Celebrating birthdays, and Memories

For Barbie's birthday, we went out in south Tampa. I'm so glad she invited us.
We were having a fun time, but then a song came on that brought back a lot of memories. "Brown Eyed Girl" was one of Chrissy's favorites and she loved getting up and dancing to it no matter where we were. She had brown eyes, so she claimed the song.

Yesterday also would have been Chrissy's big 30th birthday. Instead of reminding my friends that it was Chrissy's song, I just remembered her to myself.

Then, I pictured her dragging me by my wrist to the dance floor so we could dance and throw our hair all around while we laughed and didn't care what people thought of us. If I slipped out of her grasp to try to stay in my comfortable chair, she would have grabbed me around the waist or anywhere because she refused to take no for an answer. And I truly knew that I would have fun once I got to the dance floor, so she would always win. She loved to dance, no matter where we were and even if nobody else was dancing. I can't believe I don't have a photo of Chrissy throwing her big beautiful hair all around while she danced and laughed, but here's one of her dancing at our cousin Julie's wedding. So, for Chrissy's birthday, I danced to her "Brown Eyed Girl" song and threw my hair all around and missed her so much. "Do you remember when . . . we used to say, Sha la la LA la LA la, la la la la-ti da, Brown Eyed Girl." I wish she could have been there.
It was a nostalgic night for others of our group too. It was a little too cathartic for some of us to remember and to feel close to some of our family who we won't get to see for a really long time. We love and miss them.