A thanksgiving

Thanks be to Monique for convincing me to leave the comfort and warmth of my bedroom on that damp and chilly night to go out for what began as just one drink.

Thanks be to Val and Isaac for choosing the Hush Hush in the first place.

Thanks be to Jerry for showing up with his tall, quiet friend in tow, introducing said friend to us, and then taking off for the dj booth, leaving us to entertain.

And thanks, most of all, be to that tall quiet man, for putting up with the advanced tipsiness of our little group, for making us laugh with fabricated stories of Edmonton's Scandinavian population, for letting me un-subtly rest my hand on his knee, and for later walking with me out of the Hush Hush, toward my house, toward what would become, three years later, something neither of us imagined then it could be.