We made a slideshow of ourselves based on some of the most shameful pictures our respective families could dig up. This version is set to music (because no one likes to look at 18 minutes worth of pictures in silence) and is pretty much the same thing that played. A couple of photos were deleted to somewhat go along with the chosen song.

Highlights:

-Julie’s various costumes throughout the years

-A fat young Fran being quite content making homemade hamburgers

-A dorky-looking Fran at the Topsfield Fair with an inexplicable blue strap for his eyeglasses

-Julie dancing with Elvis sunglasses

-Fran with long hair (there aren’t many pics of this for whatever reason

It happened people. And yes, I’m still writing this blog. Why? Because I have a problem. It’s also serving as a nice way to usher in the engaged life hangover and transition into (gulp) Ma-rried life (thanks to Dinsdale for the idea for the name).

So that’s us, walking in to screams and hollers that were so loud we didn’t hear the entry music. This segued into our first dance, which I’m hoping someone got video of. It was to Barry White’s “My First, My Last, My Everything.”

Things to clear up:

Yes, we took dance lessons.

No, the lessons didn’t include the silly dancing in the beginning.

Yes, we had other song ideas for a first dance.

Songs we considered before we settled on Barry White.

Peter Gabriel “Book of Love.”
-I knew about this song YEARS ago and has been on the Nite playlist on my iPod. Then Scrubs stole if for their season finale and we scrapped it.

Sarah Mclachlan “Angel”
-The song is significant for us, but we also didn’t want people to fall asleep at 8pm.

Frank Sinatra “Can I Steal A Little Love”
-Again, we like this song (and it was played during dinner), but it wasn’t “us”

Jason Mraz “Lucky”
-Don’t judge us. We liked it. But we also knew people would probably be sick of the song by September.

Van Morrison “Crazy Love”
-We love it, but at this point we started thinking of doing something more lively

Madonna “Like a Virgin”
-One night in July, after a bottle of wine, we thought this would be the greatest idea in the world. Then we had some popcorn, passed out and forgot all about it

Metallica “One”
-Too long. And possibly too epic for a wedding

Digital Underground “The Humpty Dance”
-We decided this would be better played later at night once the booze was in effect. And judging from the video I have (and will post later) we were right

Early Man “Death is the Answer”
-Slightly off topic

Coldplay “Fix U”
-Julie took offense that it implied she had to be “fixed.” Then she slapped me with a loaf of bread. The Feener rage knows no bounds

Beyonce “Single Ladies (Put a Ring On it)”
-I’m gonna write a couple more to finish, but I just wanna say that BEYONCE MADE THE GREATEST VIDEO OF ALL TIME

Bel Biv Devoe “Do me”
-Again, something that was saved for later. Much later. But not too late. Just late enough.

The Grateful Dead “Truckin”
-Even though it has been a long strange trip, somehow this felt wrong. Also, we wouldn’t be outside, barefoot or high during the dance

Rocky Theme Song
-It’s been said that the few who have tried this turned their reception into an all-night quote-from-Rocky-movies experience. Also, too many men would have started crying and screaming Adrian

I finally have an opportunity to say exactly what I think about my sister Amy! Hahaha!

Despite our 6 year age difference, Amy and I have always (pretty much always) been really close.  Don’t get me wrong, she pulled the typical big sister stuff with me, but I don’t think I was ever smart enough to let it get to me!  Here’s a prime example.  When Amy was in high school, the phone in our house was constantly glued to Amy’s ear.  We were privileged enough to have phones in our bedroom, that is until we abused that privilege!  After several nights of hogging the phone, my father decided Amy had lost the right to have a phone in her room.  Rather than simply unplugging the phone, he ripped it out of the wall!  What does my savvy older sister do?  The next day she convinces me that she likes the color of my bedroom better and wanted to switch.  Since I would be getting the bigger room out of it, I agreed.. only later to discover I had no phone!

