37 for 37

Yesterday would have been Eriika's 37th birthday. Last year, I did THIS awesome post to roast her for her 36th birthday. I had no way of knowing it would be my last chance to do so, and I'm so glad I spent the time remembering the stories, digging up pictures, etc to make that post so damn funny. I printed it out, and they had it on display at her funeral. Apparently, my parents were less than impressed with a few tidbits they learned about our slightly sordid past.

I've been thinking about a few things I wanted to add to the list since she passed away. Some funny stories people shared when she passed away, some memories triggered by songs or photos. Here are 37 more fun facts about Eriika:


She was a giftwrap FREAK! Everything from the Container Store--labels, tags, giftwrap--the works. Every bag came with 3 different tissue papers sticking out the top, every box had 4 different colors of curled ribbon--it was very intimidating. I wrap like crap, and she was always mad at my poor quality wrapping jobs. She signed on to work at their store during the holidays, and ended up totally running the Giftwrap Wonderland. Surprise, surprise.

We fell in love with the song Tarzan Boy her freshman year at The U. We listened to it over and over when I was there on Spring Break. From then on, we always heard this song when we were together. I would go years and years without hearing it, and then it would come on the radio when we were together. Very, very strange.

According to her, these are her 10 favorite albums:

Crowded House / Crowded House
U2 / Rattle and Hum
U2 / Achtung Baby
Violent Femmes / Violent Femmes
Billy Joel / An Innocent Man
Prince / Around The World in a Day
Prince / Purple Rain
Shaking Family / Dreaming in Detail
Madonna / Ray of Light
New Kids on the Block / Hangin' Tough

She "neglected" to mention her love of Britney Spears and Rick Astley. For shame. She loved Britney so much, she once donned her red latex catsuit on Halloween.


On the first day of high school in Kentucky, she mumbled her name and everyone thought her name was Bertha. The name stuck. Our church friends also called her Floofy, due to the large size of her hair. And, a table of her best guy friends still refer to her by another name I won't print. Let's just say she regretted shoving that entire Twinkie into her mouth on a dare.


I always called her Eureka Vacuum cleaner, a not-so-clever play on her name.


Even though we only spent 4 years in Kentucky, she always claimed that was where she "was from" because she graduated from HS there. This logic always seemed a bit faulty to me.

In Junior High, I was hopelessly in love with this boy who, per the usual, found me annoying and immature. I cut out a photo of him out, and put it in an antique locket. One day, the locket was missing from my dresser, and I found out that she had stolen it to show her boyfriend. She spun a tale about how seeing the locket made him "really see how much I liked him", and that he thought it "was really cool." I didn't realize until years later that this was all a lie, and that they thought I was a crazy loser.

She was ALWAYS forcing me to engage in fake and/or staged photos. I'm surprised she didn't die earlier by posing for a photo "falling off the edge of the grand canyon."

I ignore signs like Eriika!

She learned her lesson the hard way once when she crawled down on some rocks that clearly stated "Fast moving waves--DO NOT CROSS FENCE. DO NOT STAND ON ROCKS." Of course, she hopped over for the photo op. There are 4 photos in the series. Eriika smiling, Eriika smiling with a wave behind her, Eriika totally under a huge wave, plain old rocks with no Eriika to be found.


I gave her a diary for her 16th birthday. What a fool! What kind of dummy accepts a diary from her pesky and nosy 14 year old sister?? Of course, I copied down the lock combination, waited until she filled it with juicy tidbits, and then took it to school to show off the goods.


On her first date with her HS boyfriend, I stalked them with a camera, and took dozen of pictures while they walked from the house to the car. She was less than thrilled.

On the first day of Junior High, she read her schedule wrong. She thought she was supposed to be in gym class, but she was really due in Orchestra. She was already suited up in the unitard, and the gym teacher MADE her go to Orchestra in the unitard. She begged to change first, but he wasn't having it. She had to play the violin for an hour in her ugly unitard. Did I mention she had braces, short hair, and big glasses? She may have come close to dying of embarrassment that day.



She dated the Quarterback of the Broncos. No, I'm not telling you which one. But he was HOT!


She collected nutcrackers and Byers Carolers. Lancer told her that she should "land a man" before "collecting creepy screaming dolls." Undaunted, she continued to grow her collections.

