"Dancing, we must have more dancing!!!!"

here's to the one --->



that always had the courage to dance--anytime. anywhere. and for any reason;

the original creative-dater and dance ask-er out-er in our highschool;

the clown that found a way to earn a little cash making people laugh;

and the magician that matched his performing skills to his audience and always stayed one trick ahead;

my own first and best tutor on comedic timing and delivery (he probably doesn't know he has such a title, but he does);

the tireless and adventurous chef that got me my first and only cash reward at a cooking contest (using his recipe);

and is the only person on earth that could have inspired the entire G-Fam to learn the South African national anthem and sing it in front of an audience.

Optimism, creativity and the never ending ability to keep moving forward were built into this guys hard wiring. He is a gift to all around him-and...

today-is your day...thinking of you-


Happy Birthday!

03.16.09 update:

I'm adding the photo I originally was hunting for--the night I wrote this post for his birthday--because I FOUND it! Ta-Da!!!



after abandoning me for my senior year of highschool (to attend college, but what EVER--school was never the same for the fro without at least the visual of tay in the grade just ahead of me; I'm still sorting through my feelings...self centered and shallow they may be....how could my older brother abandon MMMMMMEEEEEEEEE!!!!)

Ok. Fine. But, tay did return to home for the summer and in time to be my photographer at my highschool graduation. These two pictures are from an angle off to the left of where Tay was standing. Any other shots of me walking up to and off the outdoor stage are not NEARLY as interesting as these two--which are my favorites.

In the top shot, you'll note the happiness of my expression overall--even as I am getting ready to shake the principals hand;

yes, the same principal, whose last words of encouragement to us before getting to the reading of the graduates names--just happened to be "congratulations to the class of 1963!!!"

yes. he did SO say 1963. but it's ok. we all knew the man had issues. this just made us triple glad to be leaving him behind. On to the real world where there were no idiots allowed!!! wait.

well...

moving on--

the bottom shot catches the expression of a candid mini-celebration for two siblings that had spent nearly their entire school years together (bookend abandonment for his solo year at kindergarten and for me as a senior) meant that we had finally made it! it's easy to see why I was a lucky little sis to have such a brother, and why this is one of my favorite sequence shots of that day.

Even without tay as the photographer, sent up to the front lines to get a "live" shot of me in action, it still would have been tay that I would have sought out and celebration-hugged first as it was--the extra gift here, was that someone else~

(I SO wish I could remember who took this shot so I could thank them properly or at least give them credit where credit is due)

~catured that moment in time.

excuse me while i sing a little whitney houston to cap off my Monday.  ¶ 8:31 PM