Life in Lyrics: An Open Letter to the Gilmore Guys

Hi Kevin and Demi,

I've been wanting to write to you for a long time to tell you how much your show has meant to me over the last two years. At the start of January 2015, I discovered your show via the hellogiggles article about it. I was finishing up my last couple of weeks at a job I hated, after having been laid off. I knew I would be facing under/unemployment for the next unknown period of time. Mere days after my last day at my job, my dad was diagnosed with Huntington's, a terminal, degenerative, genetic disease which is sort of a deadly cocktail of ALS, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's-Esque symptoms. This also meant that my siblings and I each have a fifth percent chance of inheriting the same disease. This news was devastating to my family.

For months afterward, I would lay in my bed for hours on end with my mom and rewatch Gilmore Girls on Netflix.

Like Kevin, I'm a crier. I found that every time I listened to music, no matter what it was, it would either evoke an emotion in me and lead me to tears, or give me too much free time to think, again resulting in waterworks. The only thing I found that I could listen to without sobbing was the Gilmore Guys podcast. It made me laugh in a time when all I wanted to do was curl up and die.

Eventually, the two of you became my familiar carpool buddies, my inspiration as I trained for and ran my first half-marathon, and the warm voices to fill an empty apartment.

I even got my fiancé to start listening to your show, which, finally persuaded him (after years of needling) to watch Gilmore Girls. And now, he actually likes it! He hasn't seen every episode, but he did watch the six hour revival with me, eating pop-tarts and Chinese food, while I raged through the Life and Death Brigade sequence, grimaced in surprise at the last four words, and sobbed uncontrollably through 90% of Fall.

Today, I finished your episode about Fall. From the time Demi started giving his speech, through the a capella version of Where You Lead, I cried and cried. It was ironic (and "full freakin circle") that I teared up at a show which was initially my escape from my sadness. I don't want to say good-bye.

Here are some pictures of me with my dad (who just turned 50), my half-marathon, and my little GG:AYITL get-together with my mom, sister, fiancé, and dear friend.

Thank you for everything.

Nice chicken.

Kaylie Rainer