"I Get a Kick Out of You"

Tributes to the best people on the planet!

The Family-Everything is matching

My mom told me something my brother had told her about his perpetual state of indecision. He talked about my dad's quest for the perfect post-retirement job, and how the location changes with the wind. "Now I know where I get it from," Andy told her. It never occurred to me, but it couldn't be more true! It made me think of what I've pulled from them or what has pulled me.

I have hands that look like my mother's. I've inherited a love of words from her. When we giggle together over something, we have the same laugh that makes us both laugh harder until we're wiping away tears and waving a hand in front of our faces to calm down. Both my parents gave me my love of reading in different ways-both are well read when so many people are not, and always encouraged their children to have their noses in books. I also have a lot of my sense of humor from my father.  I love historical documentaries like he does, and think some of the best times being here have been watching/discussing things with him like Looking for Lincoln. To my mom's chagrin, I've discovered a like for Bob Dylan that could have only come from my dad. And even in my siblings, with all of our differences, I see some things that run through us all, and I like to think they're the better parts of us that a couple of amazing people passed on.

The Friends-Everything is a joke

There isn't much we can't turn into something completely crazy. It doesn't seem to matter where we are or what we talk about-the laughs do not end. We can exchange thoughts like trading cards with our blogs, reading them like the latest edition of The News-Gazette. Going out, anything said is turned into a catch phrase and inside joke, and some are the same as they were when we were sixteen years old. Dressing up isn't fun until it's with them. Talk of old friends and new guys is what usually starts the conversation. A random text or silly link make sense to us somehow. The comments on photos of us go on for miles, each funnier than the first. It's exactly why a list of "101 reasons why we're friends" can be written in high school and be read today. Some things never change, and thank God for it.  

The Boy-Everything is beautifully backwards

After we starting dating, I sent him my phone number. After a impromptu snapshot as if we'd known each other years, a fascination with learning more about him like discovering our shared taste for Italian food. After we talked about him moving to Champaign, we said the "L" word. After months of online banter and spending a few days without leaving each other's sight, he wrote his first email to me. And after wondering if I should go at all, I came back from Flora wishing I had taken a two week vacation just to be there.

So cheers! 

With all of this in my possession, how could it not be a wonderful life?