for Ayo

Today...

I am grateful for my dear friend Ayo. (That's her with a monkey plate at my 90's birthday party last year... right before she went to town on the build-your-own ice-cream sundae buffet).

Today I am celebrating Ayo's day of birth, even though she's in Boston and I am 3,000 miles away. Sad face. Very sad face. Because she is more than just a myspace icon on my buddy list. She's more than just a mispelled name in my cellphone or a framed photo on my desk or someone I forward all my chain-letter emails to.

We met Berklee College of Music together. We survived RA-dom together. We lived through rain, hail, sleet, snow, blizzards, and 90 mph winds ALL at the same time, together. We got into relationships and out of relationships together (then into them and out of them again). We ate pastries from Boston's north end for breakfast, splurged at Trident together when no one else would go... saw the RedSox play at Fenway park...danced in the middle of a busy intersection to Michael Jackson. We had tea together at our apartment, a thousand times. Pumpkin Pancakes at Pour House, a thousand times. Waited up for each other so we could talk about family and relationships and how that lame harmony project came out, a thousand times. Cooked chicken and veggies with jerk sauce, a thousand times. Ate crappy thai food together, a thousand times. Meditated on the roofdeck... worked out at the Racketclub gym. Played guitar and wrote heartfelt boys-suck songs together.

But mostly, we opened up together. We GREW up together. We made it happen together... in that city together... in our separate lives, together. To the point where it didn't even feel like "together" anymore... it just was.






Today, living in California, 3,000 miles away from Boston... I am thankful for Ayo entering this world. I am thankful for all my precious friends in Boston who made those 36 plane trips worth every penny and every gray hair. I am eternally grateful for all my childhood and high school friends who gave me such a strong foundation to step out on my own to begin with. And especially to everyone in my family... my bonus friends. Who's love always has and always will, make me whole.