it's my birthday!

It's my birthday today. 26 big ones. yee haw. With birthday territory comes the "It's my party and I'll cry if I want to" song, which scrolls through my head all day. I've also already planned out a birthday route which will get me the most amount of free stuff - breakfast at Denny's, free lunch at Mongolie grill, billy miner pie at the keg and maybe a clown ice cream come at Baskin Robins. I love free and I love birthdays. I took today off work to take advantage of all the birthdayness of the day.

Being a twin, our birthday was always a big deal - we got to celebrate twice as hard and long to make up for the sharing of the day. It was fun to celebrate a birthday with someone. Someone who was having just as much fun as you because it was her birthday too.

I'm the first one to spout the phrase "sharing is caring", but it's not necessarily something I live by. I mostly say it because it rhymes and rhyming makes me giggle. I'll share my food, I'll share my clothes, I'll share my unwanted opinions.. all these things I can do without batting an eyelash. The one thing that irks me to share, still, after 26 years, is my birthday. We would get the same presents, sometimes in different colours and most often it would be one cake with two names scrawled on top. Unless you time the opening of presents and blowing of candles exactly, someone will be getting shafted. It took Manda and I a decade or so to perfect it, but we managed to get Shared Birthday Etiquette sorted out.

I think I was 20 years old the first time I celebrated a birthday sans-sister. It was strange. Since then we've missed a couple more; one year I spent my birthday weekend in Vegas. I came home to a surprise party being thrown for Amanda. It was a very strange experience. Nobody has expected me to be home yet, so there weren't any presents for me. The cake had her name solely on it. I wasn't even wearing a party dress. I believe I went home and cried myself to sleep that night. It might have just been post-Vegas blues though.

This weekend I will be spending this birthday in Whistler, which is one of my favorite places. The sister will be absent from this trip due to a death in her husband's family, which makes me sad for them and then super sad for me being without an Amanda for the weekend. Lucky for me, I got a talking toy hamster for my birthday and I think that will replace her nicely. *lol jk.

Because of their abrupt change in plans, we decided to cancel our hotel room, which was a 2 bedroom suite. At this point I still have not re booked a room. I am toying with the idea of using the Suite Secrets feature on whistler.com. Essentially, it's like Hotel Roulette. You can pick how many stars, the type of room and where it is located in Whistler - but you don't get to find out which hotel it is until you've entered your payment information. Could be fun? I've put it off for two days because I was nervous, but now that I'm 26 years old I think I feel ready. Wish me luck...and more importantly, wish me a happy birthday! and then go and wish Amanda one. it's only fair.

MOH Speech

My sister is officially a married woman, I now have a brother-in-law! I also officially have the worst hangover ever (totally worth it though).

The wedding was a beautiful, amazing, fun and touching event. The entire weekend was great- starting with a rehearsal dinner BBQ on Friday, followed by a spa day in North Van with the girls and a dinner with the crew on Saturday. The Big Day was Sunday which started at the crack of dawn with a run to Starbucks, followed by hair and makeup, snacks and champagne and then it was time for the ceremony. Amanda was absolutely beautiful in her dress and the bridal party as a group was stunning. The reception was so much fun and, as maid of honor, I was required to do a speech, which I have been fretting over for the last 8 months. When it was time for me to speak, I had made my peace with my nerves (for the most part) and pulled it off nicely (if I do say so myself). Here's the rough outline of what I spoke about:

Hi. For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Michelle- I’m the Maid of Honour. Amanda is my twin sister and my best friend; I’ve known her my whole life.

I was one of the last people to know that Manda and Jason had gotten engaged. The weekend Jason proposed, I was off camping in the middle of nowhere, of course with no cell service. When I got back to town I had 56 thousand messages and 100 missed calls. I honestly thought someone had died. When I finally found out the good news, I immediately wrote a blog about why I should be her Maid of Honour. In the blog I totally slandered my friends and fellow bridesmaids which probably makes me a bad person. It must have been pretty convincing because here I am, doing my maid of honor speech.

