Jam Packed

There’s a little old Toyota Corolla hatch in our garage, jam packed so full of stuff that if you open a door things will literally pop out at you. I used all my Tetris skills and a little magic to load a life time of possessions into it, and even managed to create a kind of safety cage to prevent cargo from decapitating the driver in an emergency stop. It belongs to my good friend Lynnette, who tomorrow heads south to Tasmania to start anew. A few years ago when we first met – I would never have thought I would see this day.

I met Lynnette through her husband, the cute runner who I met at the uni pool (as you do). I didn’t know she existed until at least a month or so of meeting her hubby, when she came with him to breakfast at my regular Friday breakfast café near the beach. She was loud, opinionated, hated living in Australia (she was from the States), hated the beach and I was the first gay guy she had knowingly met. She was homophobic, somewhat religious, and one of the few people on the planet who really annoyed me (Craig will tell you a story about that…). She was an American other Americans cringed about, and Australians rolled their eyes about. But she didn’t go away. (Some times I wished she would). We did things together with them both, she came to gym and the pool, she became a breakfast regular on Fridays. We all went away on skiing weekends, and embarked on various adventures together.

As much as she annoyed me, she also challenged me. She made me analyse my reactions to things, my reasons for my decisions that I had made, and I guess as she challenged me, I also challenged her. Where other people would have given up and walked away – she persevered to find the root of any problem, and then analysed it and sorted it, regardless of barriers that may have been crossed or issues that may have arisen from it. Over time we both changed. We have become close and discuss all manner of topics very openly, and regularly. She has become my gym buddy of sorts, though she still avoids swimming almost as much as I avoid running. As a journalist she has now written articles supporting gay relationships, she has started to enjoy Australia, begun to enjoy the beach (although she is still a mountain girl), parted ways with her husband, won journalism awards, and become friends with more of my friends – gay and otherwise – as I have come to know more of hers. her blog is listed in my 'blogs to watch' - Along the way - I don’t see her husband much any more, I guess neither does she, but of the things that you can predict in life, that Lynnette would be the one staying here with us as she prepares to move on to a new part of her life, was not one of them.

She has become a friend where I was not expecting a friend, a close friend who will be missed.

I just hope she makes it to Tasmania without any car doors popping open.