I always looked up to my big sister.  I wanted to wear her clothes, use her aqua net, and have giant bangs just like her.  One day I sat at school teasing my own hair so I could have big hair, just like my sister.  (When my mom went nuts that afternoon, I told her my friend did it to me!  Are you getting it yet that I REALLY wanted big hair in the 80s?)

When Amy went off to college and we had a long term house guest (We miss you Steve!) I had to share my bedroom with Amy.  It was a great deal for me.  I had free access to the clothes she left behind, and she wasn’t there everyday to yell at me for wearing them!  When she was home on the weekends, we would always stay up and watch Saturday Night Live together.  We would laugh as we imagined my mother doing the Chris Farley “lunch lady” dance!

When my sister’s future husband came to pick her up for their first date, I answered the door.  (For a minute he thought I was Amy, and had a heart attack).  Not only was I happy to see that my sister was falling in love, I was really happy she would no longer be home on Friday nights “doing laundry” and disrupting Fran and I who were “watching a movie.”

Amy is always there when I need her.  When I moved back in with my parents, Amy provided me with nightly refuge at her house, and always had margaritas and popcorn waiting.  When I got the first email from Fran after 3 1/2 years I opened it at Amy’s house.  She was obsessed with Fran and I getting back together from that moment on.  There is no one other than Amy that I would rather have standing by my side as I marry Fran. It is also good to have her there because as she will say herself “she’s dead inside.”  The woman never cries…. EVER!  If I see crying, I will cry.  Thank you for not crying, Amy.

Amy likes:  holistic healing (you know tuning forks, “the secret”, and all that crap), being a mom to twins who look 2 years apart, and Lost

Amy hates:  family drama, when people catch her “acting like mom”, and when you hold her arms down (Why?  because then she can’t breathe)

I love my cousin Chrissy.  So much so that I used to bite her… all the time.  I have little memory of this, but my family (Chrissy especially) assure me that it is true.  Chrissy is my closest cousin age wise on my mom’s side of the family.  She is the youngest sister of Mary, who you already met.  Chrissy hated that our family always paired up together at holidays and family gatherings.  When the rest of the cousins got night gowns with bows, we got hearts; when they got black and white swatch watches, we got pink and green.  Chrissy may have hated this, but I thought it was the coolest thing in the world!  I idolized my blond haired, blue eyed cousin, with her big bangs and “Salem” jacket with her name on the sleeve.  I put her picture in my locker in 6th grade.  When she and her sisters found this out, they mocked me…and still do to this day.

Chrissy & I circa 1984

Here are some of my favorite memories with Chrissy Parker:

-Doing our homework together on Buffum St.  Chrissy would have to do all of her reading out loud.

-Driving to Georgia in my parents van for a family reunion.  The only music Chrissy, my sister Amy and I could agree on was the Little Mermaid soundtrack.  We belted out the tunes for hours…..we were all teenagers.

-Visiting Chrissy at UNH.  She is 3 years OLDER than me (some think it is the other way around!).  She showed me what a real college party should be like.  I just couldn’t figure out what the funky smell in the air was wherever we went!

-Traveling to San Francisco after one of the toughest years of my life.  It was Chrissy’s idea to invite me along, and my idea to ask Fran if he wanted to meet me there.  What a great decision that was!

-Buying tickets from a scalper at Fenway, then have anxiety that they weren’t real. (They were real.. it was awesome!)

-Chrissy and I used to work for the same company.  She used to call me everyday on the day to way to work to catch up, talk about ideas for our students, and to vent about everything from men and family to work and our bosses.

-A last minute invite to a Sox game at Fenway.  Chrissy called me at 6.  We were both on the North Shore.  We drove into Fenway, got free parking, and had tickets just a couple of rows back from the Red Sox dugout and made it just in time for the first pitch!  Chrissy kept freaking out that she was going to get hit by a fly ball.  I told her to just try to catch it in her beer cup.

Chrissy likes:  the color green,  beer, and  being outdoors

Chrissy hates: imperfect manicures or pedicures, the end of a bottle of coke, and losing at any game (especially losing to me!)

