xtcian

find me somebody to love

5/11/04

Time to take a little break from the solipsism of the past few days and mark a moment in history, if you will. Arguably the two people I'm closest to - both through shared history and shared bedrooms - are my brother Sean and my best friend Chip. Sean turned 34 today, and Chip got engaged last week. These are both very important things, because it means Sean outlived Jesus, and Chip... well, I thought we'd all see Jesus again before he got engaged.

Having his birthday ten days after his wedding is a little like painting your buggy after painting the Sistine Chapel, and from all accounts, Sean had a pretty average day. 34 is rough the way most ages in your thirties are rough: 30 is a bizarre landmark, 31 means you're "actually in your thirties now," 34 means you're in your "mid-thirties" and my next birthday - 37 (in two weeks) - means I'm "pushing forty."

But birthdays are birthdays, and Tessa and I got him a cool little piece of technology that will enable us to stay connected better even if we're digging trenches on the Fox lot in Los Angeles. I'd say what we got him, but nobody was there to answer the Fedex guy in Astoria today.

As for Chip, I mean, what could be said that hasn't already been said? Shakespeare-trained, Chip has been in more plays and movies than people who want to be actors. Why do you think this could be? Here is a guy that lost all his hair when we were sophomores, ate enough Burger King sausage biscuits to send his cardiologist into a frenzy, and works a mild-mannered job for the EPA in the Research Triangle. Yet during the screening of "The Pink House" last October in Tribeca, he came on the screen, and the entire place erupted.

Why is Chip everyone's favorite person? Why do my female friends get so excited to see him? Why does my mom have about thirteen Chip stories? The answer is ineffable, and I thought it might not ever translate into marital love. But finally - FINALLY - someone came along who GETS him. Cathie is sweet, good-natured, funny, and just happened to be listening when Chip said something funny under his breath as he was pacing out of the room. When the rumor got out that he had asked her to marry - while rowing in Central Park, no less - I think a nation of us leapt in tacit jubilation. It even made Tessa cry.

So two of my favorite people met two other people willing to put up with them in all their brilliant messiness. That's a pretty fucking good week.

Jane Cox, me, the Budster, Chip, Jon and Jill Gilbert in New Orleans, 1987