ay yo... birthday check!!!

What’s poppinB, AnniE? 

I hope this email finds you well… nah, fuck that, I hope this email finds you ~SPECTACULAR~! You know why? Cuz it’s ya damn birthday!!!!!!!!!! But aLSo cuz I miss you and wish you the best always and you always deserve to be found spectacular by all your emails. ANyway, I just finished watching Spirited Away like an hour or so ago with my sister, which reminded me of that convo we had abt it. Can confirm. Empty vibes. Fantastic movie. Evil witch lady scary aF!! But that led to me then scattering to put this together. Once again, procrastination has gotten the better of me, and here I am scrambling to put this together as fast as I can. But you know what, I think the fact that I’m sending this to you at 3 AM is very fitting. After all, for some reason, I feel like the crackhead hours of the night are where we’ve done most of our bonding. From the Alspaugh study room at no good hours, to Perkins nights, to party nights where you somehow managed to bond with me through my inebriety, to House Party nights in this pandemic, I feel like you’re someone who’s always been there with me when the rest of the world goes to sleep, and I want to thank you for that; lord knows I would’ve lost my mind long ago without you (maybe it’s already lost who knows). 

Also please don’t judge my paragraph structures. I didn’t write a story this summer, so my writing do be wack as hell homie. I think googs is having an aneurysm tryna autocorrect me lmao. Anywayyyyy, I wanted to use this opportunity to not only wish you a fantastic birthday, but let you know how much I value you in my life. You are truly a shining beacon in my life, and without doubt the most selfless person i’ve ever met. I know dealing with me can be an emotional tax, but please please PLEASE set any boundary you need. And I hope you know i will always be here to listen to everything and anything you have to say. If it’s to talk to me about your favorite musicals, to rant about the most recent thing (probably ashwin bein a dumbass abt the Greatest Showman or smth) that’s been BOTHERING (pun?? idk, but definitely intended) you, or just literally ANYTHING, i will be here to listen. I truly love all the time we spend together, and cherish all the memories we’ve built. You’re genuinely so incredible, and the last semester without your presence has sucked, so thank you for staying in touch! 

Right. ANYWYAYYAYYAY sorry i just got hella sappy there. Fuck ok. Composing myself. Today, I am emailing you with a list. A list of 20 different randomly assorted items. That is correct. Quick POV: you’re my family, and I’m running around the house making a clutter, taking pictures of random ass items at 1 am in the morning. TBH i was initially planning on like 20 tik toks or tweets or shit, but then i thought hey, 20 random items would be really funny. And at first i thought i was gonna be hard, but then i realized as i was going around my house, doing this was not hard at ALL. you’ll see what i mean.

So without further ado, i present to you (bars), my list of random things that’s tried and true (bars x2). OH ALSO as i wrote that i remember i asked max for you and it looks like tiny meat gang is a definite no for ldoc next year… so sorry abt the bad news :9. But right. LIST!

1. This Duke Poster here

So, Duke University is where I first met you! 2018, we both got assigned to live in Alspaugh at this wack-ass school and while we didn't end up getting to know each other for a WHILE, none of it would've been possible had we not ended up at Duke. So like, it felt only natural to include... 

2. ye old piano

Of course, what else but a piano for the second item... I was debating between this and my underwear... but i figured i'd rather send you a pic of my keyboard than my boxers lmao. for a while, all i was to you was that annoying kid that played the piano while drunk. and while i definitely continued to be that, i'm glad we've progressed past that point and seen the even more annoying parts of me!

3. b is for bananas!

and bananas are for... banana shorts!!!!! your fave!! while i couldn't find my true banana shorts, i figured this would do this trick just as well. for whatever reason, your hatred of my banana shorts brought us closer, or so it appeared in my head lmao, not sure if you had that in mind. but i think the banana shorts are just a symbol for us growing by you making fun of me lmaooo.

4. this... queen!!!!

next up on the list is this here queen! Why, you might ask? Well for starters because YOU are a Queen Annie! but also because i remember us starting to talk more in the CR when i started gambling my life away and you judging me lmao. reminiscent of the theme of bananas. but also different cuz we talked more abt this one. you'll be pleased to know i'm in the midst of planning zoom poker nights now :)

5. suitcases.

can you even be surprised with this one? i've never met anyone whose clothes folding skills even came close to matching yours. but this one reminds me of those last few days of freshman year, where i can actually say we became friends by the meaning of the word. throwback to being the absolute last two to leave alspaugh... damn. 

6. cef band

CEF! the reason I was even in durham last summer at all. which ended up being so important, because it meant we were both in the same town in the same summer. which of course meant us actually hanging out together. and me watching sad netflix shows and you being annoyed at me for it lol. and snuggie!!!! 

7. milk&coffee

from becoming friends, it didn't take long for us to give each other our life stories. i remember very clearly that night i ran from swift all sweaty to keohane and we stayed up on that bench talking about our pasts and our lives. i chose milk and coffee for this one cuz i remember recommending that song to you. don't actually know if you've ever listened to it lmaooo (fake if you haven't tbh) but it reminds me of that night.

8. how do ya like them apples?

not at all. they rly do be hurting my hand. and my head tbh. even tho they're supposed to keep the doctor away, ashwin still keeps following me around. but deadass i do associate this with once again you visiting me in swift and all those fun times. ALSO as foreshadowing to the future when we would watch the Parent Trap and they used apples to pierce their ears. grodie brodie.

