Name: Sarah Bainton Kahn
When and where: Wednesday, December 30th, 2015 at Empire Tea & Coffee, Newport
Beverage: chai latte (Sarah), tea (me)
Last time we met in person: We ran into each other at Newport Folk Festival last July, as we do most years.
Friends on Facebook: since August 2008.
Friends in real life: I’ve worked for her parents since July 2001, so probably not too long after that.

For all the time I’ve known Sarah, she’s been living in Washington DC so I’ve not seen her very often, but we bonded in the run up to the 2004 election. (I think we were both equally dismayed and disappointed with that result!) During the course of our friendship, she’s met and married her husband Zack, and produced two lovely sons. Our friendship is almost exclusively Facebook-based these days, and a few weeks ago she commented on something I’d posted about “the most middle-class things that ever happened,” expressing admiration for the device made for saving half an avocado. The very next time I went shopping, I just happened to notice one for sale, so I grabbed it for her, and we arranged to meet up the next time she came back to Newport to visit the family. This is the first time we’ve ever really sat down together for a chat, so we had a lot to cover. Topics discussed include our respective workplaces, the advantages/disadvantages of an open-office environment, her parents’ imminent retirement, and of course, some politics. The time flew and we almost forgot to take a photo before I had to get back to work and she went off to go shopping with her mom.