...was fried fish! i guess i will always truly be an arkansan! (sorry the pics are so blurry, kileys camera wasn't focusing in the lighting and with all the busy visual details on the walls)
my thanks and love goes out to you all, and for this blog, i will send it to you in the order you sat at the table!
corey and michelle: i love you bunches. its easy to see that you two were designed for one another. michelle, i so am honored that you always share yourself and that hilarious sense of humor with me, when socially you are so reserved and quiet. i thank you for your patience when i blurt out something inappropriate or something that isn't as thoughtful as you would word it. you bring out the very best parts of corey (and everyone around you)! i am loving and cherishing him more these days than i have throughout the years, even as my best male friend! yet it isn't as if he is a different person with you, but more like he is perfectly and fully and happily corey! thank you for what you contribute to his life! thank you both for what you contribute to my own! i have no doubt that we will grow old being friends, that our first child will be named after corey, and that our kids will build sheet forts and eat cookie dough together. and lucky for me you like sports so much! you will be the uncle and aunt at all the games cheering, while i am on the sideline with a sunburn and a book!
krista: thank you for making such an effort to make my transition from arkansas to montana easier! thanks for including me in the snowboard lessons and stocking our fridge when you visited! i have always hoped that we would stay close as adults, and after living here for only 6 months now, i have had more quality one-on-one time with you than i have had over the last few years! i know you think i take you for granted, but i wish that you could really see how i perceive you, how great i think that you are! it doesn't matter anymore if we don't have the same interests, or if our personalities clash! i love you so much, not just because of the blood we share, but because i respect you and cherish your advice. i have finally learned (most of the time) just to listen. i am finally hearing you! you do so much for everyone around you and i am so proud of you! i have no doubt that you will know what to do next with your life. forget what everyone else is saying. its your life and you alone will figure it out. i know that you think that i just left you in arkansas and that i have a routine and am happy 2000 miles away from my family. and yes, i am very happy, but please remember that i will always be the younger little sister that follows you around just waiting to get a few minutes of your attention. trust yourself more! i trust you with everything that is important in my life!
sweet little wessell: at my age it becomes obvious that its impossible to keep as many friends as i once had in my early twenties. it is obvious to me that the few i have left, are the really good ones. don't get me wrong, i really love people, and i will always keep sharing parts of myself socially for the chance at thoughful conversation or a geniune connection with someone new, but mostly i have given up on the idea of making new permanent friends. i was so surprised and deeply pleased when you came into my life. i really needed a friend like you during the last part of my time in arkansas. you just got me and inspired me and really helped me to remember that i should be doing things with my life instead of just talking about it! i love that you can in the same hour make me laugh, make me think, make me just sit with silence contented! you are so quiet sometimes, but it always feels honest between us. and when i am shy in a social setting, you seem to know when i need for you to do the talking. you have come through on so many small and simple things, time and again, that i don't need you to say "i love you" back to me when we get off the phone. you have already proved yourself to be one of my closest friends. i would happily share anything with you or do anything for you! i love you exactly how you are, little "man child." it is people like you that make the world so colorful and my own life so beautiful!
jesse: you are the most loyal friend that i have ever known. i really respect that about you even though it sometimes backfires on me when chuck and i are arguing and you become like some sort of mercenary soldier in his defense. i should stop teasing you about taking him out on so many dates. i am really happy that he has a friend like you, i am only jealous that i am not invited! you treat him like a brother, which is so cool since you have so many of your own. sometimes i get overwhelemed with all of the emotional responsiblity and time it takes with being a sister, and i neglect my friends' needs. thank you for doing the hard task of being "that guy" for everyone! you seem to be so happy these days! i love it when you answer the phone in a crazy accent! i love it that you treat my sisters like family too! we always have fun when you are around! and to sum up all the love that we as sisters have for you as a brother, i only have to say two words....nintendo tournament!
scotty and jessica: you are the sweetest version of a father and daughter! it is really a delight to watch you together. although i have never met jessica's mother, it is obvious by how your daughter looks at you where she has gotten all the good parts! she is so smart and beautiful! she is going to be such a talented and independent woman, one that i would be honored to call my own friend (that is if she doesn't try to dress me in sequins and put make-up on me). you do realize that she is to the age that she SHOULD think that you are an idiot!!! you are such a good father, and i love how you are always yourself (maybe just a bit toned down) when she is around. she loves you for it and it is obvious that she feels respected and treated as an equal when she is around your friends. it is also obvious that although you give her that much autonomy to be herself and add freely to the topic, that you are always one step ahead of the conversation and lead it gentle in a way that she can feel part of! thank you so much for coming out to say good-bye to me. thanks for fitting me in, between homework and dance lessons! thanks for letting us know jessica! thanks for raising a daughter that would kiss a fish skeleton in order to win the dollar, who did it for "charity." she is going to do great things with her life. it is fun to watch how she interacts/charms people already!
my bare bare: what can i say? i know that you would want me to say something about how offensive you are, or what really disgusting things you have taught me over the years. i would like to instead thank you for your heart, that huge and giving and secretly compassionate heart you try to cover up with your lewd comments and wiggly worms. i have always had so much fun hanging out with you, but more importantly, you are one of the kindest people i know. i thank you for always showing up, for being the guy that my sisters can call in the middle of the night if they break down on the interstate, the guy that single handedly moves an upright piano for me even though i have no place to put it! i owe you hundreds of dollars for always taking me out on the town in the past years, but more seriously, i owe you thousands upon thousands of thoughtful deeds, returned favors, listening ears, large hugs! i hope that i am always your "little meat head." i thank you for everything and love you always!
mandy: you are my third sister! thank you for getting to the resturant early, even though you knew that the kirksey girls would be late! thank you for the years of talking and laughing! thank you for the memories of creek beds with our pants rolled up, bluffs with our legs dangling off, and four wheeler rides that ended in bloody knees. we are so different now. sometimes it takes me a second, but i can always see from behind your make-up and your grown up business clothing, those same blond curls from my childhood. i can always see you! i miss our childhood often, but i am also excited because i know our daughters will most surely make similar memeories together someday! i am proud that you "broke out of your shell." but please be careful not to make the same mistakes as i did, the same mistakes that you pulled me out of time and again! thank you for never judging me and always accepting me as is. and for you i hope for someone to sweep you off of your feet (in a typical mandy romantic fashion) that will not just love your for you too "as is" but will be madly in love with what you are becoming and knows that sweet girl who it has been a pleasure calling my best friend for 26 years now! i love you! i thank you!
kiley: thank you for all the dinners, all of the toliet paper, all of the five dollar bills slipped into my pocket when i am leaving the house! thank you for the movies and the popcorn and the giant dr.peppers. thank you for not giving up on humanity and for always seeing the good in people, even after they have let you down! thank you for the silly video recordings on my phone, the chicken biscuits, and the laughing. it is good that you laugh so much! one of my favorite moments of this visit is when you, krista, and i were lying in bed together in the afternoon talking. we are grown women, who happen to all be jobless, but were lying in bed laughing and talking! we are so lucky (not unfortunate or pathetic or sad) that we can still do that at this age! don't ever stop laughing. whoever thought that seriousness and stress had to come with successfulness did not have sisters! i love you to the point of tears just thinking about it! i am so proud of you! you know where you should go, trust your heart!
and to joy and latt, josh and becky, and jonelle....i am sick that i didn't get to see you while i was in town! you were in my thoughts and are constantly! i love you and love eating with you too and thank you also for your friendships!
1 comment:
james, it's Latt
we understand you not making it, but you know Rowan was excited about seeing you.
Good to see corey and jessie.
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