Page 74 - Philly Girl

58 Janice Shapiro

but I questioned nothing, and accommodated anyone who
showed an interest in me.
Jean M., my college roommate, fell in love with me and
expressed her love by befriending my boyfriends, and even
sleeping with them. She admitted as much. That friendship
did not end well.
A fortuitous lesbian connection occurred around the
time I was accepted into a nurse-midwifery program at
Georgetown University. I was offered a fully paid scholar-
ship plus a stipend for living. The glitch? I had just moved
all of my stuff to British Columbia, where my friend Mae
lived. I’d planned to move to Canada and live there forever.
Instead, I accepted the program’s offer and made immediate
plans to celebrate this new direction by going to Kauai the
next day with Mae.
Mae had a friend in Maryland, Laurie, who promised to
pick me up at Washington National Airport when I arrived
in DC and to house me until I found my own apartment in
Georgetown. When we called Laurie, she mentioned that
her friend, Dennis, might be coming by Mae’s house soon,
as he was backpacking through British Columbia and she
had given him Mae’s address as a contact.
Indeed, a postcard from the mysterious Dennis soon
arrived to say that he would be coming by her house in the
next day or so. We left a note on the door saying that we were
going to Kauai, sorry.
Later, when I made the move to DC, Laurie met me
at the airport. She let me know that she was missing the
end of Marjorie Morningstar on TV, but since I was Mae’s
friend, she would make the sacrifice. Laurie and I became
good friends. She nicknamed me Thumbelina, and we fre-
quently went into paroxysms of silly laughter singing the
song together. She confided in me that she loved a girl named
Terri, but Terri hadn’t slept with girls yet. I think maybe
Laurie thought that I was gay too. Laurie also mentioned a