The Meaning Of Lila

Reading Sean's Comic Relief reminded me of what I consider to be the best gift I have ever given Matt.

For years, Matt has been a loyal reader of the comic strip "The Meaning of Lila". Written by John Forgetta, "Lila" chronicles the life of Lila Mayfield, a customer service representative for MetroMart. Lila is joined by her GBFF Boyd and friend/supervisor Drew.

From wikipedia - "The central theme of the comic is about Lila trying to find the right man (or any man for that matter) but always fails due to her pickiness and bad luck. Other themes include her dislike of her job, popular culture and her obsession with shopping, (especially shoes). The trio of friends are most often shown either at work, having drinks at the bar, shopping, or watching TV at home."

In March of 2010 I was struggling with what to get Matt as a wedding present.  The wedding wasn't until July, but I wanted to do something special.  The thought occurred to me that maybe, just maybe, I could get Lila and Boyd to come to the wedding. Full disclosure - if Boyd were a real person and he knew Matt, I wouldn't stand a chance...LOL.

I found an email for John and sent him a note with my idea. I figured what's the worst he can say, "no"?  A day later I got a response asking for a bit more information about the event. John was honored that I asked him to do it. Within a week I had my answer - yes, John would be writing the wedding into the strip. He also asked for a photo of Matt, to see if he could animate him. 

I give you my wedding present to Matt......


*This was the first strip in the series. The day it ran, I was taking a group of students to Washington D.C. so I didn't get to see Matt's reaction to the strip. I remember walking my kids to our gate in the Minneapolis airport and getting a text on my phone, "Is Boyd coming to the wedding?" Followed by photos of each of the panels. I had left him a letter explaining everything. 

*The next four days of the strip dealt with Boyd talking with HR about his intolerant coworker. They didn't really deal with the wedding, so I left them out.

*Iowa was ahead of the curve on this one.

*Fun Fact - Matt is not a fan of "Glee", but he did watch the Madonna episode with me. :-)

 *I really wanted a strapless Vera Wang, but couldn't find anything in my size.

*I was really happy with how Matt was drawn. The artist did a GREAT job. We got married after Prop 8 had passed in California, so at the time gay marriage wasn't legal there.

*I got the impression that this was a lot of our guests. 

We had all of the black and white strips framed and used that as our guest book at the wedding.  It's framed and hanging in our guest bedroom.  The strip is one of the very few things that I have EVER been able to surprise Matt with. I gotta say that I think I did pretty good with it.