Remembering 30 - The Dawn-Vasion

Before I can really tell you the Dawn-Vasion story I have to tell you another one. Don't worry, it's quick(ish) so cuddle up with a blanket and some cocoa and listen as we take a trip way, way back to 1994 when I was 14....

I couldn't freaking stand Dawn when I met her. She shaved her legs with no soap or water, who did this!? Oh and she never once got razor burn. That just flat out pissed me off! She was like the little sister that followed you around wanting to be apart of everything who you couldn't shake. But I had to be polite, as we were on a church trip, traveling through Europe to Russia and back and weather I liked the only girl younger then me on the trip or not, I was stuck with her for the next 2 months.

I grew to like her after a few weeks. 24 hour bus rides with nothing to do but chat will do that too you, even when there are 48 other people on the bus with you. She had a lot in common with me - neither of us were supposed to be on the trip...we weren't the 16 year old age requirement, but it's called money and that's how we got to where were. When I got home I even missed her. A little.

About 3 years ago I started to hunt down the people I went on this trip with. Not in a sniper riffle sort of way, in the "Hey how have you been" e-mail kind of way. But since all I had was address from 1994 and most had moved, or married and changed names - I turned to the only place I knew fit to search for people = Facebook.

And there I found her, or wait....did she find me? We bonded over a comment about pink duct tape - no terrible pun intended. And I realized adult Amber and Dawn have EVEN more in common then "Our parents hate us, under 16 Amber and Dawn". Bad relationships, Baby Daddies, you name it we had matching everything!

And that settled it - she booked ticket to Minnesota for a reunion 15 years in the making! I was so excited when I picked her up I scratched my husbands new car parking it. I arrived like an hour early then counted every second as it went by until she came down the corridor. Cue bags dropping, full speed running and high pitched screaming! Jump and hug! The people around us looked at us like we were nuts...it's AN AIRPORT, this happens all the time there! It's not like this happened at a funeral or something....because that would be weird!

We spent the next 3 days watching Remember Me, getting drunk, having a huge party to celebrate her arrival. She cooked - hey don't give me that look, A: She offered, and B: remember when I said I wasn't a great cook before...yea...so shut it! She made Dawn-Tacos, Dawn-Tinis and Cake Balls....beast meal ever! We called her trip The Dawn-Vasion.

She went home too soon and then we began planning my trip to LA to see her in June.....Best Friends forever. She's stuck with me now....weather she likes it or not!

Remembering 30 - The Bobby Long Files

For my first installment of Remembering 30 I give you - The Bobby Long Files

My sister in law called me last October to tell me that Bobby Long was coming back to town the following November and that he would be staying with my in-laws for one or two of the nights he was in town.

Now, I'm used to knowing where he's staying because some good friends of mine used to house him and Phil while he was here, but hearing that he was staying with my in laws left me a little shocked. I had only briefly met Bobby and a small gathering after his show the previous September in MN, same as my sister in law so it was odd to have this information in my head to process....how it happened to this day I'm still not entirely sure.


So, November rolls around Bobby and Phil are in town, and we head to my in-laws with baby Ellie to have breakfast with everyone and so I can make some sausage rolls for the boys. Phil was especially excited about these! I however was terrified because I had never made them before and the night before this, at Sam Bradly's show I told Phil and Bobby I would make them....now I'm not the worst cook, but you would never find me on the Food Network either...so needless to say I was praying all the while they would be edible! Last thing I needed to do was make Bobby ill from my cooking before his show and be the reason it was canceled. *cue angry mob, light torches....*

Just before I got started on the cooking, my favorite moment of the whole weekend happned. I was sitting talking to Bobby, holding my daughter Ellie and Bobby asked if he "could get a hold of her", then sat around talking to her for 20 minutes and even took a phone call saying only "I'm going to have to let you go, I'm holding a baby" and click - hangs up phone. The phone call was especially funny because he had to stand up to get his phone out of his pocket and he had to do this holding Ellie and looking a bit terrified he might drop her, but was pretty happy with himself when he managed it all just fine.
All the while, Ellie sat perfectly content, but then again until this time in her life all she ever heard to calm her was Bobby's music, it was all that worked. She could have been screaming bloody murder, you put on Dead and Done and she's in a trance! Something tells me she knew he was the man with the voice.

After all the baby holding, everyone headed to my sister in laws for a promised "red neck" good time (LOL!) A little 4 wheeling, gun shooting and Coors Light in the back 40 at my sister in laws land. I hung back at the in laws to finish up the sausage rolls, but when I arrived Bobby was pulling up to the house on the 4 wheeler dressed like Elmar Fudd. No, seriously....he was in a red flannel jacket and hat with those ear flap things on it...now that would have been fine if he didn't match it with those fancy brown leather shoes he's always wearing and a pair of skinny jeans. I jumped on the back of the 4 wheeler for a ride down to where all the fun was going on and made sure to tell him who I thought he looked like...obviously he didn't take offense as he referenced it at his show that night! LOL

So this was the first awesome thing I got to do after I turned 30, hang out with Bobby and Phil for a couple days. Now if we could just get him to come back to Minnesota so we can enjoy his music live again then everything would be great!

Oh and a little adivce for you - if Phil Taylor every tell yous he's a crap shot with a gun and challenges you....NEVER take it! That boy could shoot a fly off the back of a bird from 200 yards away!

REMEMBER - check back, I'll be doing awesome stories like this up until my birthday in October...in my Remembering 30 series...

Remembering 30 - Intro

About this time last year I was dreading turning 30. Literally crabby, pissy and trying to hide from it in every way possible. The only thing that was making it better was the fact I was throwing the coolest Twilight party ever for it, and even then I refused to call it my 30th...it was just simply "my birthday"

Now that my 30th year is rounding out, I realize I have done more in this year then the past 5 years (possibly 10) all together. So either I have had a really boring life the past 5 (or ten) years or I got to actually do some extraordinary things...(I'm going with the latter one, mostly because it makes me feel like less like a loser)

So in honor of my 30th year, and in an effort to stop thinking about turning another year older in just over a month... I am going to post a series of blogs that covers my favorite things I've gotten to do over the past 365 days - as sort of a count down to my October birthday....so starting tomorrow we will cover everything from Twilighgt, Dawn-Vasions, 4-Wheeling with Bobby Long and a trip to California....and a whole bunch of other things....