Amanda gave me a laundry list of things I wasn’t allowed to talk about in my speech, so I am NOT going to say anything about her favorite stuffed animal, Mr. Corn Head, who is essentially an ear of corn with a face-which is super creepy. There are a few other things that I am absolutely not going to mention...(looked over to Manda to share a conspiratory glance- received a death stare in return)

So since I can't talk about any of that fun stuff, instead I’d like to tell you why I love my sister. I’ve managed to wheedle the list down to 5 things, so here they are, in no particular order.

1. She is the best person to go on car rides with, for a few reasons: she’s a great car dancer; she knows all the words to every Sugarland song; she’s really good at air guitar, air drums and sometimes even the air fiddle; and best of all she’s usually doing all this WHILE driving, which is kind of scary, but mostly impressive.

2. She is always up to share a diet coke or diet root beer, no matter what. Yes, this is a very important best friend quality in my books.

3. She is the dollar store queen and is almost always able to tell me which dollar store I need to go to find a certain thing. For those of you who don't know, Amanda actually planned and decorated the entire venue which I think we can all agree looks absolutely beautiful, so let's give her a round of applause for that. Some of this beautiful decor has come from the dollar store...but I won't tell you which parts!

4. Other than my dad, she has the best tanning technique out of anyone I know.Arms up, arms down, flip over, etc- it is quite the process! They should have their own YouTube video and a million people would probably watch it and they would be famous.

5. And lastly, she lets me hold her hand when we are walking, even though I know she sometimes doesn’t want to. I started off with swinging my hand 'accidently' into hers and then clasping her hand. At first it didn't go over so well, but she's warmed up to it and will now pretty much hold my hand any time which is quite lovely.
OK so that’s it for my list. I don’t think those are necessarily the same reasons why Jason loves Amanda, as I know he doesn’t drink diet coke-which is weird- and rarely hits the dollar store - also weird- but I have seen him car dance, although it's not a pretty sight (insert awkward fist pumping action).
I guess the last thing I want to say is that I’m so happy for you guys and love you both and wish you many years of happiness. I’m super stoked to finally have a brother and I think my sister made a pretty great choice in you Jay. If everyone could please raise their glasses in a toast to Manda and Jay.

-Insert wild applause and cheering here-

#438 Your Almost Name

It’s what your parents were going to call you but didn’t.

Flipping through baby books, chatting at bedtime, you better believe your folks had alternate identities in mind before you borned out. They thought about nicknames, shortforms, and tributes. They thought about spelling, rhyming, and meanings. Basically, they thought and hoped and wished all kinds of things for you even before you made it here.

Sometimes when you find out your Almost Name it feels odd and uncomfortable — like putting on an itchy shirt, clenching your fist after waking up, or walking out of a movie and realizing your foot’s asleep. Maybe you let your mind wander and daydream about a new life where your Almost Name takes top billing and your nicknames, identity, and major life choices are all dramatically affected. You wonder how your life could be different — would you be more confident? Less passionate? More artsy? Less annoying?

Nothing’s the same when you’re Nancy.

Everything changes when you’re Chuck.

Now, my Almost Name is Paul.

Yes, it was a close call and my parents switched over to Neil at the last minute. I’m pretty sure Neil Diamond or Neil Armstrong got the name bouncing around their brains like a ping pong ball. But somehow Paul got tossed in the can before I showed up and my entire Paul Life got tossed with it.

And maybe that’s one reason Almost Names are so great: they remind us how lucky we are to get something else. I mean, it’s fun letting Almost Names add frames and borders to our lives … because it helps us feel a little more sure of ourselves and a lot more

AWESOME!

http://1000awesomethings.com/2010/08/17/438-your-almost-name/

Personal note: My ALMOST name was Amanda. Glenn and Carol were going to name the first of the two of us Michelle and the second Amanda, but then someone got the bright idea that it would be better if it was in alphabetical order; Amanda before Michelle. Thank god for that. I totally would be a downtrodden, struggling individual with a name like Amanda. I'm sure glad Amanada has been able to pull it off. Michelle Michelle Michelle. What a sweet little sound.