wifey week.

It’s wifey week for two of my favorite people, and I’m so confident in their forever.

My best friend Lena met — and proceeded to transition into flirting with — Lucy while they both played on (my former, their still ongoing) rec team, the Splash Sisters. In queer relationships particularly, you can often get the question: “Sisters or dating?” And well, I can understand why people ask. Lucky for them, they could answer either depending on who was asking if they wanted to dodge what’s real without technically lying.

Having known Lena for many years before she met Lucy, she was destined for her Love & Basketball happy ending.

I love Lena & Lucy, and not only because their names roll off the tongue so well together alongside the word love. Four letters. Forever intertwined moving forward.

All you ever wish for your friends is for them to find a person who will unfailingly show up for them, knowing unwavering, unconditional love won’t dwindle when unexpected waves come. If I had to summarize why the two of them just work as a team, it’s because Lucy is one of the most grounded people I know; Lena is one of the most should-be-grounded people I know because her resting state is chronic chaos. I’m glad Lucy tames her down.

I’ll share a couple memories of each of them to exemplify my confidence in them as a couple.

For Lucy

I’ll never forget the one time I got to work and went into a full-blown spiral, sobbing.

Most times when my feelings went into overdrive at work, I’d go for a walk past my therapist’s office, as if simply walking by would somehow help whatever I was going through in that moment.

As fate would have it, I got a call from Lucy.

“I just passed you. Are you okay?”

I wasn’t really.

Truthfully, it was a moment when I probably would’ve preferred not to see a single soul I knew. But with Lucy, it felt different. She feels like a safe person.

She scooped me up and drove us in circles around River North until the emotions finally cooled.

At that point, I already had nothing but a positive character read on Lucy, but that moment only further reaffirmed it. And knowing that she shows up that way for someone who started as a friend of her fiancée makes the send-off of her soon-to-be-wifed to my best friend one where I can confidently say: Lena found a keeper.

Now for Lena

I could write a whole damn book on Lena, so I’m going to keep this one as brief as I can.

It always makes me smile when I hear Lena refer to Lucy as Babeeeee, somehow holding that last syllable as if she’s about to break out into song on the Trader Todd’s stage.

I’ve already bragged about Lena throughout my blog enough, so I’ll share something more recent so she hears something new.

In timely fashion, one of my friends recently dropped a prompt into a group chat:

“I’ve been doing a daily journal prompt and today’s was a good one: What is one relationship in your life that has quietly taught you a better way to love people?”

This was my answer, expanded with a little more color here:

I’d say Lena — ironically, the loudest person I know, so “quietly” is questionable.

She pays attention to the smallest details and turns them into something usually extra dramatic (like every little detail that goes into our soon-to-be decade-long made up holiday, IGD).

Sometimes I feel like Lena reads or hears something and takes a mental screenshot of it to pocket for the future.

A couple small examples:

At the end of last year, I wrote a blog post about manifesting iterative as the word I wanted to bring into 2026. For my birthday, Lena got me a custom mug stamped with the word. Now, many mornings, I get to hold a reminder of that one single word that has indirectly become an iteration in and of itself.

In another blog post, I wrote about the power of the phrase: “I’m proud of you.”

That became another Lena screenshot, one she sprinkles into the moments I need to hear it most.

Lena blends thoughtfulness with humor better than anyone I know, and I’ve found myself striving to mirror the way she shows up for people and loves them.

—

Knowing that Lucy now has unlimited access to Lena’s humor, contagious happiness, and thoughtfulness in even the tiniest things makes me certain that Lucy found the best possible partner in my best friend — who is, admittedly, an absolute menace most of the time.

Knowing that Lena’s about to be wifeyed feels kind of surreal to put down in words. Not because I ever doubted she would be. She deserves someone who brings the kind of security and safety that Lucy undoubtedly does.

I think there’s just something uniquely strange, and beautiful, about growing alongside a friend for years — one who was openly talking about being queer before it had even entered my own vernacular, and who surely, albeit subconsciously, helped shape parts of who I would become as a queer person. 

In an attempt to finally tie a bow to the post that’s getting quite lengthy but sorry not sorry, Lucy and Lena, as that too is a lifestyle I’ve inherited from Lena..

I gifted Lena and Lucy a safe for their bridal shower, which felt like the only right choice when I saw it in their registry, because I found a way to turn an inside joke into an analogy (subsequently channeling that not-so-quiet thoughtful & humorous way Lena loves people). 

I didn’t tell Lena and Lucy that their thank you note made me cry. 

They wrote: 

“ … I like to think the safe is symbolic of something bigger than the 2020s infamous storage unit. You see, MPG, you are our human safe – always there to hold and protect our most vulnerable feelings, sturdy, and dependable, the beholder of life’s most valuable treasures… friendship, laughter, honesty and a heart of something bigger than gold. Thank you for being our safe, we hope you know you have a safe in each of us.” 

A lot of people rush through thank-you cards, especially when there are many to get through. And while I’d fully understand defaulting to something generic for the sake of time, it would’ve felt deeply unlike Lena and Lucy — two people who somehow have a way of making every word spoken or written feel intentional. Special, even.

So as I prepare to likely go be an absolute sob fest wreck for whatever these two lovebirds – who have both successfully made me sob as the two of the most talented, thoughtful, funny writers – and humans – I know, this blog post was actually just a note to self (Lena knows how ~ selfish ~ I am), to remember to pack my Cry Crew Chicago pocket tissues, because their vows will most certainly become the reminder I need to keep the standards high when finding your person, like they did each other. 

Happy Eve of the Eve, my extraordinarily safe and forever-smitten-with-each-other friends. Wifey week is about to be the ~wettest~, most wonderfully beautiful days of your lives. And I’m honored to be a part of it twice : once in Lucy’s hometown and the other in Lena’s, which kinda makes me feel like I’m entering an episode of The Bachelor, final round, hometown visits. And it only feels right to do both – cuz Lena may have been the first friend love that came into my life, and in finding Lucy, she doubled the amount of joy for all of us.

🫶