Name: Shannon Bettridge
When and where: Tuesday, February 7th, 2017 at Malt, Newport, RI
Beverage: I had a beer, Shannon had a Mona Lisa (cocktail)
Last time we met in person: Shannon says she was last in town five years ago so it could have been then, but it feels like it could be longer than that
Friends on Facebook: since January 2009
Friends in real life: since August 2000

When I first met Chris, Shannon was essentially his part-time housemate. He was officially living aboard his boat in Newport harbor, but I think you would have been just as likely to find him “housesitting” at this rather nice place at the end of Bellevue Avenue which belonged to her dad and stepmom, who lived in New York City during the week. Chris and Shannon had been friends for a few years, and while she was officially living in Maine at the time, she was still studying at URI and so would stay at the house quite often.

Shannon and her super cool dad Bill flew to England for our wedding in 2001, and had a wonderful few days of fun together in Cornwall. Shortly after returning home to New York, Bill suffered a heart attack from which he never fully recovered, so we’ve always been grateful that our wedding gave them the chance to spend that special time together. When I first moved to Newport, we’d get together a lot but when she completed her studies, she took a job in Washington D.C. and so we didn’t see each other very often after that. We made the trip down there for her wedding to Mike in 2006, and she’s been back up here on work-related trips a few times since then. It was one of those work-related trips which brought her back to town this week.

Shannon, our mutual friends Eric and Kelly, their son Reilly, Chris and I all met up at Malt for dinner. As we’d not seen each other for such a long time, we had a lot of catching up to do and the conversation flowed thick and fast around the table, covering many topics. I know that Shannon is a shoeaholic like myself, so I purposely wore my favorite new boots. She was also wearing some pretty cool boots, so we had a bit of a mutual boot admiration session down our end of the table. Two hours flew by in a flash, and before we knew it we were all out on the sidewalk saying goodbye.