If you don't have an HLM, I feel bad for you

            Good friends are hard to find.  It’s a phrase we’ve all heard before, but it rings true.  Everyone has friends.  Lots of people even have close friends.  But not everyone has that one truly good friend that has always been there for you and will always be there for you.  No questions asked.  You don’t have to predict the future or guess, you know this friend will be there.  A term has arisen of late to describe this kind of friend: HLM, or Hetero Life Mate.  I think this term perfectly describes this kind of friend.

            Having an HLM is a lot like what I’d imagine a strong marriage to be.  An HLM is someone who truly and deeply knows you.  They know your strengths and weakness and have been there with you for your triumphs and pitfalls.  Sometimes your friendship is amazingly strong and great, and sometimes things aren’t so good.  But no matter what, life goes on and this person remains an integral part of it.  And, most importantly I believe, an HLM has been there through all the changes.  In life, things change.  People change.  Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse…but what’s great about an HLM is that they’ve seen you change.  They’ve watched you change.  They’ve let you change.  They probably even helped you change.  And they’re still here on the other side of things.  And you’ve done the same for them.  And probably will again in the future.  An HLM is the rock that steadies you, the hand that pushes you forward, and the body block that stops you from going too far.

            I can’t imagine what my life would have become without my HLM.  Sierra and I met when we were 14.  Innocent young high schoolers with our whole lives ahead of us.  We endured high school together, through its roller coaster of ups and downs.  Although we went to different colleges, we both wound up in NYC.  After my first semester of college when I realized I hated my school, I spent my weekends (remember in college when “weekends” were Thursday night through Sunday?) at her college, sleeping in her dorm room.  Did you know that two 5’10” girls could comfortably share a twin bed, as long as you slept head to toe?

            When Sierra moved out to Seattle, it was kind of like a separation.  We weren’t divorced, but we lived far away from each other and didn’t talk as often as we should have.  And when we did talk, I was usually on a slightly inebriated long walk on deserted NYC streets from the subway station to my apartment at 4 am—because fortunately it was only 1 am in Seattle and my HLM never left me alone on those streets when I needed her.

            So when I went out to visit Seattle in April 2008, 4 months before my planned move, it was like a reunion for Sierra and I.  We’d had 2 years of separation and we needed each other around again.  By this point in time, my injured Achilles tendon was feeling much better and I was itching to try running again.  I’d been pretty good about my portion controlling and had already lost about 10 lbs since the unfortunate hiking picture I showed you a few posts back.  After getting over my injury, I was doing my best to enjoy my last few months in the city that I loved and hated all at once.  I had a month of what was termed “March Madness” with my friends Lauren and Ashley, which consisted of getting out of our apartments, showing ourselves off, and boosting our energies.  With my new slightly slimmer figure, I felt amazing.  I was learning to separate my difficult and trying work day from my home life so that I could actually enjoy a real social life.  And I knew I had so much to look forward to.

 Life was good, and that April when Sierra played host to me in Seattle, she made pretty damn sure that I knew life could be even better.  Just when you feel like you are on top of the world, only an HLM can make you believe you haven’t even come close to seeing the top yet.  Here follows a photo montage of the week that made the next 4 months seem as though they couldn’t go by fast enough.

To start off the week, Sierra took me on my first walk around Greenlake.  She knew all about my new active lifestyle and wanted to show me just how active Seattle could be.  I basically live at this lake now and have run around it more times than I could even hope to quantify:

After that, we visited Chateau Ste Michelle because wine is awesome.  We even hopped over to Red Hook brewery for a meal after.  Because micro-brewed beer is awesome too:

We made friends with a peacock.  Who wouldn’t want to make friends with a peacock?:

We got dirty in the mud at Discovery Park.  This ended up being somewhat ironic, because the apartment we had together for my first 2 years here was in Magnolia, the same neighborhood:

We took lots of pictures of ourselves that look a lot like this one with different backgrounds:

We conquered a few hundred stairs coming up from the beach at Discovery and then stood in awkward poses of pride at the top:

We hung out at a few bars with people that would soon become very very good friends of mine.

We went to a Mariner’s game, which resulted in a night that looks like this in my memories.

And there was a high school sleep-over type dance party.  Because who wouldn’t want to end an amazing trip with an amazing friend with an amazing dance party?

Through all of life's inevitable changes, it's nice to know that there is someone who has been there for the last 14 years and will continue to be there for many more to come.  Thanks HLM, you're a lifesaver. Seriously.