Despite this, she loved Lancer, and thought he was hilarious. She used to refer to my old boyfriend as SITM, short for stick in the mud. She couldn't wait for me to dump that guy. The second she heard about Lancer, she knew we were going to get married.

One of her favorite Lancer stories comes from a visit to our old apartment in Foster City. We were up late, laughing, talking, and watching a marathon of Airline. It was 4 in the morning when Lancer burst out of the bedroom, scolding us for keeping him up until 4. Since we hadn't heard a peep out of him all night, so we thought he was sleeping. On subsequent visits, he would announce his departure to the bedroom, and tell us to "turn it down."

She was planning on having a citrus-themed kitchen one day--oranges, lemons, and limes.


She started the famous cookie exchange in Denver, and I later stole the idea. One year, a friend of a friend asked if she could join in the fun--she would be bringing bread to trade. Eriika thought she meant a fruitcake or banana bread. NO! The woman showed up with a BAG OF WONDER BREAD, and proceeded to spread the bread on a platter. Eriika wanted to kill her.

We always joked that Eriika's kids would end up rebellious punks, and my kids would be preppy little squares. We planned on exchanging kids each summer--my kids could indulge in golf and tennis with her, and her kids could go to concerts, skateparks, and amusement parks with me.

Speaking of children, her children have been named since HS: Connor, Carson, Bailey and Blair.

She was convinced I was naming B "Finley," and even had a bucket of things that she referred to as the "Finley bucket."

A few months before she passed away, she had a dream that she was dying, and requested that I name the baby Finley Eriika. When she told me about the dream, I told her that we had settled on Blakely, but would certainly consider using her middle name, Jeanne.


When Blakely jumps, we call her Jumping Jeanne, and it always reminds me of Eriika.



Given the chance, she would have eaten a ham sandwich every single day of the week. She called it her "ham sammich." I once had a Honeybaked Ham sandwich delivered to her hospital during an extended stay, and it renewed her will to live.


She was totally addicted to crap TV. Dancing with the Stars, The Hills, Laguna Beach, The Bachelor--no TV was too crappy for her to turn down.

She also loved celebrity gossip like me. She was seriously disturbed when Nick and Jessica got divorced. We would always race to see who could break celebrity gossip first.


Her favorite movies were Top Gun and Jurassic Park.

Her favorite book was Little Women.


Her favorite TV show was Friends--We always used the quote from Phoebe "you don't get a lot of doi these days!"

Despite loving the Food Network, and owning every cookbook known to man, she wasn't really that great of a cook. Her signature dish was a rip-off of our mom's chicken pillows, which I have to say sound rather tasty right about now.

She threw more holiday parties, birthday parties, baby showers and bridal showers than anyone I know. And she always went all out, sparing no expense or detail. She would have made an amazing Bridal Consultant.


Every year when the Lemax catalogs could come out, she would rush over to Michaels and grab copies. We would go through each catalog on the phone, discussing the pros and cons of each piece. She bought a piece for my Christmas and Halloween villages every single year for the last 10 years. It will be a little sad not to carry on this tradition this year.

One of her old boyfriends was a little shorter than her. I once joked that he probably put wedges in his shoes to give himself a "little lift." After that, we always referred to him as Wedgefoot, which I'm sure he loved. She even found a golf club on ebay that was a little foot. A wedge-foot..get it??

She made highly detailed gift lists--including links, URL's and websites--for holidays and birthdays. Sizes, quantities and colors were all addressed. She wasn't a big fan of surprises in the gift department. If she said she wanted a green purse, and you got her the yellow one...watch out!


She never met a costume she didn't like.

She once wrote an award winning poem in elementary school:

Measles, mumps, and chicken pox
One of those is what I gots
Can you guess?
Probly not
Sat on a cot
Running a fever from my head to my toes
Don't care what it is
Just hope it goes

I once won an "ugliest costume" award at church by dressing up as Eriika. Amazingly, I found this huge blond wig that looked *exactly* like her hair. Then I dressed up in the outfit her boyfriend had given her--it was her signature look. She was so annoyed by the award that she grabbed the microphone from the announcer and screamed "no she didn't win ugliest costume!!"

She really would have been the greatest Auntie to Blakely--completely devoted and doting.

I love and miss you a ton, Eriika. I'm so glad we have years and years of crazy stories!