Hello, and welcome to The Price Is Right.

I start an inordinate amount of these posts talking about how I’m embarrassed by whatever music I happen to like. Today it’s that Brad Paisley “Alcohol” song and Big & Rich. I love Big & Rich. I am so ashamed. Last week I received the birthday box from my mom. It is one of my very favorite things about my birthday. She fills it with gifts, magazines, candy, and whatever random stuff she thinks I need. Then she wraps it in brown paper and she and my sister cover it in clippings and pictures from magazines. Then they wrap it again and ship it. It is so great. This year in the “random stuff” category was the video of my 10th birthday party. It was as embarrassingly good as I remembered. At one point, my sister does a fabulous lip synch/dance to NKOTB’s “Step By Step”. In my mind, the best part of the dance is the high kick she so passionately performs repeatedly. I was mistaken however. There is a move in this dance so inspired, so creative, so amazingly awfully awesome that I must have blocked it out for fear of overwhelming my brain. At the end of the song, Joey hits a loooooooong high note. When Chelsea performed this part of the song, she added my favorite dance move: the slow-motion fist raise. Her eyes are closed, her nose is squenched, and her fist is raised. It. Rules. After the birthday party, there is a mercifully short clip of a 5th grade Christmas choir concert that includes not only terrible singing, but a peach sweatshirt and MATCHING SKIRT with lots of dangly ribbons in my hair and excessive nose-wiping. After the concert, there was something I’d never seen before. It was my friends and I when we were about 15, dressed like we’d just come home from basketball practice. There were about seven of us. We were just hanging around, playing darts, singing goofy songs. Kelley was doing a Bob Barker impression. Jayme was bullying us, as usual. Callie was playing computer solitaire and trying to avoid the camera. Steffanie was reading a magazine and Melanie and I were singing. (the camera is on Jayme, shooting darts) Kelley: Brandi! Point the camera over here! I’m going to do Bob Barker. Jayme, pointing a dart at Kelley: I’ll show YOU Bob Barker! (pan to Kelley) Kelley, holding a toothbrush: Hi! I’m Bob Barker. Welcome to The Price Is Right! I’m so glad you’re all here today. Me: That’s it? Kelley, laughing: Yeah. Me: I’m never filming you ever again. It was so much fun to see. I love those girls, and am thankful that I can still call a couple of them good friends. I had a great group of friends growing up… we kept each other out of serious trouble, went through all of our ‘firsts’ together, and just had a good time. It’s not something I think of often, but every now and then something reminds me. The video was short, but by the time it was over I was crying. I’m so thankful for my life now, and especially that we don’t live in Texas anymore. I don’t think we could all be friends today. But for a season, we had it pretty great.