Twenty years ago tonight...

... I attended, along with my mom, the wedding of a dear friend I'd known since grade school.

And sometime during the reception, my mom looked around the room, spotted a cute and geeky-looking guy with glasses and long dark wavy hair, nudged me and said, "He looks like your type, why don't you go dance with him?"

I said, "I'm not going to go introduce myself to some strange guy!"

She said, "Well, if you won't go talk to him, I will go talk to him for you!" (Mind you, this sounds to many people like classic Interfering Mom behavior, but mine is not normally like that; I can't think of another time when she actually suggested, let alone did, something like this.)

"Okay, feel free!" I said, and she promptly headed over and tapped him on the shoulder. Minutes later, we were dancing, and then sat down and talked for the rest of the evening.

The next day, I flew home to Boston. The next month, he came out to visit me there.

A lot of subsequent water went under that bridge, some of it painful... but the etrace-shaped hole in my heart never entirely closed up. And all these years later, it has resulted in more joy than I ever dreamed possible.

So thank you, Mom, for doing the crazy impulsive risky thing when I wouldn't.

Thank you, etrace, for being the coolest, smartest, kindest, cutest, finest person I have ever known, then and now... and for becoming the person who could finally be wholly with me, now.

Thank you, universe, for bringing us together.