My friends Matt and Jenny are expecting a their first baby (a boy) in October. At Jenny’s shower a little over a week ago, Matt made a special appearance to sing a lullaby he wrote for the baby. Since it’s been up on my Flickr for a while and they’ve been able to share it on facebook and what not, I figured it was ok to share it with all of you. Even though you probably don’t know them, you will undoubtedly be crushed by the sweetness of it.
(I should probably add that Jenny’s shower had a rockstar theme. She doesn’t always have a bright red mohawk. However, she does have bright red hair, and it’s awesome.)
(I should also apologize for the mid-song jostle of the camera. I couldn’t help it — if my friends sob, *I* sob.)
(Also, also, “Weiner” is what they call their dachshund, even though her name is actually Scarlett. Oh, forget it, you don’t care.)
1. Tina’s full name is Christina. This is important for you to know for some reason.
2. We met at my old job.
3. There was much commiserating over lunch.
4. Tina’s favorite movie is Independence Day.
5. She has memorize The Speech.
6. She loves disaster movies.
7. The second I left the theater after seeing 2012, I texted her in all caps, telling her she needed to see it.
8. Tina went to my rival-ish high school.
9. She knew a lot the same people I know now.
10. Tina has a boyfriend named Nathan.
11. He is a kook.
12. But he is delightful.
13. Tina says “delightful” a lot.
14. I find it delightful.
15. Tina LOVES flats.
16. She came to work one day and said she watched Victoria Beckham’s TV special.
17. Victoria said she hated people who wear flats.
18. Tina was personally offended.
19. “Douchebag” is one of Tina’s favorite words.
20. That and “douchebaggery.”
21. Tina is one of the hardest working people I know.
22. I will punch you if you don’t recognize that.
23. Tina has recently started running.
24. In fact, she is going to run a half marathon.
25. I’m very impressed by this.
26. I don’t understand it.
27. But I’m impressed.
28. Tina has a younger brother and a younger sister.
29. She is very protective of them.
30. Actually, she’s very protective of most people.
31. Tina hates it when people refer to their feet as “dogs.”
32. She especially hates it when people say their “dogs” are “barking.”
33. She also hates it when people say “We were slammed.”
34. I was sitting in Tina’s office the first time I felt JR move in my belly.
35. So I can never forget her.
36. The first time Tina met JR she held him for about 15 seconds.
37. Then she smiled and said “Ok, I’m done.”
38. That still cracks me up.
39. When we used to work together, Tina used to come into my office for her “4:30 Freak Out.”
40. Tina is very good about keeping in touch.
41. She is also very supportive.
42. That, my friends, is a winning combination.
43. One time, Tina’s father made her Halloween costume.
44. He dressed her up as Jessica Rabbit.
45. Hmmmm.
46. Tina calls her grandfather “Dad.”
47. I still don’t know why.
48. Much of Tina’s family is from Scotland.
49. Like they actually live there.
50. This makes her much cooler than most of you.
51. Tina hates Miami.
52. She loves/loved Chris Brown.
53. She was very disappointed in him.
54. Tina recently built her very first website.
55. With code and everything.
56. I couldn’t do that, and I run an effing website.
57. See? Impressive.
58. Tina talks about the people on Real Housewives of Orange County like she knows them.
59. I do this, too, so I appreciate it.
60. When we had lunch together, we would go to El Paso a lot.
61. She would always order Chicken Nachos.
62. Tina loves her some Chicken Nachos.
63. Now whenever I see Chicken Nachos on any menu, I think of her.
64. Tina used to be a cheerleader.
65. She cheered at the Pro-Bowl once.
66. I have no idea what that means, but it sounded (again) impressive.
67. Once at our old job, we worked on a really big project together.
68. Tina was in charge.
69. When we finished, she bought me a present.
70. She also wrote me a thank you note.
71. I still have it.
72. She’s a class act, that one.
73. When Tina is angry, she says she’s full of rage.
74. When I was pregnant, she felt that I had rage as well.
75. She told me that it worried her.
76. But I think she also kind of enjoyed it.
77. Tina has a picture of herself holding a monkey in her Facebook photos.
78. It makes me jealous.
79. But I guess if one of my friends got to hold a monkey before me, I’m glad it was her.
80. Tina sends me links to things that remind her of me.
81. Or with phrases like “You’d appreciate this.”
82. I love it when people do that, so I love getting emails from her.
83. Tina doesn’t seem to mind too much when I IM her even if her status message says she’s busy.
84. (Even if she did, I would do it anyway.)
