So Kathy (the Sadge I’ve been running with) has a pile of Sagittarius in the 3rd house (Gemini / Mercury). So she is very mental…and gadget-y. She also likes to drive around obviously, talk on the phone, and other than that, she’s Asian and a generation younger than me. So she calls me up…

Briiiiiinnng! Briiiiinnnnnng!

“Hello?”

“Elsie! It’s Kathy! It’s meeeeee,” she squeals. “So do you want to do something today? Do you? Do you want to get out? We could go somewhere…”

“Well yeah, Kathy. I always want to go..”

She interrupts, “Well there’s this coffee place I heard of. We can go… sit outside, drink our drinks…you can get some sun.”

“Sounds good.”

“Okay, Elsie! It’s called SML Coffee House, I think. Anyway, I know where it is. It’s somewhere on Speer. Um… Washington. Yeah! Washington! It’s on Speer and Washington…”

“Where ever.”

An hour later, we’re speeding down Speer, looking for Washington. Or she is. Because she’s driving. And in fact I think she’s super man-ish. And I told her this. How I always run with these women with emphasis on the masculine signs.

“For balance, Elsie!” she said when I explained.

Because I showed up to go for coffee in some man’s woman sundress and she was in her jeans. The gap between us was wide, and I think we both like it this way. In whatever case, I feel a little as if I’m on a date. And it’s always this way for me women friends. Running buddies this is. Phone friends are something else. They are always as Femme as me, and we go on and on about men.

But women I go out with are always like Kathy, or they are lesbians and in some cases they are lesbians who don’t realize they are lesbians because they have 12th house Suns. But anyway I just want you to get the feel of us in the car. She’s super yang. I’m very, very yin. Outside my mouth that is. Outside my Mars Mercury conjunction. Outside my swearing and my writing and my sex drive, I am total girl.

So anyway, we’re driving.

“There it is,” she says. ‘Washington!”

I glanced over. No coffee shop. “There’s nothing there,” I said.

“We must have missed it,” she said.

“No. Nothing there. It’s further up. Just keep going.”

“I don’t know, Elsie. Do you mind if I turn around and check?”

“Well, no,” I said, glancing over at her. “You seem like you want to know this,” I said.

“I do!” She makes a right…another right, another right and pulls back up to Speer on Washington. “That must be it,” she said, pointing at an art gallery.

“Nope. That’s not coffee. That’s a gallery,” I said. “It’s full of pots in there. But no coffee.”

“Oh,” she said, looking past me to confirm. “I thought it was here.”

“Well it’s not. Drive on. Coffee is not hard to find.”

“But I sure thought it was there,” she said.

“I know, I know. Don’t worry, Kathy. It’ll be okay. We’ll find you some coffee,” I said reassuringly.

We both cracked up. She kept driving…and obsessing. “I wonder where that place is? I really thought it would be there.”

“Kathy, it’s not there. I think it’s a little further up.” I looked at all her nervous energy and thought she was cute as hell. She thinks she’s cute as hell too, so we agree.

“Where should we go, then?”

“Where ever. Where ever we see, we’ll just stop. Do we care? Why do we care?” I asked.

“We don’t, Elsie! You’re right. But I just want to know where that place is!”

I shook my head, as she reached for her cell phone. “I’m gonna call,” she said.

I just stared in disbelief.

“Yes!,” she said smartly into the phone. “Denver! SML Coffee House! S, M, L. Sam, Mary, Larry!” she said, and I roared laughing.

She had her back all straight, see. She was going to find the fucking coffee house, come hell or high water…

to be continued…