Dear Ella

I hardly knew you last year at all. You were just Cherlaine's extraordinarily beautiful older sister. I was always intimidated by you - and it didn't help that you have a look-alike on SU campus; so I always said hi to the wrong person; thinking that you didn't like me at all because "you" kept giving me weird looks everytime I said hi to "you". Lo and behold, it wasn't even you! Confounded I was!

You took me in this summer when I was homeless and had nowhere to go. You, Cherlaine and Juliana housed me. That has meant the world to me. I was 900 miles away from home, I didn't know that many people in Seattle, flitting from one floor to another, and you guys gave me a home. I met Juliana maybe once, you, maybe a few times in passing, but the fact that you guys took in Cherlaine's crazy scrawny friend without even as much thinking about charging me rent or even questioning why I had nowhere to go - it reminds me that there are good people out there. You guys.

You have inspired me beyond belief. I have never met anyone so dedicated to art. Pisses the fuck out of me though when you try and take pictures of me - but it still inspires me. Because of you, I have picked up the pen again. I was observing you (non-creepily) and how everytime you pick up the camera or you see something that just HAS to be captured, your eyes light up and you get so excited. It made me realize "what the fuck am I doing with me life?". I used to be so passionate about things. The world, writing, love, friendships, free-spirits, uninhibition, music... I've felt so dead for the longest time. But you! As much as you make me want to smash your goddamn camera, I am proud to know you as a person, as an artist, and more importantly, as a friend.

Last night was the quintessential moment of when I fell absolutely in love with you. You stood up for me in the most absurd and in what can only be described as complete Ella fashion mode. A sleezy guy comes up to me, starts hitting on me, I become awkward as fuck and completely lose any sense of myself - and you start raising hell. You put your arms around me, held my hand and told him to back the fuck off. I don't have many friends in Seattle, but the people I do have, I keep very close to my heart. I thank you and toast you with a cigarette in one hand and a bottle of wine in the other. Cause you, Ella, are fabulous (I know you hate that word, but I don't give a fuck cause you are). It usually disgusts me how you get hit on maybe about 3x a day and get discounts off cigarettes because they are just so stunned by your beauty. But it isn't just physical beauty, it's because you're such a goddamn good person that it exudes from your entire body.

Thanks for making me pick up the pen again, standing up for me against a guy that was probably 50x your weight, inspiring me, being a great artist, and for being a really good friend.



Your Pal,
Carolyn K. Huynh


P.S. Don't think because I love you so much now means you don't have to pay me for my camera. I want my money, bitch. Although, because I do love you a lot now, you can pay me whenever. That's as far as my generosity extends.