Today is Marie's birthday. Here's the "Cliff's Notes" version of the story of the night Nick met Marie. If you don't know what "Cliff's Notes" are, they're these shortened versions of long books we used to read in the 80's to get through assignments at school. I was too lazy to even use *those*, but from what I understand they were pretty invaluable. But anyway, onto our story..

One night a long time ago when I lived at "the orphanage" (as my house in Plano was called because of all the people that came in and out) I had a party (as was the case 24/7).

I made a rule that if you were a male and coming to the orphanage you were not allowed unless you brought at least one female. I was never a fan of the sausage-fest.

One night my friend Gerald called and wanted to come party at the house. I said no problem but you have to remember the rule about having at least one female in tow.

He followed the rule and actually brought TWO females. One of the females he brought was Marie.

Marie made quite an entrance. When she got there she was injured. She had been swimming at some pool previous to arriving and hurt her hand in some way. She was actually bleeding.

I wasn't prepared or in any kind of state to render first aid to someone just arriving at my house to party but my brother was Johnny on the spot with the first aid.

He fixed her up and she proceeded to drink and have a great time. We ended up hitting it off and all I remember is sitting in the bed talking ALL NIGHT. She had a LOT of stories and STILL does to this day.

But that's what I love about her. The stories. And her awesome laugh. She laughs a lot and that's pretty outstanding for a girl who has been through all that she has been through in her life. She's immediately lovable and I'm blessed to have her call me her "best friend". 

She calls me "HB" for Honey Bear and I call her "MB" for Mary Belle. 

Happy Birthday, MB! I love you!