85. I always start our IM conversations with “TINA.”
86. She doesn’t seem to mind that either.
87. I feel like she humors me a lot.
88. Like when she’d listen about my dream for it to be socially acceptable to hit people I don’t like with pies.
89. She even laughed sometimes.
90. Tina’s last name is also the name of a tribe mentioned in Nehemiah.
91. (I only know this because our pastor preached from it one time).
92. When I told her, she said, “What? Amazing! I had no idea I was in the Bible. I am a tribe!”
93. She seemed so happy.
94. Tina also hates when people call appetizers “apps.”
95. So basically her hell would be a busy restaurant in Miami where the servers are bringing us apps and complaining about it being slammed and how their dogs are barking.
96. Don’t think I don’t say these things to her every chance I get.
97. Tina has a tendency to quickly reveal the things that bother her.
98. And mean people like me use it against her immediately and often.
99. But she forgives me and still talks to me.
100. Because she’s a peach.
1. Stephanie was my roommate freshman and sophomore year of college at University of Richmond.
2. We were randomly paired up.
3. Before school started in August of 1999 (GAWD!), we decided to meet up and get to know each other.
4. While talking on the phone to set up our meeting, Stephanie described herself as “small and with red hair.”
5. She wasn’t lying.
6. Stephanie grew up in Rocky Mount, North Carolina.
7. She has a younger sister named Megan.
8. Her dad is named Mike and her mom is named Beverly.
9. I see them very, very rarely but I care for them very much.
10. One of Stephanie’s grandmothers is called G-Mom.
11. I’ve never met her, but I also care for her because I know she helped make Stephanie awesome.
12. Stephanie still sleeps with her baby pillow.
13. His name (yes, it’s a he) is “Pella.”
14. Stephanie is one of those people who can write a 10-page paper in 5 seconds.
15. This drove me crazy in college.
16. Once during freshman year, I walked into our room, thinking no one was there. Then I heard slight giggling. It was Stephanie. Hiding under the bed.
17. These guys we were friends with used to change Stephanie’s screensaver to slide shows of REALLY inappropriate images.
18. They would also set a password on it so she couldn’t change it.
19. This made her very angry (and made me laugh).
20. Another time we put put Stephanie in a bag with her head sticking out and left in front of our friend Erin’s dorm room. We knocked and ran away. When Erin answered the door, Steph just looked up, smiled, and said, “Hey.”
