You're My Best Friend

"A single rose can be my garden. A single friend, my world." -Leo Buscaglia

I just knew. I knew the woman whom I now so affectionately refer to as My Director was the one. I knew early on, too. Too early, some might say. My college roommate for one. When I shared with him my epiphany that I thought she was "the one"only two months into our relationship, he warned me. "Be careful," he said. And that's all he said. But I was careful... all of those other times. With every other girl. (I made it sound like there were many. There were not.) I never let them in. Never opened up. Didn't want to.

Even though I knew, I still tread lightly. I was, after all, a second semester senior. She was just a junior. A baby. This could never work. The long distance. A graduate and a student. We had been dating for such a short amount of time. But I felt it. I loved her. I couldn't say THAT though. Way too soon. So how do I convey my feelings without freaking her out?

I know. I'll say the next best thing. So one night, as we sat on the couch in my room in my fraternity house. (Very classy.) Jerry Maguire playing for the umpteenth time. (Very romantic.) I finally opened up. I couldn't hold it in anymore. So I told her.

"You know... you're my best friend."

Wow. I did it. I put some feelings out there. Not THE feeling, mind you. But it was definitely a hint.

Without hesitation, she shot right back with, "My mom's my best friend."

Record screeches. Tray of glasses crashes to the floor. Cuba Gooding pauses his "Show me the money" routine mid-gyration. I sat there in disbelief. In stunned silence.

Really? Her mom is her best friend? What the hell is that? If it was a warning signal, an invitation to exit stage left, I didn't take it. Still to this day I can't believe she said her mom is her best friend. Unreal.

That story has become legend. We continue to laugh about it, especially whenever her mom does something to aggravate one of us. At those times I will say, "So who's your best friend now?" Suffice it to say, she has since elevated and permanently placed me into her best-friend penthouse.

A best friend is someone who sees you at your worst but still judges you by your best. That's what My Director has done with me for the nearly fifteen years we've been together. As I said in our wedding vows, she knows everything there is to know about me but loves me anyway.

For that, I am eternally grateful.

Happy birthday to my best friend.

We clean up nice.

Which came first? The spicy chicken or the deviled egg?

Ain't that America: You and me.

A best friend agrees to dress as "Jersey Shore"
for Halloween one year. (I got a spray tan.)

Last year, a word she uses in her voicemail messages to me inspired her birthday post. Click here to read it.