#kimmer

Kyle looked at the pink princess in hesitation.

"Then what?"

"Then we have a good time together."

"Um.... And... what... exactly does that... entail?"

Glimmer held his gaze and gave him a very direct look.

"What would you want it to entail?"

Kyle started to blush furiously.

I call this ship Glyle. Or possible Kimmer.

“Why do you love me?” is one of those questions that makes me wanna smack my forehead then pull my hair out. 

Or vice versa.

To date, the most ill-advised answers I stumbled upon are (in no particular order):

“Well, you know…” “Because...” “I don’t know, I just do.”

And Kimmer's particular favorite,

“Because you travel well.”

That was a joke, by the way. Unfortunately for me, I wasn't able to follow that up with a not joke.

What can I tell you? It’s a MASSIVE question.

The reasons why?

🤯🤯🤯

Well of course there isn’t just one. Of course there isn't.

It's just, well, you know. Because. Because I don't know, I just do.

Now for the punchline:

Because you travel well.

In honor of her birthday, then, I dug a little deeper for a proper follow-up.

“THE REASONS WHY”

She's been going Going GOING so it's easy to roll with that reality and imagine she's always going when what's really happening is that she's going Going GOING until BAM.

Stop.

End of the semester. As in she's been working on a massive presentation for a while now, more intensely during the last week until Thursday March 15 when she gave that presentation, the massive part of this semester's grade. There are a couple papers in need of finishing, polishing really, over the weekend but we took the opportunity, given the nearly overwhelming nature of research infused into the presentation that itself was crafted to within an inch of its life, given that she had a meeting in Ballard later that afternoon, given that Linzy's Dream Patrol debut was happening that evening in Fremont...

We took the opportunity, given that constellation of efforts and events that day, to celebrate Kimmer's accomplishment given also that she's not just pursuing her doctorate. She's living a full, wall-to-wall personal and professional life and studying, researching, writing, discussing, and presenting. It's a huge effort with threads running through every single day.

And so we celebrate.

We celebrate all of it at the end of this semester, these last particular few months of successful achievement that's relentlessly pushing Kimmer's ability and prospects ever higher.

Seriously.

Ever. Higher.

And where did we celebrate?

'Lil Woody's in Ballard. As much a Huzzah and a delicious treat as it was a well-deserved moment of peace away from the usual demands of her days these days. And those kinds of moments are always always always quite lovely.

And quite welcome.

A few days later, her finished, polished papers will be turned in and a week will ensue without academic assignments. It'll be a bit of a week off although it won't be that much respite.

Why?

Because just like humans and their terrible twos (or terrible threes), academic pursuits also have a dynamic that sometimes invokes awe. And not in a good way. 

Which is the nature of the semester in which she and her cohort are about to embark. The Kraken, if you will, of semesters is nearly upon them.

So we will be taking every advantage, every peaceful moment, every acknowledgement of achievement, and every opportunity for brain rest...

As Kimmer embarks on the snarliest of semesters.

This is one of my favorite photographs of her. I took it with a 35mm SLR on the ferry from Keystone on Whidbey Island to Port Townsend sometime during our days of dating. 

Photography was how we explored the world together back in the day, with large bulky cameras if you can believe that. Especially on important dates like birthdays.

Looking back on that moment, two things pop.

The first is that she grabbed a life ring off the rail on the upper deck of the Klikitat and slung it around herself for a photo. Which, seems to me, has got to be against the rules of the Washington State ferry system. 

So that was pretty cool. 😄

The other thing that pops is, ultimately, how on the nose is this photograph. So on the nose as to be iconic.

My lifesaver, you know?

There are, of course, plenty of great Kimmer photographs out there. After decades of photographs, how couldn't there be? But this one means the most. This is the one infused with the most significance. It's a photograph of not only what she looks like...

But who she is.

To this day. Who she is.

To me.

A lifesaver.

My lifesaver.

So here we are again celebrating her birthday. Basically, after we hit 21 we stopped counting seriously. Sure, we acknowledged 30 on the fly and, maybe, 40. But each day, each birthday isn't a measure of something we're living toward as if there's something more for which to be carded once you hit some adultier adult age. No.

Each birthday is another moment in which to be profoundly thankful. That she's here. That she's in this world. That she's in my life, part of my life, helping me shape my life, color it, define it.

My life would literally not be the same without her. It wouldn't.

I wouldn't be the same without her for sure.

Each birthday, then, is a moment to revel in this lotto I've somehow won. This woman who's given me life, love, laughter, adventure, and so so so much more.

A lifetime's worth more.

So yeah it's her birthday today. HUZZAH!

It's also another me being thankful day.

im gonna be so honest i have never had this thought before in my life and im not sure how i feel?? like im not against it but im not For it like. i'd love to hear more of your thoughts tbh im fascinated

It was Kimmer's birthday today and we celebrated by first not getting out of bed and watching a few episodes of Phineas & Ferb on Disney. 

What can I say?

She was just feelin' it.

Afterward, it's Opening Presents time.

Actually, afterward it was wrapping presents time because I'd not gotten around to it the last week. Fortunately, we’re pretty much a gift bag family anymore... so it never takes long to whip up something nice with colorfully festive bags and tissue paper and, of course, a birthday card.

After the presents are opened, it's coffee, tea, and a light breakfast in bed until the shortness of this fall/winter's day prompts us to get our birthday act in gear.

Because these days the daylight's over with pretty quick, you know?

So we pick up Linzy at her place and head over to Cafe Umbria on South Lake Union for hot drinks on this rainy day. Then off to the flagship GoodWill 'cause there's always something to look at, generally something we need, and right now, this very moment, Christmas displays set all about the store with which I begin my seasonal quest to photograph.

Afterward, Linzy unveils her birthday gift for Kimmer: a produced cover of an old, favorite song. It's a very touching gift, personal as hell, and definitely one of the perks of being part of this family. 😉

The girls set about to do some baking with chocolate from Sprouts while I head into Ballard to pick up our order of char burgers from Habit.

Delicious. Every last one.

Plus, they threw in some fries. ☺️

And, of course, top it off with home-baked chocolate and you’ve got yourself quite the party.

This year's birthday movie was "Never Been Kissed", a family favorite. You can tell because each of us (sometimes more than one at a time) calls out a line of dialogue just before it hits.

We previewed the movie with the pilot episode of BBC’s “Ghosts” that had yet to see. And after the movie, Linzy showed us the new Taylor Swift short film, released a few days ago, that we had yet to see.

And then we're just hanging out. The three of us. At the end of the day. 

At the end of Kimmer's birthday.

For us, this is kind of a national holiday in its scope because so much of our lives are shaped by her. Her birthdays, in fact, become a kind of reverse "It's A Wonderful Life" inasmuch as they're occasion to consider just how much the lives we lead right now are colored by her life. And always have been. 

Which sounds a bit selfish-ish... but never-the-less profoundly true.

So as much as we celebrate this, her day... we are ever thankful, ever thankful, that she's the one who is wife and mother, best friend, mentor, traveler, adventurer, and guide. Someone who knows us most and best. The one who takes care of us, laughs with us, goes deep with us. The one who shares her life, her love, her self with us.

And we are better for it.

We're better because it's she who was born into this world and into our lives.

I realize the logistics of that statement aren't hugely logical... but that's just how it feels. And it's as close as I can come to the depth of appreciation we feel for this day.

Kimmer's birthday.

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