Happy Birthday Cousin!

Today I'd like to introduce you to someone very special. This is Too Tight's partner in crime, literally because we did break into an apartment once. But, WAIT it's not as bad as it sounds. My Mom didn't buy it either. We got IN SO MUCH TROUBLE for that one.

I grew up with her. Many of my stories are her stories too. We have shared so much through the years and are like sisters, except we always got along.

Well, there was that one time when she threw my brand new faux patent leather Easter shoes across the room and I punched her in the nose. But, that is really the only fight I ever remember us having.

We used to spend the night together. We'd jump on the bed, eat Chapstick, watch movies, eat potato chips and dip. She always liked to dip the bubbly chips in her Pepsi and let the bubble fill up with pop, then eat it. We even went to the same daycare for awhile.

Our families would camp together and we were allowed to just run free. We'd fish, hike, lay flat on our backs in the tall grass, find pretty rocks, make pic nic lunches, play cards, hide from our brothers, breathe, stretch...be.

When we got older, we listened to music, played Atari, bossed our brothers around, played hide and seek in the dark. That was the SHIT! Wouldn't that be fun to do as an adult? Would anybody come if I had a Hide and Seek in the Dark Party? We watched The Dukes of Hazard and the Incredible Hulk on Friday nights. We roller skated like extreme sport champs - backwards, forwards, spirals, squats, jumps. We could skate as well as we could walk. Yeah, we had our hair feathered and our combs in our back pockets...wearin' our halter tops...

When we were teenagers, we worked together at Tastee Freeze, we smoked cigarettes, got high together (she was always so freakin' funny and still is), we got robbed together at Tastee Freeze, We talked on the phone for hours everyday without fail. We talked about Days of our Lives...music...guys...We went to concerts together. We saw Alice Cooper, Aerosmith, Tom Petty, Pink Floyd...We'd cruise together once we got our liscense and blast our tape decks. Though we talked to each other on the phone daily and saw each other at work, we still hung out together on the weekends and on days off of school.

Now that I am a mother, she is a very special person to my kids. I am so glad that I get to share her with them. They see her as a person who loves to laugh and is like the stereotypical fun aunt. She always has Kool Aid when they come to her house. She was the one who introduced "brown" milk to them. I tried to keep that a secret for as long as I could. They liked it. She makes their Easter Baskets every year with stuff picked out just for them because she knows what they like. They miss her when they don't see her for a long time.

She has always been a bright spot in my life no matter how tough things were growing up. She made me laugh. I hope I have given her even an ounce of what she has given me. Happy Birthday Angie. I love ya cuz.