One degree of separation

My wonderful girlfriend, Alison, is getting married in a few days in Mexico. (Hooray, Ali & Jason!) While they are gone, we're taking care of their dog, Louie - going over in the morning, afternoon and evening to let him out, make sure he's good with food and water, give him his meds, etc.

It's kind of a funny experience since Ali lives in the duplex where I lived for about a decade! It's so totally trippy to hang out there and have this contradictory intense connection and yet feel like it's not home because it has all their stuff, the paint is different, etc.

The backstory is that Ali and I met while working at the toy store my first time around, probably around 2000 or 2001. We became great friends (despite the fact that I am almost exactly 10 years older than she!) and years went by. When Brian and I got married in 2005, she did the readings in our ceremony (and even the one that only got read at the rehearsal, as our minister skipped over one in the ceremony, causing Holly to flub her lines in a story that is infamous among wedding guests. She actually uttered the words, "I'm sorry; can you repeat that...I got distracted." Let me know if you want more of the story and I'll happily provide).

Right after we got married, we started looking for a house; I was waiting until we closed to tell Ali. Early one morning on my way to work, my cell phone rang and it was Ali, in a panic. She needed a place to move into ASAP that was dog-friendly: did I know of any other properties that our landlord had, she asked, as she knew he'd always let me have dogs.

"Um, Ali," I said. "Brian and I just bought a house so our duplex is available!" The landlord was thrilled to have a quick, reliable renter, Ali was thrilled to have someplace to live, and me? Well, I was a newlywed who had just purchased my first home with my husband so I was pretty content.

So now when I go over, it's this rush of memories. The fridge still sounds the same, as does the neighbor's garage door when it goes up. The pain has been neutralized again by the landlord, but if you look closely, you can see a bit of green on the dining room ceiling where I got a little crazy with a brush. While Ali and Jason's decorations and life is there now, so much of mine, of ours was. It's where Brian and I began our relationship, where he proposed on a Christmas Eve. It's where my Reagan lived his life as my dog and where he started to make his journey to the Rainbow Bridge. It's where our Bailey, surrounded by love, made her journey to the Rainbow Bridge. I get goosebumps and choked up just thinking about all of those amazing, wonderful, sad and emotional memories.

So, in an hour or so we'll make the journey back to our old home, which now houses Ali and Jason and their life. I love that I lived there when I got married and that Ali lives there while she's going through that lovely journey. Her address and mine are the same for all of our fun invitations and thank you notes!

And while I'm there I'll remember how the house kept me, and mine, safe and warm until it was time for it to do the same for Ali.