I have two early memories of my sister. One is when we were outside in the backyard and she started to cry because her balloon was flying away. I ran, jumped and somehow caught the end of the string. She stopped crying.

Another memory involves me being a little older and thinking it was a good idea to throw a small hammer at her. Thankfully I missed and hit a window instead. I can’t tell you why I threw the hammer. Don’t worry. She got back at me years later by throwing a basketball at me. Right at my junk. And then she laughed and laughed and laughed.

There are scores of other  stories I can tell, and even more that I shouldn’t. Here’ are the highlights

-Family trip to the Philippines with a hop over to China to check out the Yangtze River and Hong Kong. We took a cruise on the river where Mayen was creepily hit on by the old Chinese French-speaking guy. In Hong Kong, we took a walk together to look at illegal DVDs being sold on the street. On the way back to the hotel, I stole a broom that was propped up on the side and ran away. Mayen followed screaming “We gonna get caned!”

- Halloween 1998, Mayen calls Julie frantically.  She was hosting a party with her high school friends.  One girl shows up out of her mind.  She brought with her a couple of jack ass guys.  Julie came over and kicked them out.  From then on Julie has been Mayen’s own personal bouncer.  Julie sees Mayen as the little sister she never had and is quite protective of her!

-For New Years 2006, I brought Julie to NYC. Mayen was living in Astoria, Queens at the time and she also promised to take Julie around (she had never been to NYC). In one day, we skated at Rockefeller Center, went to the Empire State Building, saw Cental Park and Times Square, bought stolen/fake Coach bags on Canal Street, ate dessert in Little Italy, and drank in Brooklyn with the Camp. We left Brooklyn around 11 p.m. to get to Queens for Mayen’s party. We busted the door down at 12:05 a.m. screaming “HAPPY #(%_@! NEW YEAR!” I’m told it’s still one of the best New Year party entrances ever.  This was the same party where Julie played Mayen’s personal bouncer for the second time.  There was guy passed out in Mayen’s apartment.  He had just puked all over the place.  Julie grabbed him and told him  to “GET the F*#@ OUT!” He left in shame with his jacket over his head.

-Mayen and I once ate our weight in Chinese food. True story

-When we were younger, we would fight in the bathroom when we both wanted to brush our teeth at the same time. I screamed “THIS IS MY HOUSE TOO!” After the 5th time of yelling it, we started laughing.

-  Mayen and Julie went to the same high school, Mayen was a sophomore when Julie & I met senior year.  I don’t know if Mayen ever knew this, but Julie used to try to come up with at least one thing per week to say to Mayen at school.  Julie thought if Mayen came home with something to tell me that I wouldn’t think she was “the quiet girl” anymore.

-We used to make up games and songs on long family road trips. This was especially helpful after our father flew into an uncontrollable rage

-Introducing Mayen to the wonderful world of zombie movies

-Seeing movies together that no one else would see with us

-We would have epic one-on-one basketball tournaments in the driveway that didn’t end till my mother yelled “OY! GET IN HERE!”

-Danvers, the small town we are from, had a local politicain (maybe he was a representative or something?) named Doug Bean. He would always run around town with a t-shirt that said “D. Bean” on the back. Whenever Mayen and I saw him running, we would start chanting “DougBean! DougBean! DougBean!”
One time at dinner we were trying to get my mom excited about Doug Bean and did the chant at the dinner table. While seated in my chair, I was apparently bouncing too forcefully and ended up splitting the chair in two. Mayen and my mom had tears in their eyes from laughing so hard.

-Another dinner table story: Whenver Mayen would get pissed as a child, she would lift the table up. She still does today.

-One time, Mayen came home from a party trashed and hungry. She found some leftover Chinese food and accidentily ate one of the superhot red peppers.  She freaked out and started heaving over the sink. I told her to start drinking milk. Halfway through I told milk doesn’t do much. Then she started laughing.

