, who she is very close with; they're more like brother and sister, from what I can gather. Jaime is getting married to a lovely girl named Bea this May. This information may seem like a non sequitur, but it will be important later. Bear with me.

While I was getting to know Marina in Spain, my mom's friend Marjorie moved a few times, and finally ended up in Roseburg, Oregon, where she and her husband built a house and are working on opening a vineyard. I guess Howard, the cardiologist, is in to wine. My mom has flown out to visit them a few times, coming back every time positively raving about Oregon. The last time she was there, Marjorie and Howard were hosting a young Spanish man who was doing a world tour, learning about wine in places like New Zealand and France and Roseburg, Oregon, researching to revive his family's vineyard in Spain. I have no idea how they got matched up with Jose, why of all the wineries on the West Coast he should have found theirs, which is barely even in full operation yet.

It just so happens that Marina and Elisa were visiting me on the East Coast while Jose, the young Spanish gentleman, was staying with Marjorie and Howard. It also just so happens that my mom was visiting them at the same time. Upon meeting Jose, my mother promptly fell madly in love with him and decided that he and I had to meet, fall in love, and get married immediately. Ha, mom. She also found out that he is from La Rioja. Not too strange, considering La Rioja is the most important Spanish province for wine production. It follows that he should be from Logroño, it being the province's capital and largest city. What a coincidence! We said. How funny! My mom, picking poor Jose's brain mercilessly and emailing me excitedly with all her findings, found out that he was a few years older than Marina, that he'd studied engineering at the University of La Rioja, and that he knew several of Marina's older cousins from high school and university. Oh ha ha! What a coincidence! My mom's friend knows a guy from Spain who knows my friend from Spain's cousins! It gets better. Remember Bea, the lovely girl who Marina's cousin Jaime is marrying in May? Yeah. She's Jose's cousin.

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