October 30, 2006
The story of Tank and I is a long one. So if you want to read it, take a seat.
I have never met such a girl.
My Tank is hands-down, the most influential thing to enter my life. I met her over four years ago (as of the date of this writing) when I was sitting on top of my 1971 cherry-red Volkswagon Bus. It took but a matter of days for us to quickly become best friends. And only shortly there after we shared our first kiss.
We did not think much of our earlier fling and dispite our current relationship, we did not hook up quite then. I remember for those years after, even in my absence from our home town of Eureka, California, people being convinced that Kelly and I were in love. We would deny it every time. We were honest, we had no idea we were in love. She was, and still is my best friend. And to prove it, I gave her my most personally valuable matriel possession: A silver pentecle necklace. To me, giving her this necklace was a symbol of my never ending love and friendship for her.
But after a year of learning with, growing with, and knowing this girl, life beckoned and I left her in Humboldt County so I could persue my dreams in Los Angeles. L.A. was a complete disaster and after a year there, Tank was supposed to visit and live with me for a week after her time in France. But at the time I could not see beyond my own need to survive, so I left for Knoxville, Tennessee; leaving her to sit for a week in Los Angeles with her Aunt. I have never felt to bad in my life.
I missed this girl terribly.
My time in Knoxville was not quite the disaster that L.A. was, but I was still homesick and missed my dear Tank so much. I made some bad decisions while there and almost lost her forever. But after another year I finally came to my senses and severed everything I had in Knoxville so I could come home to my Tank.
We hadn't really spoken in a while so I had no idea if she loved me or even if she was still my friend. But I didn't care, if I could only see her once and tell her I was sorry for everything, that would of been good enough for me.
So when the plane landed and I came through the gate, there she was. Waiting for me with a multitude of other friends. But it was her that I saw the clearest. She ran at me and leapt in to my waiting arms and gave me the best hug and kiss of my life. Then I saw it, around her neck, the pentecle I gave her those years ago, she was still wearing it and had never taken it off for that whole time. She still loved me.
So after I had returned we got together and caught up on everything. It was almost like I never left her side. Be not entirely in a good way, the both of us hadn't grown much. She actually hadn't changed at all in the two years I was gone. Which stuck me as odd because before I left, she and I had changed so much over the year. But now, to me, she seemed silently miserable, I don't think she even knew it. Her life became such a routine. Her true self was supressed. So I got to work.
So a few months went by and there was not much progress. But one late August day I was offered a free ticket to Burning Man. It was from Tank and that first Burning Man experience with each other would change the course of our lives forever.
When we got back, we had changed. We had new prespectives, new idea, motivations, and so many others. So over the next six months things in our lives started to change. To her current boyfriend's dismay, she got ambitions and started thinking for herself. She wanted to LIVE her life. So we began to talk of these things and soon ideas came.
When March came around we went on a road trip to Santa Cruz. We finally had some extended alone time and I was able to truly influence her to start think for herself as an independent person. When we got home, she had changed again. I had not known it at the time, but I was also changing. I was also growning and learning. Before I left for L.A. she had helped me learn, grow, and mature so much. I had forgotten that and one day, looking back on things, I found I was a much different person since Tank came back in to my life. And so was Tank.
I believe it was about April we had started playing around with the idea of moving to the Bay Area and moving in together (platonically). Since Tank did not work for many month since last October I stared up a saving for the both of us that would get us down to San Leandro. So in order to stay up to date with each other all the time and to make sure things went smoothly, we started seeing each other more often.
That's about when people started saying we were in love again. But neither one of us saw it, we were just best friends. Enter drama.
Jump ahead to July '06. It was just over a month until Burning Man. I had now been back for a whole year and Tank and I were so different people hardly knew who we were anymore. Her boyfriend secretly hated me for all the good things I had done to and for her, not to mention the false rumors floating around. He knew his time in her life was coming to an end so he refused to make the remaining time pleasurable for anyone.
Dispite that I helped him get down to a family reunion of somesort and while he was there, Tank and I went to a social gathering we were to attend. We stayed there briefly then snuck away to get the appliations to the apartments we wanted to live it. As soon as we got there we fell in love with the place. We could not have hoped for a better place to live in.
Go to Burning Man. The 2006 experience was nothing like the 2005 experience. Actually it was probably one of the worst experiences of our lives. Tank had finally broken up with her quondam inamorato but decided to take him along anyway. Big mistake. Long story short he ruined the whole thing. But one miraculous, awsome, WONDERFUL thing happened at Burning Man '06: Tank and I had fallen in love. Or we had realized we were in love pretty much since we've known each other. We still aren't sure to this day. To make it as sappy as possible, it was on the night the Man burned. So our anniversery is on Burn Night.
Long story short, we came home, gather our things, packed them all away in a U-Haul, and moved down to San Leandro in that first apartment complex we fell in love with. Since our hook-up at Burning Man we have only fallen in love more and more and have become closer and closer.
Every day I wake up in her arms is better than the last and I could not be more grateful to have such a wonderful, beautiful girlfriend. She treats me so well and I thank whatever is out there for her. My only hope is that I treat her the same.
Tank gives me faith. She gives me hope. She has helped me grow and mature in more way that I can count. She believes in me. She trusts me. And most of all, she LOVES me. I could never repay her for all she's done for me. Where ever life takes us, she will always be the best thing to ever happen to me.
Should you ever meet my girlfriend, Tank, know that you are lucky to meet such a creature and treasure any friendship she gives you. No one could ask for a better friend.
I love you, Tank. With all my heart.
-Your Angel, Gabriel
