another installment of the things we love and miss about ali. i’d like to make this a friday tradition if you all can continue to send me stories!
*****
“funny how every time we went shopping, she’d spend more of MY money than hers.”
“My nephew’s first birfday is sloooowly creeping up and I can’t help but think about how much fun it is going to be. So I daydream about his party and try to come up with things that his cool Auntie Em can do to make it more fun. Then I thought back to how much I loved it when Ali got Nori to “wash” her hair with cake on Nori’s first birfday. So I hope on March 11th Ali will be helping me to get lil Sammy to “wash” his hair, too!”
“the ali/hula dynamic gave me endless amusement. at the time it was pretty much a love/hate relationship. i.e.: i hated when hula would poop and pee EVERYWHERE but outside, and eat the crotches out of any laundry i left anywhere but behind the closed doors of my room, but i loved watching ali treat her like a human being. yes, hula would sleep in bed with ali and follow her around with every step she took, but i’m thinking specifically of the clothes. i mean that dog had a better wardrobe than a lot of toddlers i know. it was so funny to take walks with ali and hula and just watch people’s confused, somewhat-amused reactions to the dog with clothes. i think ali really got a kick out of those reactions in particular.”
“I also get a personal thrill out of going places I am not supposed to.. Fly under the radar or use an English accent. I even surprised myself with that one.”
“she always so kindly told me how hillbilly i was with my 3/4 chipped off toe polish.”
“the way you found a way of having everyone else offer to be your chauffeur. And when you did drive, you sometimes insisted driving in an awkward one-foot-up-on-the-dash position. (this comes from my grandma, whom Ali had never met, offered to drive her to my wedding location. my grandma asked her a little shocked like “is your leg injured?” haha!) always in comfy mode!”
“I make a prize winning apple pie, but Ali wouldn’t eat it because she said fruit pies felt funny in her mouth. I wonder if they make apple pie in heaven….maybe she’s hooked up with my mom and ended up trying a piece.”
“Ali, how come after all these years of yelling at you about removing your shoes and leaving them in the FR in the middle of the passage way into the entry are your still doing it at 30 yrs old? ‘Because I forget and I know you’ll move them out of the way if it is driving you nuts. AND you’re my mom, you love me in spite of it!!!!!’ ugh…”
“Ali had given many of the Xavier crew nicknames in college. My senior year she decided to change my nickname from “Mary Pat” to “Mary Slut”. Please note that I was far from being a slut due to my catholic upbringing. I believe I inherited the name for making her go out with me every Thursday night, where I showed off my “wonderful” dance move at the late night (fake) rave to try to get the attention of a boy I liked (who is now my husband). The name stuck even after college. When I was getting married 5 years ago, she called my “Mary Slut” at a wedding shower in front of non-Xavier people including my mother. After that day we had an agreement, she could only call me by that name if we were at a bar around the Xavier crew. I hated that nickname, but I’d pay anything to hear her call me “Mary Slut” again.”
“Ali had a way of not spending money. We drove all the way to Buffalo, NY one weekend and she didn’t pay for any of the gas bills. She may have been tight with money, but she’d give you the shirt off her back.”
“I remember Ali’s first PM Happy Hour at O’Bryon’s. She had made a neat little pile of peanut shells on the table and asked what she was supposed to do with them. She didn’t believe that she was supposed to throw them on the floor. She had to call the waitress over to make sure it was OK because she “was never allowed to just throw food on the floor. Who does that?” Once she was given clearance, she let those shells fly with one smooth swoop of her arms…and a very loud WEEEEEEEE to go with it! That was the beginning of peanut shell baseball…using the menu to send shells flying across the bar!!”
“Ali said this referring to her hair color while I was mixing up her color, “So how do you know what to mix up? Is it called ‘hooker blonde’?” I now refer to “REALLY BLONDE” as HOOKER BLONDE….love it! Made me laugh! (Love me some HOOKER BLONDE! Who doesn’t?!)”
i invite you to share any funny moments you’ve had with ali. email me at pace@loft3pd.com. they are supposed to make us laugh though, so don’t get too sappy! not too long, just something like you see above. lets show the world how quirky but awesome ali is.;)
peace, melanie