Happy 30th Birthday Sara!: Pratty, The World's Best Out-Nicer

(Forgive me forgive me for the ridiculously belated post. I thought of you on the 16th, but failed execution big time. Know that I wish you a continuously happy birthday, love you to pieces, and seem to think I can take up all the space I want as a latecomer.)

Dearest Pratty,

You remind me of confetti - bright, happy, a sign of celebration, reason for giddiness, one of my favorite things. If I were near you right now I would bring over a big bouquet of white balloons and throw confetti over your head.

You are, to this day, the kindest person I know. You have given me everything of yours I've ever admired (I learned to try to stop complimenting your possessions for fear of you ending up with nothing). It's a normal part of your routine to do good until you crash on a floor somewhere, usually mid-sentence with your jacket and shoes still on. I would always wait for it... wait for it.. and chuckle as you'd wake up halfway mumbling "I'm so sorry, did I fall asleep while you were talking?! Finish your story..."

Oh the days of sharing a bed here in DC... roommates at last! I envy Spencer for the pillow talk. Those handful of months we were room roommates were some of my best memories - not even being able to let you move into the next room (where you had your own bed) for fear of missing out on any little conversation. I would have kept you there forever, selfishly, and am grateful you had the foresight to go back to the mountains you love so you and Spencer could fall in love.

You are the kind of person who makes it to a friend's endowment one night, then (after an ice cream stop) drives all night to make it to the next friend's wedding shower; the kind of friend who makes Twinkie wedding cakes in the backseat of a car; the kind of friend who plants tulips in the yard, even though it's a rental; the kind of friend who acknowledges that cake plates make life better, and gets you your first; the kind of friend who never begrudges grueling travel if it means car & talk time.

You're the kind of friend who can throw the world's best bridal shower; the kind of friend who makes homemade rolls & puts frozen fruit in the water, just out of love; the kind of friend who will hand-iron hundreds of ribbons for someone else's use; the kind of friend who will spend the whole day of a wedding arranging flowers and tracking down centerpieces.

I'll never forget how beautiful you made my wedding.

I think I finally get why it is, as Carp pointed out, so hard to make kindred friends. It's because friend like you, who are abnormally (insert every good quality), are one in a million. I am grateful for you, love you, respect & admire you in countless ways, and hope to emulate you as a mother. You were, as everyone says, born for that role - Claire and all of your other children will praise your name.