The Double Nickel

Today is my dad's birthday! and thanks to the marvels of modern technology and good internet acces I just spent an hour on skype with him and my sister Anne. At the end of the call, Anne whipped out a piece of his favorite cake and I was able to help her sing happy birthday to him. I'm sure it made his day but to be truthful, it also made mine.

That's me in the bottom left hand corner singing loudly.

I love my Dad. He is the greatest dad in the whole entire world. I know no one else like him.
I am so very lucky!

¡FELIZ CUMPLEAÑOS!

Sweet 16!

Today is Anne Noll's 16th birthday (She is the first on the left in the above picture). Sadly, I am not in Boerne, TX to celebrate with her. But the good news is she is coming to visit me later this week so we will definitely have a birthday celebration then. Turning 16 was the coolest. Makes my top 5 favorite birthdays list ever. And yes, I know I've only had 21 of them.

Anne is probably just about the coolest 16 yr old you have EVER met. Seriously. She sews. Like sews as in has a sewing machine and has made me purses and skirts. And they are legit. She is very crafty and can craft the heck out of just about anything. She finally broke the Noll family height curse and is now almost the tallest member of the children. I might be just a little jealous.

Over Christmas break I got to spent a little time with her and see what she has been up to in her life. She has a tree house in the back yard and we spent 2 full days decorating it with fabric, pictures, and maps, and cool trinkets. That's right, I used the word trinket. Deal with it.

I trust this girl fully with a vehicle (not that I have any say in the matter). She looks older than me, is taller than me, and is waaaay cooler than I ever was at 16 or even now for that matter.

So....

¡Bienvenidos a Atlanta!

Lot's of things have happened in my life since my last post. Namely that this past weekend I celebrated my 21st birthday. Even just typing that is weird. But good.

It was definitely a birthday to remember (and yes, I remember it). Unfortunately I have no pictures to speak of.

But anyways.. My good friend, Leslie Sloan, rounded up Betsy Corry and Sarah Spooner and they kidnapped me for a weekend of birthday festivities. Friday night was spent around a campfire at the Sloan's house. Saturday we ended up in Atlanta where the lovely Megan Hafer resides. First stop, TACO CABANA!!!!!! I know you have read my obnoxious post about this magical fast food Tex-Mex place that only exists in south Texas. That is, except for the one that somehow magically appeared in Atlanta. And I'm pretty convinced that it was just for me. While there are some major differences, it is real enough to make an obsessive person like me feel right at home. I felt like it had only taken us 3 hours to drive to San Antonio, Texas and were all sitting outside at the 'patio cafe' enjoying far to much deliciousness. And that was only the beginning...

Because I didn't turn 21 until midnight Saturday/Sunday we had some time to kill. So we ended up taking a quick trip to Underground Atlanta. Hmmmm.. I wish I had taken a pictures. It is an underground shopping area that used to be very popular and from what I hear, fairly cool. It was something special for sure. It definitely looked like it had seen better days and we were definitely out of place there. But it was still a good time.

The rest of the evening included getting lost alot, eating at a fantastic burger place and then taking 'disco naps' at Megan's place while watching Saturday Night Live reruns. Disco naps were a good call. Then we freshened up and headed out on the town.

A fantastic surprise of the night was that we met Aziz Ansari and I got a picture taken with him. For those of you who don't know this name, he is Tom in Parks and Recreation and also hosted the MTV music awards this year. If that doesn't help just go Google him. Anyways, it was pretty exciting even if we had to wait forever to meet him.

Afterwards we went out on the town for a few hours. My first appearance as a 21 year old in public was epic for sure. And don't worry, I was in good hands.

Sunday, my actual birthday day was spent driving back and using the GPS to look for random roadside attractions which led us to what was apparently Georgia's largest flee market but really it was like 5 of the same stores repeated about 100 times. It was hilarious.

It had been a long time since I laughed as hard as I did this weekend. It was so fantastic to get away and to be celebrated. So here is to you Leslie Sloan, Betsy Corry, Sarah Spooner, and Megan Hafer!

Job well done.