Of course we both have rather different versions of this.  Just know that my version is more truthful..honest...accurate etc ;-) Oh, this is Tori, by the way...

So our mutual friend Marlene (though we did not know at the time that we knew each other) decides to throw a neighborhood soiree to meet and greet her new (and apparently gay) tennis partner Victoria.  She called to ask if I, Tori, could bring any gay friends along.  I was intrigued.  Of course I knew gay friends, but who was this person and why etc?   My neighbor gushed as if star-struck - She is Victoria and spends part of the time living in New York and part of the time here in California… (hmmmm!) She is a jazz singer too and sings in a little cafe in town.  Her TV job means that she can do the bi-coastal thing… ‘Bi-coastal’ I ask?  (To be honest, as a Brit, I had never heard the word bi-coastal and it kind of annoyed me!)

In my busy little head I was trying to get this straight. She spends half the year working on the East Coast and half playing on the West Coast?
Who the hell can have this life?  I sort of hated her - this Victoria - at that moment.  Here was a person who shared my name which is cheeky enough in of itself and then she kind of has the life and job I always dreamed about!  Add to that, she is a bloody jazz singer and...she can play tennis!  Seriously?

So, neighbor asks again, have you got any gay friends you could bring along? What about Miranda? she suggests.  (Oh Miranda - now that's a long story! But suffice it to say that at that moment in time, I was pretty pissed off with Miranda or more accurately her little tiny dog who I had foolishly said I would dog sit for whilst the lady herself was at some Buddhist conference in Washington DC.  That little dog had peed all over my house, hence Miranda, by association, was in the Dog House! Plus my rough Puerto Rican friend could not possibly be New York Jazzy Pants's type right?  I was not going to invite Miranda.)

"Oh I will see if she's around," I lied, "but the girls and I will be there, of course!"

And by this, I meant my four daughters and I would be there for the 'Victoria' Sighting - plus the one extra baby in my tummy which belonged to my sister (but that's another story for another day)!  On Soiree night, I donned an Isaac Mizrahi (for Target) dress and it just fit around my big tummy.  I rallied the girls and we headed down the road.  I end up pretty quickly in the lovely kitchen of the house where all the elderly tennis ladies are gathered with a few faces I don’t recognize.  I personally have never been good enough at the game to be called a 'tennis lady' but I know and love a lot of these amazing women who still look good in a tennis skirt at 75!  We chatted, we small talked.  Mostly we talked about my 5th pregnancy which had caused a bit of a stir in our little town. I sat at the stool at the island, got a drink, and looked around.

Then I saw her. 

Of course I knew it was her because she looked nothing like anybody else.  There was a hip-ness to her look and she was wearing brown Converse!  I loved those damn brown shoes.  She was thin, long dark hair...gorgeous.

To be honest I was kind of blown away by my own reaction.  It was like there was a lightening bolt and fireworks and all manner of kitchy sound effect going on around me and they threw me off guard. I had to catch my breath and look away.  

What the…?  

Inside I was so glad that I hadn’t brought Miranda.  Dear God, I had to get some composure back.  Too late! She was walking towards me.

So what was a pregnant, married, mother of four doing having an extreme reaction to a beautiful woman?  It’s truly a valid question and one which I have tried to answer often to no avail.  There was something extraordinary about her.  It was something I really wanted to have around me.  Back then, I seriously could not have given you a better answer than that.  Actually I am not sure if I could give you a better answer now.  I found myself drawn to her like a moth to a flame and all the other cliches.  I felt very certain that in spite of the ridiculousness of the situation somehow she was going to be a feature.  Did I have room for more?  Not at all!  My shopping cart already overfloweth and was spilling out over the top and yet there she was and there I was, rooted to the spot, heart beating fast and the baby inside me doing somersaults.

 Cliff hanger much?  Stay tuned for the next installment - coming to a blog near you...sooooooon...