To the First of My Seattle Family

Family is a weird word.

Well, it’s not so much the word that’s weird but the concept–or the weird restrictions we put around it. Think about it. If you are anything like me, your biological family is probably infested with folks you would never voluntarily spend time with were it not for the few dna strands you all share.

“What’s his face is a dick.”

“Yeah, but he is family.”

If they’re on the family tree, perpetuating some part of our line, they have a free pass. I’m not sure how that tradition got started. I think I’ll blame the royals because half of our stupid traditions started that way anyway.

But this really isn’t about that. This is about the family you don’t get handed to you at birth. This is about the family we sort of pick up along our way, if we’re really really lucky.

And I have been really really lucky.

Two people I love very dearly are getting married tomorrow. They were the first of my real friends that I made in Seattle–which is kinda funny because they aren’t even originally from here.

Tomorrow I will help my beautiful “sister” step into her wedding dress and give my “brother” an enormous hug before the ceremony starts.

And inevitably I will cry. A lot. I’ve tried to suck it up and not get emotional during these kinds of things but that’s really just not who I am. I once was given the honor of officiating a friends’ wedding and the speech I wrote was beautiful and sincere and completely unprepared for the fact that I started crying right in the middle of it.

I’m not sure if an opportunity to say something like this will be given to me tomorrow, or if I’ll have the courage to say it all or if I’ll even have the ability to say it all because I’m going to be a mess.

So… I’m a writer and I thought I’d write what I’d like to say.

I met Lyz and Mike in the spring of 2006. I was finishing up the first of four emotionally and physically taxing years in college and while my grades were excellent by the end, I had no real friends. And then SakuraCon rolled around. It’s Seattle’s big anime hoopla, if you’re not familiar.

How we met was unconventional to say the least and had to deal with stalkers and fake raves and fedoras but that’s a story for another time because this post is not about me. All you need to know is I was put in a position where two strangers not only showed me extreme kindness and acceptance, but the kind of camaraderie you only expect from people you have known your whole life.

They are the kind of people that when you meet them, you already assume they’ve been married for years–not because it’s like old bickering couple (okay, some of that and the banter is fantastic) but because they seem so absolutely at home with each other. I remember one time Lyz and I traveled down to Oregon together to see a mutual friend’s play and that night she called Mike and then before bed told me how much she missed him. Disgustingly adorable. Have you ever seen ‘How I Met Your Mother’? You know Lily and Marshall? It’s like that. THAT’S Lyz and Mike. They even have the same first letters in their name!

So when Mike called me and told me he needed my help to propose… I’m pretty sure you could hear my squeal all the way in Maine. Oh, they’re from Maine, btw–they went back there for a few years for school.

And the great plot happened and they came to Seattle for a visit and we all went up to the Space Needle under the guise that the four of us (Them, me and our friend Morgan) were just going to enjoy a snazzy nice dinner. And then in the middle Mike got down on one knee and Lyz started freaking out because she didn’t know what was going on and he asked and she said, “No. Of course, you idiot!” (Mind you this was before How I Met Your Mother was a household staple for us… so this was a bizarrely appropriate response.)

It’s weird thinking that day was… years ago. And now we’re here. And tomorrow they’re going to be married. And I have never been so happy for two people.

I love them. I’m so grateful to have them in my lives and even more so to call them family. And I know they’re going to be so, so happy together.

I wish them all the best in the world. They deserve it.