-When we were younger our parents brought us to Chinatown for Chinese New Year to see the dragon dancing. When we got home, we took a bed sheet, wrapped our stuffed lion in it and had a dragon dance of our own.

However, none of the stories above holds a candle to the Vegas trip Mayen and I took two years ago for her birthday. We saw the Beatles show, screamed at the wheel to land on 20 (it did and we screamed louder, which freaked everyone out) and Mayen got to experience what it was like to win at War (yes, the card game War is in Vegas). Thanks to this win, mixed with a copious amount of booze, Mayen decided to celebrate in a manner that is only fitting for Vegas.

And yes, I have video.

Mayen in Vegas. Please note that halfway through the song she’s only making sounds and thinking they are words.

Mayen likes: Tetris on the DS, her stuffed bulldog Winston, scotch

Mayen hates: people who can’t air drum properly, boys who pass out at parties, snakes

Norah, Amy, Elizabeth and I became a tight-knit group when we first traveled to Spain our Sophomore year of high school.  We left for the trip on Good Friday and have spent that Holy Day together for the past 14 years, minus the one year that Amy and Elizabeth were studying abroad.

Although I have a friendship with each of these 3 individually, we tend to come as a package deal.  We have seen each other through many ups and downs, births and deaths, new found loves, and heart breaks.  No matter how long the four of us go without taking to each other, we always pick up right where we left off.. and always seem to end up discussing the same… well.. topic.   :0)

We all met in high school, but never really traveled in the same group together.  It was always outside of school that we had our fun.  We all somehow crashed the St. John’s Prep Senior Prom ( and would have done the same Junior year if Amy didn’t come down with mono!)  Amy would drive us around in her accident-prone, yet indestructible  Chevy.  This car even got in an accident just parked in front of school, with no one in it!

Norah was the other person responsible for introducing Fran and I.  In typical Norah fashion, she called me at 3 in the afternoon and said “You are going out with Fran tonight.  We are all going to the movies.  I will pick you up at 6.”  She always knew what was happening in my relationship with Fran.. usually before I did!  Being an actress, she hid that well!

In college, we would take trips to visit each other at the 4 different colleges we attended.  I think some of my craziest memories were nights visiting these girls.  One of my favorite nights was visiting Amy at Providence College.  It was the first and only time I ever used a fake ID.  She gave me an ID of a 28-year-old blond girl with stick straight hair.  When I started freaking out with second thoughts about using it,  Amy’s response was: “Don’t worry, it looks like your sister, you’ll be fine!”  And I was… what a night!

Elizabeth is often confused with my sister.  Like Norah too, we are the youngest of 4 children.  We probably have more in common as adults than we ever did as teenagers.  Just looking at Elizabeth, who is now a Catholic High School teacher, you would never expect some of the things she says (or does) to be possible .  She is no shy girl… until her husband decides to run around naked! (see his post: Gerard Murphy)

I could go on and on and write a novel about these girls and the things we have done together.  I am sure you will see all of us on the dance floor at the wedding. If you’re lucky, they may even tell you an embarrassing story about me!

From our most recent Good Friday, just before Amy gave birth to Joshua

Good Friday Girls like: Dancing, traveling, and anything Spanish

Good Friday Girls dislike:  People who turn you into someone you are not, drunk obnoxious boyfriends/husbands who refuse to come home from the karoke bar, unappreciative people with missing body parts

I can touch his boob and it’s cool…that’s how close we are.

“Just be ready at 10 a.m. And wear sneakers.”

That’s what I heard about a week ago from Demsey, my best man, a couple of days before my bachelor party. When I told people at the office this, I got the inevitable response of “Dude, you’re gonna die.”

I can’t reveal what happened that morning, but I can tell you that my ass was sore the next day and I needed about four Advils and a long nap to rejuvenate myself (we went indoor skydiving…and then drank like a million beers).

Demsey and I have known each other for more than two decades. He was there for my first crush on a girl and he was there when that girl chose him instead of me (my response was “I’m not fighting him…cause he’ll probably kick my ass”).

