Happy Birthday Down Under

Thursday, October 11, 2007 (okay so it is still the 10th here but it is already the 11th in Brisbane, Austrailia)

Happy Birthday Lil’ Sis!

Today is my Lil’ Sis, Nathan’s, birthday! Please see the “G’Day Nate” blog from July for the Lil’ Sis story. Nathan is one of my buddies from the Hall. He started working there when he was just a 17-year old punk, and left about 6 ½ years later as 24-year old “almost gentleman”.

My Natey has been in Brisbane, Australia since July. Normally he does the civil engineering gig in Chicago, but is working on big project down under for about four months. You can read about all of his adventures on his blog, “Nate Down Under”, the link is to the right. Nathan lives in Chicago so it isn’t like I get to see him all that much, but I really have missed him while he has been gone. Cellular calls and texting overseas are a bit on the pricey side, so we have relied primarily on email. One of my favorite email conversations took place this last Friday when I was at work. It was 10 a.m. Friday morning for me, but with the time difference it was 1 a.m. Saturday morning in Brisbane… Nathan had gone out Friday after work and decided to drunk email me… it was a kind of slow day at work for me, so chatting with an intoxicated Nathan was by far the highlight of my day.

Okay, so Nathan’s adventure in Australia isn’t enough to be jealous about, on his way home in November he is stopping in Hawaii for five days. He officially sucks. When he is there the Fighting Illini basketball team will be there to play University of Hawaii, and to play in the Maui Invitational… Hawaiian paradise, and Bruce Weber and the fighting Illini… he now sucks in three major ways, really bad, really hard, and wicked hard. Okay, so he tells me he will just miss the basketball team in Hawaii… so I guess I suck for getting his hopes up… my bad must have had the dates wrong… oopps!

I have about a zillion stories of Nathan I could share, and recommend you reread the Down Under post from back in July to relive many of them. One that makes me laugh is this past Christmas Nathan stopped for a visit on his way back home to Fairfield. He and Nikki helped me decorate some Christmas cookies. Nathan is a respectable cookie decorator, but he still definitely has a slightly “in the gutter” mentality because he definitely made a Pimp snowman, complete with a ‘Ho’ snowgirl… he even used one of the broken cookies to make a “pimp stick”. Nathan also made a few Cubs cookies, but I guess that is only fair since Nik made a St. Louis Cardinals Snowman. (See Pimp snowman picture below... yes we took a picture of it)

Just this past week I have new Nathan story to share. I was telling Richard that Nikki was looking forward to him meeting Nathan so that Nathan would get all jealous, which Nik finds rather entertaining. Richard thought I meant jealous in the traditional sense as opposed to the Nathan version where when I pay attention to anyone (especially a boy) other than him and then he just completely ups the “cuteness” factor and starts fetching me drinks and being all gentlemanly and such, leading me to say things like “Aw Nathan” as opposed to the typical “Nathan, you are such a tool!”, so Richard then asked me “So why didn’t you and Nathan ever date?” I have never laughed so hard in all my life. Once I recovered I gave Richard the short list “#1 EW!, #2 Nathan is like my brother (see #1), #3 I have known Nathan since he was a 17-year old punk, and nobody recovers from that, and #4 I am old enough to have been Nathan’s babysitter. No offense to Nathan, I am sure he has a similar list as well. I told him this story and he found it amusing too. Ironically enough, not long before he said he sent an email to me and a group of other friends and his friend Dan responded, “So I know everyone in the email group with the exception of this “Jane person”, are you dating her? Nathan is a good sport though he said he would gladly step up the charm if I wanted him to when he meets Richard… maybe Richard would get “jealous” and start being extra cute and fetching me drinks and stuff and making me say “Aw Richard”, and opposed to “Richard, you are such a tool!”

Oh, Nathan and I have “a song” too, “Good Directions” by Billy Currington. I told this to Sarah J and she was like why in the world is that “yours and Nathan’s song”… if you know the lyrics it has absolutely nothing to do with our relationship, yet another reason most of the world doesn’t understand our unique relationship I guess. Anyway, when Nathan was here for my birthday party this spring (Kudos to Nathan for driving all the way from Chicago for my party of Sonic, mini golf, Custard Cup and Tumble Inn… it was one of my favorite birthday gifts) we were on our way to church and the song came on, we both commented that we really liked it… after church back in the car, the song came on again and I jokingly said “Hey Nate, it’s our song” as I turned up the radio.

Oh another slightly amusing and “Aw Nathan” story… I am one of the more frequent comment leavers on Nathan’s blog. But a few weeks went by where I hadn’t commented… not sure why, maybe nothing to say, or perhaps we had chatted via email or caught up a bit when he called me from Down Under on his internet phone, anyway when Nathan was talking to his Mom during this time (who I have never met by the way) she asked “So where has Jano Fabulous been lately, I have missed reading her comments!”. “Aw Nathan, your Mom is sweet!” (what happened to you?) Random side note, my blog is evidently rather popular among my friend’s moms… I find this ironic since my own mother has never read it… she doesn’t have a computer, not that she doesn’t care)

Nathan will be back stateside around in time for Thanksgiving. Nik and I already have a “date” with him in December to go to the Illini game at the United Center vs. Arizona. I am excited to hang out with my Lil’ Sis again… we make each other laugh, and I am excited for him to be stateside again so we can resume our random goofball text messages.

So, there you go… Happy Birthday Nathan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Editors Note: The first picture is of Nathan on top of the Harbour Bridge in Sydney.