Livin' the High Life: Happy Birthday Christopher!

Another birthday blog... these really are my favorite posts. Today is Chris Phillips' birthday.

Happy Birthday Chris!

Chris used to work with me at Busey Bank a number of years ago. He is a native of the greater Detroit area, but was in C-U for a few years when his now wife, then girlfriend/fiance, Megan was getting her masters degree at the University of Illinois. The picture to the right was taken at Chris and Megan's wedding with Lindsey.

Anywho, I really loved working with Chris. He and Lindsey used to fight like brother and sister all of the time, launching paper clips and rubber bands over the wall they shared and I was usually "the Mom" and had to mediate their fights and tell them to settle down.

Chris and I hung out a lot when Megan moved to California for her job a couple of months ahead of Chris. Chris is a big hockey fan, and since that was one sport Nikki and I really knew nothing about he volunteered to go with us to an Illini hockey game and teach us the basics of hockey. We learned about the blue line, icing etc. I am still no hockey expert, but everything I do know I owe to Chris.

Chris also was my Crane Alley Happy Hour buddy and agreed to try everything they had on draft, a new one ever week, until we worked our way all the way down the tappers. He moved after about four different beers, but I loved that Chris was game and just as excited to have Miller High Life as he was Sierra Nevada. Chris introduced me to Bell's, a beer from his home state of Michigan. We can't get it here anymore and it just kind of sad... Bell's Oberon was kind of like a Blue Moon but better. Another drinking story involving Chris was when he went out with Nik and Karen and I several of our napkins would stick to the bottom of our glass/bottle when we picked it up to take a drink... for whatever reason we were all rather fascinated with this phenomenon and to this day when the napkin sticks you "Haven't lost your drink chee"... it sounds so stupid now, but it was great at the time.

Chris and Megan moved back to Michigan a little over a year ago, after living near Oakland, California for a few years after their time in C-U. They welcomed baby Stella in March and although I have yet to meet her in person, from pictures I can see she is just the cutest, sweetest little baby ever. I always thought they were the cutest couple ever, and now they are the cutest family.

Oh another random Chris thing... I was talking about having a lilac bush to which he responded... "I love lilacs, they are just so fragrant!" It was such a girly comment... it was just enjoyable to hear something so girly come out of the mouth of hockey player... I like it when someone has layers like that :)

I miss having Chris around. Happy Birthday Christopher... your Wolverines may have beat us this year, but look who is in the Rose Bowl! :)