Don’t worry. I got my revenge when I called the hot girl from class on the phone and then hit on her myself (I was smooth in the 8th grade).

There are miles of memories between us, from the first drink (Zima…I’m still ashamed) to our first legal “R” rated movie (“The Money Train”), which incidentily was the inspiration for a story I wrote in high school where I put all my friends in as characters. The awesome part about that was my girlfriend at the time broke up with me halfway through the story, so the ending is a bit…dark.

But the best part is that I had someone with my during the awkward years. Case in point. Look below.

Shout-out to Caito for finding this and helping me display my shame to the world.

To get a glimpse into how this friendship has made me the Fran I am today, here’s a rought timeline:

1984: I enroll at St. Mary’s of Annunciation for the first grade. Ryan is in my class. I saying nothing to no one.

1988: Somehow, I crawl out of my shell and Ryan and I become close. Afternoons are spent riding bikes around town, playing baseball in the backyard and listening to cassette tapes of New Kids on the Block and Debbie Gibson.

1989: We discover the movie “Major League” and continue to quote it to this day. We also discover the movie Dirty Dancing and Sears catalogs…you know why. Ryan’s favorite joke at the time: “What’s the capital of Thailand?  Bangkok. OK! (SLAP!)

1990: Ryan gets his first girlfriend who had the unique skill of riding a unicycle and going for hours on the phone without saying anything. All I can do is make girls laugh and walk away.

1992: I get glasses and the little popularity I had in school takes a hit in the polls. Ryan doesn’t care and we spend most of the summer listening to Weird Al Yankovic’s “Off the Deep End.”

1993: My hair gets long and I get some muscles. The “slutty” girl in class starts to notice me. Ryan is in a “committed” relationship with the unicylce-riding mute girl.

1995: We get our driver’s license. In about a week we almost die in his car and I almost break my mom’s axle in her mini van. We’re told we’re not allowed to leave the town line.

1996: Ryan tells me I should meet this girl called Julie. I do at a party and she ignores me. I tell Ryan she’s too quiet. This also begins the annual JRE (Jay Robleski Experience) in the New Hampshire cabin. At some point we take Confirmation classes at the local church (we grew up Catholic) and manage to hit on the dirty public school girls in there with us.  He also sets me up with Julie and pays for my date. Julie thinks I’m poor and proceeds to buy me things (actually, she still does this…)

1997: We rent a Playstation and Gran Turismo and play it for about 15 hours straight. Our lifelong love of video games is born.

-I get a job at the local video store. Ryan and his family don’t pay for videos or late fees ever again.

1998: Ryan tells me listens to country music now. I start to come around with the mentality of “If Ryan thinks this is cool….

-I meet Ryan’s future wife Jill for the first time at a Shania Twain concert. I drunkenly dance with Jill on the lawn at Great Woods (not the Comcast Center). I ask Ryan if she can ride a unicycle. He shows me what it’s like in the capital of Thailand.

-Ryan takes me to the mall to get my ear pierced. I think it’s awesome to wear giant pirate-esque loops in my ear

2000: The annual JRE trips start to get crazier.

2001: Julie and I break up. While at the New Hampshire cabin Jill asks me how I’m doing. I puke on her shoes. For the next five years I’m convinced she hates me. As punishment, Ryan buries my car in the snow. He then pees on it and laughs into the night.

-Final year working at the video store during the summer. Before I leave, I load up Ryan’s and the rest of his family’s account with free credits. They enjoy free movies for the next four years.

2002: I spend my last night at my parent’s house with Ryan and Jay before I move to Arizona. He says “You’re crazy…and I love you.” Then we make out. I’m kidding.

2004: My girlfriend in Arizona breaks up with me. The guys fly me back home for more drunken fun at the cabin. Jill is not part of the festivities. I laugh about puking on her shoes. Ryan threatens to pee on my luggage.

