You’re welcome for the earworm. If you don’t know what an earworm is, or what song that’s supposed to be, you might be a millennial. Or whatever the fuck Gen Z is.

Yesterday marks one year that I’ve been in Portland. Or it marks the day that I left Albuquerque. I can’t seem to easily find a record of any of it, possibly because I was so fucking stressed I couldn’t see straight. I mean, I have instagram posts from before the move, and posts from after, but the exact date is nebulous, and I’m actually OK with that.

Last Thanksgiving my thoughtful and intrepid friend Steve introduced me to a group of people here in Portland, many of whom are transplants from Minneapolis. What do you call someone from Minneapolis? Minneapolisite? That sounds too much like a parasite. Minneapolitan? Now it’s ice cream. Minneapolist? Fuck if I know.

Anyway, one of these Minnea…MPLS transplants is an amazing human called Brigid. She is one of the sweetest people on this crazy rock we call Earth. Since I met her last Thanksgiving, she has been relentlessly, generously inclusive of me.

Brigid has included me on road bike rides, mountain bike rides, city adventure rides, cat sitting hijinks, concerts, a trip to Tucson last February, and backyard fire pits. She sent regular texts that were sometimes one of the only things to buoy my spirits early in my Portland days. She took superior care of my pets when I was out of town once and left “welcome home” flowers in her wake. She led me and our sweet friend Hannah on a pedal-to-the-metal city rally race on bikes to get me home when I had a last-minute date. She bought me a water bottle cage for my new Kona when I forgot to do so for months on end. She has introduced me to her friends, possibly to their shock and dismay. And, and, AND, this is super important: she took me to the Vans outlet store and let me go nuts.

Yesterday, she sent me a text: “Happy one-year moveaversary!”

Who remembers something like that? Well, Brigid does. She is a gem of a human being, beautiful inside and out. I don’t know what I did to deserve her, but she seems to like me, or at least feel sorry for me enough to let this stray stick around.

Thanks, Brigid, you fantastic woman, for being a Portland addition to the magical circle of incredible goddesses who feed my soul and bring joy to my life. I hope you know how much I appreciate our friendship.