This Month Is Such a Special One...

...It's Birthday Time for MICHELLE!!

That's right!  September 3rd marks the 29th anniversary of Michelle's birth.
Along with many, many others, I am sooooo glad Michelle was born.
After the fantastic post she wrote for my birthday, I knew I would have a tough act to follow when her birthday came around.  I debated about what kind of post I should write, what pictures to post....so many options!  So, in no particular order, I proudly present...

29 Memories of Michelle!!


1 - Watching Michelle pretend that her viola case was Paul McCartney's Hofner Bass.  She even played it left-handed!

2 - Going to Oldies Fest with Michelle's parents and my dad.  Great times!

3 - Our fantastic Beatles Halloween costumes!  "It was twenty years ago today, Sgt. Pepper taught his band to play..."

4 - Finding the combination to our crushes' locker and breaking in after school

5 - Our "casual" 2-mile walk (in the scorching summer heat!) past our crushes' houses (they were best friends who lived in the same neighborhood)

6 - Playing endless rounds of improv games to pass the time in our classes

7 - Riding the little roller coaster at MGM during orchestra tour -- Michelle is NOT a fan of roller coasters and hid behind me the entire time

8 - Holding Michelle's hand when she found out she would be playing Dolly Levi in our high school production of Hello, Dolly!, followed by...

9 - Cheering in the audience on Dolly's opening night!  I was so, so proud to be Michelle's best friend (and still am!)

10 - The two of us hiking around San Francisco together, another orchestra tour memory

11 - Hiding in Amber's bathtub during a particularly competitive game of hide-and-go-seek at a birthday party.  It went really well until someone came in to use the bathroom...

12 - Playing a duet of "Ave Maria" at Grandpa C's funeral

13 - Attempting to steal a boy's clothes as a creative way for Michelle to ask him to a high school dance.  This particular boy was very obsessive about his clothes, so his dad would only let us move them to another closet in the house, rather than steal them

14 - Michelle coming on vacation with my family to Monticello

15 - Watching Fiddler on the Roof in Michelle's parents' room, singing along and laughing

16 - Filming a video to send to Prince William....oy vey

17 - Playing Beatles Rock Band this past spring during Michelle's visit

18 - The look on Michelle's face when we surprised her at her baby shower

19 - Michelle's joyful (and exhausted) phone call to let me know that I was an "aunt"

20 - Watching Polish Wedding and laughing at the weirdness of it

21 - Many Christmas Eve dinners shared by both families

22 - Talking while sitting on our roommate's bed during tour, eating her crackers and Easy Cheese (sorry, Hailey!)

23 - Supporting each other on our respective wedding days

24 - Michelle trying to surprise me our freshman year of school by coming up to visit me -- I was dead-set on going home that weekend and my roommates could not convince me to stay, so Michelle finally had to call and tell me she was coming

25 - Driving to Cedar City to visit Michelle and see her in various plays

26 - Watching Michelle compete for the State Sterling Scholar Award for Drama

27 - Graduating high school together and refusing to talk about the fact that we were headed to schools almost 400 miles apart

28 - August 2007, Michelle comforting me when I should have been comforting her


29 - Cabaret obsession + orchestra tour = a memory we'll laugh at forever (sorry, I can't say any more than that!)

There are many, many more memories I could share (and several that started on the list that didn't make the cut) from the last 16 years of friendship: good, sad, hilarious, weird, you name it.  I'm grateful to have had Michelle by my side (in spirit, if not always physically) for so much of my life.

Happy Birthday, Michelle!!  I hope this year is the best one yet!!