2005: I get an extended drunk dial from Ryan during a poker night at Jay’s. I later find out that he drank half a bottle of something and ate two pizzas.

2007: I move back home and attend one of the poker nights at Jay’s. Ryan passes out on the couch. The next day he gets a call from Jill with her yelling “I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD!” We take the long way home.

-Jay and I kidnap Ryan and take him to Florida for Spring Training.

-Later that year Ryan gets married and I’m his best man, which leads to the following

I did show that video at the afterparty and I will pay for it during his speech to me.

2008: We turn 30 and get surprise parties from our significant others. There are embarassing pictures of both of us at each party.

2009: We get Blackberries and now have random conversations about random things at random times of the day. And Jill has accepted me, thanks to my mom’s homemade eggrolls.

Ryan likes: jackets, drop-kicking cell phones, anything that can be strapped to a truck

Ryan hates: banks, “working at the ass crack of dawn,” drunken phonies at Bostonville bar who he would fight at the drop of a hat

That guy, up there holding the plastic cup of booze, is the man who gave me my first journalistic break. When other papers, magazines and high school publications tossed my profanity-filled resume into the trash, one man saw brilliance. That man was, and is, Ed Baker (that link is to his charity Ironman page. If you care about the human race, you’ll donate).

“I like you. You’ll write about anything.”

This was true. When I freelanced for the College Times I was more interested in writing than my temp job at the mortuary. So I took all the assignments no one else wanted: mystery meat, calendar listings, see a crappy Disney movie and review it, best diners in the Phoenix area, man-on-the-street interviews about getting drunk.

Eventually the persistence paid off and I got a full-time job working at CT. There I worked in a small corner next to the bathroom and did interviews on the phone with an occasional toilet flush in the background. When we needed a break, Ed, Eric the graphic designer and I would head out back and play nerf-horse with a small plastic basketball hoop. I think I won once the entire time we played.

However, it also sparked a CT horse tournament. Afterwards I wrote sport stories about what we witnessed. I wish I still had those emails.

Yes, I also did actual work while I was there. Below is an example of a calendar item I would write:

“August 20: Did you ever want to know about the magic and mystery or tarot cards? Didn’t think so. But if you need a place to go to avoid someone, check out Bob Fazio at Borders, 2402 East Camelback Road in Phoenix around 7 p.m. No one will ever find you there…that is, unless they already know the magic of tarot cards. Then you’re screwed. 602.957.6660 for magic info.” (Yes, this was actually published).

All my work was published under the name Eddie Shoebang. Go ahead and google it. You’ll find mentions of the Arizona Press Club award I won (I tied myself for first place, which means the only person who can beat me is myself) and some people from San Diego who hate my guts.

I could go on for another 5,000 thousand words about the memories I have with the E-Bake. Here’s  a small taste:

-riding bikes to a Distillers show. Crashing them into trees later

-the best Bloody Marys for breakfast

-drunk at D’backs games and me trying to jump over things

-quietly puking in his sink

-the Flagstaff cabin during the summer

-dancing at the office

-making him drink glass at a concert

-kickball

-home improvement projects that ended with early evening beers

-getting served by RB at the House of Tricks while talking about 70s music (also where my love for Modelo Especial was born)

-yelling “Baseball!” as a cheer at Spring Training

Spring Training in Arizona…Baseball!

Working at the College Times is one of the great memories of my life. From the freedom I got to write what I wanted (pitched a story about a guy on death row. Also interviewed an Elvis impersonator at the local casino) to the randomness at the office.

Here’s a taste of how Ed keeps morale up at the office.

But out of the million or so memories I have, one sticks out among them all and it involves a rented cabin in the woods and a weekend’s worth of beer. We were joined by Eric, our graphic designer at the office, and spent the time coming up with ideas for the paper.

While we did that, we also got blitz’d out of our minds, causing us to commit minor property damage and yelling “CACK!” as loud as we could into the night. At one point some guy in the darkness started talking to us and the following conversation ensued:

Dude: You guys from Chickenhawk U?

