The Kim Factor In many ways, I owe a lot to my friend Kim. Her and I met three years ago at a tournament in Saskatoon. A few months afterwards, she invited me to join her dodgeball team. Since then, I've been playing alongside her on various teams and in various cities; and it was in one of those various cities that I met someone from Vancouver, where I now live, and where I have met someone especially meaningful to me. When I step backwards through the trace of my memory, I find that most of my present happiness comes from Kim's direction.

She is a well-focused soul, a great model of ambition. Thorough in thought - as scientists are - and many times I have looked to her for advice and opinion. There was even a time when she put me up after I called well past midnight, incoherently slurring and tired. The entire time I have known her, she has always reached out with both arms to make me feel welcome among her friends, and it is through that warm extension that one of my closest friends met someone especially meaningful to him. She is a genuine friend, and in a month from today I will be at her wedding, completely happy for her. And incoherently slurring.  ¶ 7:44 PM