21. Stephanie used to have this as a bedtime snack every night: a Hershey bar dipped in peanut butter.
22. At one point this dude we knew slept on our floor for two solid weeks. Neither one of us knew why.
23. Stephanie could sleep through a screeching alarm.
24. Yet she would promptly awaken if I whispered her name (even if the alarm was blaring).
25. Stephanie has the attention span of a gnat.
26. I love this about her.
27. We had a friend in school who used to call Stephanie “Pocket Friend.”
28. Stephanie was a cheerleader for about 12 seconds.
29. She was a leadership major and business minor.
30. At one point she did a leadership project with Baker’s Crust.
31. This involved her getting up batshit crazy early to go hang out there.
32. Her doing so confirmed my complete lack of interest in being a leadership major.
33. Stephanie cannot pronounce “statistics.”
34. She also says “idear” instead of “idea.”
35. She is amazing at remembering birthdays.
36. She sends the best cards, birthday-related and not.
37. She was the first person I called after leaving the doctors appointment when my pregnancy with JR was confirmed.
38. I told her to sit down and she immediately said, “You’re pregnant!”
39. I missed her very much at that moment.
40. She hasn’t lived in Richmond for a while.
41. She stayed here for a bit after graduating.
42. But then she moved to Savannah for a while.
43. Before heading up to the DC area.
44. She is a business banker.
45. For the longest time, I thought she was saying “business maker.”
46. One time a guy wrote Stephanie a poem.
47. He signed it with “Thanks! Todd.”
48. Ross and I still say that to each other.
49. Stephanie is incapable of learning a foreign language.
50. No, seriously, she took a test and everything.
51. She tried, really she did.
52. It just didn’t work out.
53. She’s also on a mission to bring back regular Coke.
54. When you weigh 100 pounds no matter what you do, I guess you can be on a mission like that.
55. She loves America’s Next Top Model.
56. Her red hair gets really dark in the winter.
57. Despite being a redhead, she is not deathly pale.
58. She’s not even THAT freckly.
59. What a jerk.
60. Jk, she’s one of the least jerky people I know.
61. Stephanie will only call JR “Jackson.”
62. For some reason, this doesn’t annoy me at all.
63. It probably would if other people did it.
64. I think this shows that I kind of let Stephanie be the boss of me when she’s around.
65. She was the maid of honor in my wedding.
67. Her toast was very sweet.
68. Even though she kind of hated Ross for taking away her roommate.
69. She was kidding.
70. Sort of.
71. I’m pretty sure if I hadn’t married Ross so soon after graduating, Stephanie and I would have lived together.
72. And spend our days eating candy and drinking regular coke.
73. Sophomore year of college, Stephanie and I met Anna.
74. At some point Anna starting calling Stephanie “Phanie.” As in “fanny.”
75. Stephanie is not a huge fan of this.
76. But we call her this anyway.
77. Because what is she going to do, beat us up?
78. She weighs four pounds.
79. Stephanie loves, loves, loves Ally McBeal.
80. Ross and I stayed with Stephanie one night when we had to be at Dulles early the next morning.
81. We watched Legally Blond II: Red, White and Blond.
82. It was awful.
83. We still blame Stephanie to this day.
84. She once hosted a “rock star” party.
85. I went, drank too much, and asked all of my friends how much money they make.
86. But this list isn’t about me.
87. Stephanie’s middle name is Anne.
88. So I call her Steffie Anne sometimes.
89. She doesn’t mind this as much as “Phanie.”
90. She LOVES the movie Dirty Dancing.
91. Her aunt was an extra in the final scene.
92. There were days that we watched that movie three or four times in a row.
93. That and Clueless.
94. We were stereotypical.
95. One time we were watching Sliding Doors with a bunch of friends.
96. Due to #25, I told Stephanie before the film started that she had to pay attention.
97. She didn’t.
98. Three-quarters of the way into the movie she turned to me and said, “Wait. They’re the same girl?”
99. If anyone else had done this, I would have punch him/her in the face.
100. But not her, because she’s my Stephanie. And to know her is to love her.
JR, friends — Valerie on December 9, 2009 at 9:41 pm
As I mentioned last week, Jennifer and James (our dear friends and JR’s godparents) finally welcomed their little boy into the world on November 30th.
Despite camping out at the hospital while Jennifer was in labor (for, oh, 70 thousand hours - she’s a champ, that one) we ended up not actually meeting Jack until the following Thursday. That’s right. We got the name, we got the weight, and headed home so the grandparents could love on the newly birthed Jack Charles. That, and it was 3:30am and our own child would be arriving back at our house, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, in just four hours.
Anyway, Thursday ended up being a very special day because not only did we get to meet Jack, JR did, too. Here are some pictures of the new buds getting acquainted.
Yes, that is my GIANT! child wielding a baseball bat (Go Phillies!) in the vicinity of a newborn. There was much gasping and flailing on my part.
Here we have me (and my big chin) looking lovingly at the small child while JR does his best impression of a perpetual motion machine.
Soon after the last picture was taken, James put JR on a rocking horse which was a big hit.
Sorry for the absence. I’ve been busy doing a few things. Such as…
Making our house look festive for Christmas. This is an improvement over last year when I had just given birth and had just about as much motivation to decorate as to, well, give birth again
1. Maura has super dark brown hair and fair skin.
2. This makes my son love to stare at her.
3. She makes my most favorite pizza ever.
4. She also makes baked goods that are insanely good.
5. She started dating our high school friend Matt about a month before Ross and I got married.
6. She moved to Richmond shortly after graduating from William & Mary.
7. And then we became friends.
8. We used to be able to walk to her apartment from our old house.
9. And then she went and moved up to Fredericksburg to get her Masters and become a teacher.
10. She teaches middle school civics.
11. I know. MIDDLE SCHOOL. She’s impressive.
12. She works harder than most teachers I know.
13. She probably works harder than I ever did as a teacher, honestly.
14. One of the things I miss most about her being Richmond is going shopping at H&M with her.
15. That and the pizza.
16. And the good conversation.
17. The first hand-knit scarf I ever got was from her.
18. I still have it, even though that was almost 6 years ago.
19. She loves hanging out with the ladies.
20. Particularly if it involves snacks and whine.
21. Her mom was a nun.
22. Her dad was a priest.
23. I know!
24. She loves her parents to the point where it makes her cry sometimes.
25. She also loves her siblings an insane amount.
26. And she loves Matt like crazy, which makes me happy.
27. One of the happiest days I can remember is when we found out she and Matt were getting married.
28. He proposed on top of a mountain in Ireland.
29. She doesn’t have a diamond ring.
30. She has a band with sapphires in it.
31. And I love it.
32. She and Matt will be getting married in June.
33. After JR was born, I couldn’t wait for him to meet her.
34. I still have text messages she and I exchanged while I was in the hospital and right after I gave birth.
35. If they ever got deleted, I would cry.
36. She loves beer.
37. She used to live on the top floor of a house in Church Hill that had a kitchen constructed out of Ikea cabinets and a bathroom with the prettiest tile I’ve ever seen. I’m still jealous of that apartment.
