Darling Nikki

More July birthdays, more Assembly Hall buddies.

Happy Birthday John Marquardt! John works at the Hall. He used to be on the usher staff but now he is a member of the Hall's permanent full-time staff. John's nickname is John Boobies... as this blog is public domain I can't divulge the complete story behind this nickname, but ultimately it involves him saying "Boobies" in a crazy little voice (mocking a co-worker) then giggling, and basically it gave me fits. I could be in the worst place, mad at the world, smoke coming out of my ears and John saying "Boobies" will have me doubled over in fits of laughter in seconds. John is a HUGE Rascal Flatts fan, especially lead singer, Gary. John loves Gary so much that he wants to be Gary. Gary wears a lots of sparkly and bedazzled shirts when on stage. In an attempt to be Gary John has at least one bedazzled shirt in his collection. If he says "Boobies" while wearing the bedazzled shirt, I am finihsed.

Happy Birthday John Boobies! (Sorry if you didn't get much press here, but you share a birthday with Nikki so you don't really stand achance in this birthday blog showdown)

Happy Birthday Nikki Murbarger! If you are new to my blog, or happen to live under a rock, Nikki is one of my dearest and closest friends and is as my Mom likes to say my "Runnin' Buddy". No we don't actually run together (hello, that would involve running) but we travel the countryside together seeking adventures... typically of the Cardinals, Illini or musical variety. We have gone to Spring Training in Florida, Milwaukee, Cincinatti, Pittsburgh and SanFrancisco/Oakland to follow our boys who wear the "Birds on the Bat". Nikki also introduced me to county singer, Cardinal fan and all-round hottie, Joe Nichols. I heart Joe, and we are actually proud members of his fan club. Yep we are dorks, and proud of it. Nik loves Rascal Flatts too, but she favors Joe Don (the hot one) and stays away from the bedazzled shirts.

I met Nikki at the Assembly Hall. She said she was from Oreana, where an assortment of my aunts, uncles and cousins live/lived. I believe I endeared myself to her by actually knowing of and having been to Oreana... it is even smaller than Gibson City. Nikki and I are the same height... tall. She will often wear high heeled boots to work at the Hall, I scoff at the impracticality of such footwear, but I am actually just jealous that my old lady feet can't handle it and that I don't have enough confidence to be a tall girl that rocks the hight heels. I like that she does have the confidence, but yet still has enough common sense to go with the athletic shoes for the all day events like wrestling.

Nik takes good care of me. She provided me with housing/a bathroom when mine was being remodeled. She also drove me around, changed light bulbs and such when I was in a cast and on crutches. She even pushed me around in a wheelchair at the Cards game, and missed exciting game moments to get me nachos.

Nikki and I often share the same brain, it is scary sometimes. When Nik lost her voice last summer of our "Redbird Riverbank Roadtrip" we could actually communicate rather well through our warped version of sign language. We believe in baseball players "rocking the socks" (more of them should ditch the long pants) and we are vehemently opposed to public marriage proposals, in particular those on a jumbo-tron. We both enjoy the tacky appeal of Tumble Inn and the cast of characters there. We vary greatly on our food favorites, but can always find a good place to eat. We differ on our choice of shoe fashions, but both appreciate the bliss of Designer Shoe Warehouse. We can endlessly debate who is the more "perfect man" Albert Pujols or Scott Rolen, often switching sides somewhere along the way. My late cousin, Bruce, once said that they should do a documentary on the random and wacky adventures that Nikki and I get into. I think it would be a sleeper hit and the "feel good" film of the year.

Happy Birthday Nikki! (If you don't have a chance to read this blog, I understand your Dad is one of my most faithful readers, so Jerry tell Nikki "Happy Birthday" for me)

Kudos today to Meg "Ace" Thilmony for coming up with the word "insufferable" which was the absolute most perfect word to describe the topic of our conversation. So is "Kudos" in my blog your first journalism award? Are you now an award winning journalist, Meg "Ace" Thilmony?

P.S. the title of this blog references the Prince song of the same name. It is a salute to Nikki who always saying "Because if there is ever a 'ho or biatch featured in a song, TV show or movie... of course her name is Nikki".