Day 12: A Friend Like Gary

Yesterday at Thanksgiving dinner when each of us had to say one thing we're thankful for, Matt said, "Julia."

Of course, everyone wanted to know who the mystery woman is, why he didn't bring her to dinner, where they met, and so on.

He quickly disabused us of any romantic notions on either of their parts. "It's not like that with her," he declared. "She's someone who's really smart and who motivates me to study, who calls me on it when I'm being an idiot, who I can have a decent conversation with, who gets me to go to church, who sees my potential and forces me to live up to it. She's fun to hang out with and I can completely trust her. I can be myself with her. She has my back."

"She's your Gary," I commented to him.

"Aunty K - she's exactly my Gary."

Happy birthday, Gary. You are all of those things and more. I am so glad that Dave introduced us 21 years ago.