38. When Britney Spears gave birth to her first baby, Maura called to congratulate me.
39. We used to write a blog called “The Shallow End” where we would talk about celebs.
40. She loves to sing “Careless Whisper” on Karaoke Revolution.
41. When it comes on the radio, I sometimes call her and hold up the phone to the speaker.
42. She looks incredible in green.
43. She campaigned for Obama.
44. Like hardcore, this-is-a-second-job campaigned.
45. She got to go to the inauguration, and I was super jealous.
46. She once spilled water on her iPod.
47. To be fair, there was a bottle of water in her purse that was slightly open. Her iPod was in there also.
48. She tried to dry it out by putting it in our oven at a very low heat.
49. It didn’t work.
50. She is the middle child in her family.
51. She loves “This American Life.”
52. She has a stud in her nose.
53. When she worked at Starbucks while in grad school, she had to put a note by the door reminding her to take it out before going into work.
54. Ross and I are technically the adoptive parents of her cat, Miso. When she got Miso, she didn’t have her ID proving that she was a resident of Richmond. So we stepped in and then bequeathed the cat to her.
55. She loves her last name (Wilson).
56. She lives in the suburbs.
57. If you knew her in person, you might be surprised by that.
58. Her first apartment in Richmond was in a building called “Stonewall” on Boulevard.
59. If I remember correctly, she ended up breaking her lease because the landlords sucked.
60. I think I’ve spent pretty much every New Year’s with her since we met.
61. Most of them involve Karaoke and lots to drink.
62. Lots to drink.
63. I know I already talked about her hair, but it’s awesome.
64. When I think about cutting mine, I try to picture her hair so I won’t do it.
65. She wears sassy clothes that I love.
66. Like turquoise boots.
67. And big ol’ earrings.
68. Basically, her clothes make me jealous of her.
69. She managed to pick out excellent bridesmaids dresses that we actually will be able to wear again.
70. Her description of the writing in the Twilight series is the most spot-on that I’ve heard.
71. She says, “It’s like it’s written by a girl who’s a junior in high school. The writing is good for being a junior in high school, but still.”
72. We often find out the we’ve been reading the same books without realizing it.
73. That’s one of my favorite things about our friendship.
74. Whenever we see or IM each other, we start with “Hey, friend.”
75. She’s one of the few people I don’t mind nursing in front of.
76. I don’t know if she minds, but she hasn’t said anything about it.
77. She makes a real effort to understand and respect our new schedule as parents of an infant.
78. I don’t know if she knows how much I appreciate that.
79. She loves to chat over hot beverages, particularly chai.
80. She’s going to be an excellent mother someday.
81. Should she choose that path.
82. Until then, she is a fabulous for real aunt to her own nephew and faux-aunt to our little guy.
83. We used to get manicures and pedicures together a lot.
84. I’ve never had the desire to really do this with anyone else.
85. She has a Roomba and loves to talk about it.
86. But not in an annoying way - she’s just enthusiastic.
87. She and I like to talk about celebs we have girl-crushes on.
88. The most recent object of our affection? Jamie from the last season of Top Chef.
89. She used to update her blog.
90. But I guess with teaching our future and planning a wedding, she’s a bit busy.
91. That Maura, she’s always doing something.
92. Like going to the gym. Seriously, always with the gym.
93. She loves things like yoga and pilates.
94. And watching crappy TV while on the eliptical machine.
95. She and Matt also happen to love Bridezillas.
96. She is not a Bridezilla, however.
97. She’s a very easy bride to be around, actually.
98. Really, she’s a very easy person to be around.
99. And I miss her.
100. And I love her lots and lots.
JR, friends — Valerie on March 18, 2009 at 3:13 pm
JR and I spent some time this afternoon with Anne and her sweet little guy, Wade. As they were each other’s first playdate, we thought it appropriate to document the ocassion.
The age difference is around 10 weeks, but the size difference is, shall we say, considerable?
I have a hard time looking at this picture and keeping myself from singing “Faaaaat guuuuuy in a liiiiiittle stroller.”
