Blog/2026-01-20/An Old Acquaintance
I went by Julie's place of work today to see if a friend of hers, Ben M., could help me with some rails on a server of mine. He could and that was nice, but I stayed for lunch and while walking back to my table after grabbing my meal I spotted a guy who seemed familiar.
I suppose it's not that much of a surprise that any two people in tech could end up interacting in a 15 year span in San Francisco since it's a relatively small town but it's still a pretty lucky meeting.
It was Ryan P. who was renting out his couch at his apartment since it was the last month before he was moving out. I stayed for $10/day (paid in 2 week sets) while I found a place to stay.
Honestly, he was a terrific fellow who took me to see his other friends and to Golden Gate Park and things like that. I was tremendously awkward and introverted so much of it was wasted, but it was fun to see him again!
It's funny to think about how much life changes over the intervening decade and a half. When I met Ryan I didn't yet know that I was going to meet the woman who would become my wife the next day! Haha!
Julie was highly entertained by the meeting since this sort of random encounter with a person from a past time happens quite often to us (she claims mostly me) in San Francisco.
