Happy Birthday Yang Yang!

25 years ago, a little curly haired blond girl was about to turn 3.  Her birthday was on November 22, and she was really excited to be the big 3.  Then on the 21st of November, her father took her and her older sister to the hospital.  Her mom was there because she had had another baby.  The curly haired blond went in to a strange room with her father and her older sister.  She was confused as to why her mom was just sitting in the bed holding what seemed to be a bundle of blankets.  Her mom and dad were very excited to see the little girl and her older sister.  They introduced this bundle as the newest addition to their family and her name was Lauren.  What was even stranger to the little girl was the fact that Lauren had two wrapped gifts for her older sisters.  The little girl opened the gift and there, inside was the My Little Pony that she had coveted.  The little girl looked at this Lauren baby....and thought to herself, "how did that little baby know which My Little Pony I wanted?"  

I don't even know where to start with talking about Lauren.  There are so many hysterical stories that involve me teasing or tormenting her.  There are the ones when I told her she was adopted from my aunt, explaining why she and my cousin look so similar.....or the time that she told me I make her life miserable.....or the time I rang the doorbell and then hid just to scare the crap out of her when she answered the door.  The time when I tried to teach her how to punch.  When we went to Brasil, Jen and I tried desperately to corrupt her by giving her alcohol to drink.  Once I was in college I did actually get her drunk (it was awesome!  literally a dream come true).  We have had great times and really bad times together.  She is now a college graduate, living on an entirely different states (the only one of us to do that permanently), she has amazing talent that has taken her art and herself all over the country, and now she is engaged to a very wonderful man who understands her (most of the time).  She is a grown up.  I am so proud of her and love to brag about her art and her fashion.  She continually impresses me with her vision and how she can express it from thought to canvass.  I have always been jealous of her ability, but now I am just in awe of it.  Beyond the talent of her hands, she is well spoken and writes with the same ease as painting.  Her knowledge is so wide that one would think she has research a little bit about everything so that she will always be able to argue your point in a conversation.  We decided once, a very long time ago, that we were going to combine our use-less information to create books to share with world....because I mean really, who doesn't want to know all the same crap that we do?! 
 
Today is my little sister's birthday.....she is 25.  One of my first memories was the day she was born.  It is sketchy, but the My Little Pony part is totally true and so was my confusion.  It was a conflicting day, I got a new sister, but I would forever have to share my birthday with her.  I am okay with it now, but when I was younger it was hard to have to share my day (but convenient for my parents to celebrate at once).  I miss the combined birthday parties now....living in 2 different states with 2 totally different lives makes it hard to physically visit.  Our very different schedules makes it hard to chat on the phone.


I hope you had a wonderful day Lauren!  Keep studying for the GRE, I know you'll do great!  Happy Birthday :)