Ed: Yea. We just graduated! CACK!

Dude: Well, why don’t you quiet down. I got a shotgun here.

(awkward silence)

Me: Well, we got your daughter.

Dude: …ok, that was really funny. huhuhu

Ebake likes: cooking, training for the Ironman, playing “truckosaurus”

Ebake hates: hammers that hurt him, when ASU loses, high-pitch barks from dogs

This past Tuesday night Julie and I spent a good hour reading the good book in the effort to find appropriate readings for our Catholic ceremony (don’t worry, it only feels like three hours) that didn’t begin with “Love is patient, love is kind…”

So we wanted something different. What we discovered that it’s hard going through the Bible to find passages about love or friendship that don’t set feminism back 50 years or endorse behavior that I’m pretty sure is illegal in most states.

For your viewing pleasure, here are some excerpts of Scripture you will not likely hear at a wedding…

“…Wives should be submissive to their husbands as if to the Lord because the husband is head of his wife just as Christ is head of his body the church, as well as its savior. As the church submits to Christ, so wives should submit to their husbands in everything.”

-Ephesians 5:2a, 25-32

Julie’s reaction: HELL NO.

——–

“…A loving doe, a graceful deer – may her breasts satisfy you always, may you ever be captivated by her love.”

-Proverbs 5:19

Fran: Actually, that isn’t bad because it’s about…
Julie: Just shut up

——

“Oh, that you were my brother, nursed at my mother’s breasts! If I met you out of doors, I would kiss you and none would taunt me. I would lead you, bring you in to the home of my mother.”

-Song of Solomon 8: 1-2

Fran: Uh, I feel weird.
Julie: Me too.

———-

“If any man take a wife, and go in unto her, and hate her, and give occasions of speech against her, and bring up an evil name upon her, and say, I took this woman, and when I came to her, I found her not a maid. Then shall the father of the damsel, and her mother, take and bring forth the tokens of the damsel’s virginity unto the elders of the city in the gate.”

-Deuteronomy 21: 13-15

Julie: What the WHAT?
Fran: Maybe we should just use lyrics from Matisyahu songs

—–

In the end I texted my old boss from the College Times who went to school where they had daily Bible verse competitions (He’s from Oklahoma) for help. Though he gave us two of the verses above, he also gave us two worthy ones we ended up picking.

Here’s one of them.

I first met Cinthia my first year at Framingham State.  Cinthia and her roommate Katie (you’ll meet her too) graciously accepted me as their third roommate, so I could escape my roommate,”cat girl,” a.k.a. ‘hater of all things fun’.  By “third roommate,”  I mean they allowed me to crash on their floor after a long night of drinking, and torturing the “Freshman Experience Floor” kids!  Cinthia and I became fast friends.  She got me involved in the Student Activities Board, where I met so many great people.  Cinthia’s mom also gave me many rides home on the weekends!

Junior year of college, Cinthia endured a Spring Break trip to Oregon to visit my brother and his wife.  It was on this trip that we realized no matter how insane things get, we travel well together.  Cinthia solidified her title of ‘travel buddy’ when she endured my rediculous expectations of a Disney Vacation (shh… DON”T tell Fran!)  As is that was not enough, Trejo took on two great feats:  1.  to be a wedding date for Jay’s (remember him?) cousin so that I didn’t have to stay in a room alone with Fran, back in our awkward just-started-talking-again days  and 2.  Joining me on a road trip to Florida with my dad and my nephew!  It was during the later trip that she briefly married my dad (long story, don’t ask!) .

Trejo prides herself in having all items necessary for a kick-ass camping trip, being Kali’s godmother, and telling Fran I was single again, prompting him to email me after almost 4 years.  She also has some pretty kick ass Rockband skills.  Furthermore, Cinthia gets the award for most sleepovers since we moved into the apartment.

Cinthia likes:  traveling, Filipino boys, and hair tools

Cinthia dislikes:  mice, gluten, and men who may like you but will never admit it