You Can Run But You Can't Hide

I can't believe they'd do this to us, really. I mean what kind of friend just leaves? We're trying really hard not to slash their tires or burn their plane tickets, but it might be justified to keep them here. Some of our bestest friends in the world, Blake Christi and their two boys Griffin and Calder are leaving Seattle, bound for North Carolina - from whence they came.

I'll always remember meeting them. Like so many of my early friends in Seattle, we met at the dog park. Blake was wearing his UNC Tarheels shirt -which begged the attention of the Tarheel in me. We talked briefly, I met their German Shepard Kali and proceeded to part ways for a couple of months. We had both been in Seattle for about a year - this was about 1999.

Soon after Blake and Christi met me at the Canterbury Pub on 15th Ave. in Capitol Hill for a few drinks and some pool. I lived on 15th for a while and invited them back to what was then my bachelor pad. One distinct memory was my choice of music. I already had a good feeling about them - Seattle people via Chapel Hill. They were indy rocker types and for them I played Pavement - Brighten the Corners. We grooved on that for the rest of the night. We knew a friendship had sprung.

Something we noted early-on was that Blake and I had parallel lives. We both grew up in small towns in North Carolina, went to NC Universities, became dog owners in college, moved to Seattle within a year of each other with girls from Delaware and lived in Capitol Hill.

The dogs have always been a common bond between us. If Amos has ever had a girlfriend, it is Kali. For the whole of my time in Seattle, Amos and Kali have been as close as their humans - always excited to see one another. Even as I write this, the old dogs (both around 12 years old) share the same floor below my feet, dreaming that they are young dogs, chasing squirrels in Volunteer Park.

Kali was our biggest worry in what was the opening salvo in a years-long practical joke battle. On Halloween of 2004, Sachi, her brother Mark and I decided so TP (toilet paper) their new house in Columbia City. We had a modest set of rolls and everything went off without a hitch - that is until I kicked a gutter downspout and scared us off. Kali didn't bark and we were surprised.

The next day we were walking the dogs and talking about Halloween. They had no idea - either that we were the perps or that we had already blogged the whole episode. I asked Blake about the night and he said "You know, it's funny, some kids from the neighborhood rolled our house with toilet paper". Smiling I said "Do you know who did it?" "Nah, just some neighborhood kid I guess." My next question: "Did you ever think it could be one of your friends?" Of course the cover was blown and he could only say "not until RIGHT NOW!" We got them so, so good and they owed revenge. Too bad it took them years.

Since then, they've continued our best friends and neighbors - and we always knew that no matter how much love existed between us, there was still unfinished business looming in the background. Revenge hung out there like a banana, ready to plucked from the tree.

Just a few months ago, Sachi and I left town and asked Blake to watch the house and feed Amos. He was one of a few people in this particular case. We came home and everything was in order. Days passed and I walked into our front room and noticed something strange. Something was missing. We have a big yellow wall facing the windows and on that wall are giant sheet metal stars. On this night, days after our return, we noticed they were gone. After some initial hand wringing, we figured it was surely Blake. I called him and he played dumb (not a feat for him, but one that work on me this time). I knew he sounded a little weird, but convinced myself that it wasn't him. We called other people - no one had a clue. We considered changing the locks and felt that feeling of violation that people feel after a break-in. It really was a concern. Not long after I got a cryptic email from Blake with nothing but a link to his blog. Revenge was claimed as his and he posted this photo as proof.

Ding Ding. Round two had begun.

Of course by that time they had their second tow-headed boy Calder and talked about moving back to North Carolina with greater frequency. We wanted it to stop - we didn't want to hear such talk, but knew it was an eventuality. One summer led into the next and each time we talked about it, we heard a different story. Always planning to leave, but never sure when. We figured that Blake's penchant for procrastination may keep them here longer yet. We hoped anyway.

As I write these words, a moving truck is at their house, taking their belongings back to North Carolina, from whence it came. They are spending their last night in Seattle with us and it's going to be a momentous occasion. There are few people in the world that I am closer to than Blake and Christi and I'm genuinely very sad to see them go. They are Seattle to us. They are the people we can always depend on to just hang out and be ourselves. We know each other such an extent that very few things are off limits and we need those people around.

The silver linings, and there are many, is that they are moving to Chapel Hill, which is only about 1.5 hours from my family's home in North Carolina. We visit NC all the time and we won't go long without seeing them and the kids. In fact, when we say goodbye tomorrow, it will be quite temporary since we'll see them in their new, bigger and better house in Chapel Hill within a couple of weeks.

Blake and Christi, thanks for being such a wonderful part of our Seattle lives. It's time to make new memories of the trans-continental kind.

Oh, and one day if something seems strange or you wake up to find something missing from your home. Remember - we own you one, bitches.