9. spare a coin?

a quarter. not that there's anything particularly relevant abt quarters in our relationship, bUT there is a relevance to coins! cuz throwback to every thursday this summer when we'd go to the Coop and get our dinners with their tokens for $4! that boolin on a budget let us nearly guarantee a meal a week, when i wasn't being bothersome and unavailable. 

10. hehehe...

so this is my new penny board! hope ya like! i ended up buying one anyway and it just came in the mail today. you were totally right. i fell literally an uncountable amount of times on this shit lmfao and i'm deadass gonna break something on it. but yeah, you typically do tend to be right even when i dont listen to you, so thank you for your wisdom. but ALSO i included this because do you remember when I made you scoot from the Coop back to Swfit LMAO. Lowkey so sorry if i traumatized you there bahahaha but what a fun mem.

11. ice cube lettuce, ever heard of it?

yeah, i know it's not actually ice berg lettuce. whatever. we can use our imagination. but shoutout to making the finsta for this dumb quote.

12. oh bother...

let's break this one down cuz there's truly a lot goin on in here. this one was meant to be taken for the cap, because throwback to when you helped me realize that my cap had an adjustable size lmaoooo. that was a fun night. but also threw on my arm brace again because why not. and as you can see, my beard has nearly grown back all the way! which i know you love!! not sure if i'm still obliged to not shave till june...

13. oh bother x2

look i swear i'm not bringing this into the party to talk about raw ramen. while i'd love to, truly, this was meant to be for spicy ramen. i can't believe you sat and watched me cry eating spicy ramen lacking all sympathy... but shoutout to us both committing to do dumb shit because of our stubbornness lmao. this one also reminds me of us going to Duke basketball together! i mean yeah it was, like, SFA... and we lost... but it was still quite a day! fuck your unreal spice tolerance tho...

14. hey alexa, shut the fuck up

thankful for you coming to craven to visit me first semester. whether it was to wake me up from a nap, to deliver cheese yall didn't want anymore, to watch a movie and have Christmas cookies, or just to chill, it was always so fun having you around the block! and of course in doing so, you got to witness my... questionable... relationship with this bitch

15. accio birthday wishes!

perhaps the ONLY thing we have in common in our media tastes is our liking Harry Potter lmao. Once again, like you've said a million times. don't know how we're friends when you've never seen Interstellar, Star Wars, and Lord of the Rings, and likewise, when I've never seen...gosh where to start... literally ANY show you like lmao. But yeah, shoutout to both of us being Potterheads. and shoutout to our list of movies that we're still definitely gonna get through

16. one word: sugar

truly if i had cake, that's what this picture would be of, but i live a sad, cake-less life, so here's the next best thing: ice cream. what's a list of things that reminds me of memories we have together if it doesn't have sugar in some form. aint nobody got a sweet tooth like you've got a sweet tooth, and aint NOBODY react to sugar the way you do. here's to your sugar rushing self

17. shhhhh....

this one honestly isn't placed that well in this list. if anything it should be earlier but it could be later temporally. but, don't let my parents know, this is where i do be storing my, uhhh, shit during quarantine lmaooo. when we first met, i was embarassingly inebriated, and i feel like a lot of times after that, we met and i was on some other shit. so here is literally, some other shit, if ya know what i mean. also, we need to go out more. 

18. forks

in particular, pitchforks. pitchforks pancakes instead of class. pitchforks tacos instead of sleeping. pitchforks sharing high school memories together. pitchforks you being there for me when i was going through it. maybe not the best memory for either of us. but a thank you definitely in order for your presence and that lovely establishment.

19. she do be sleepin tho 

 

roxanne, roxanne!!! this one goes two ways. one in that i know you love your animals, so here's roxanne tryna sleep while im being dumb. but two, for the tik tok. from running all my tik toks by you, to just watching tik toks in your suite instead of working, to just sending each other tik toks, i feel like this is very important. yes you succumbed to your better judgment and deleted the app, but i know you'll come back around eventually

20. a classic... 

this list simply would not be complete without caffeine pills. once again. don't tell my mom i still have them lmao. but yeaaah that's right. i mean, the obvious connection is once again, crackhead hours in perkins. but also when YOU took a caffeine pill. that was a shit night. that was the last night i saw you in person. I cANNOt believe i did before you went to ny was give you a caffeine pill lmao. i was so worried when you started feeling sick. but yeah... i'll take this last item at the end of the list and the context it has to say that i really do miss you annie, and we have to see each other this summer if possible

.

...

........

of course though, due to my indecision, there were a couple of photos that didn't make the cut i'm still gonna include lol. call this the honorable mentions.

A) Guitar. You already know. you do be puttin up with my bullshittery, and this just reminds me of that tik tok you sent me when i told you i was learning lmao. 

B) Goggles. If i had glasses or contacts, i would've put them here, but you already know i'm on that 20/20 in 2020 wave. but yeah throwback to when i literally forgot you wore glasses lmaoooo

C) watermelonnnnn and fruit. cuz we like, ate that shit in the summer. and also cuz you have that dumb picture of me with the watermelon lmao. so ig also shoutout to the dumb photos we have of each other (and ashwin for some reason)

........

...

.

Right. so that concludes my list as well as my email. I don't know if you notice by know, but this actually isn't an email lol. gmail wouldn't let me attach all those images so i hopped on blogger instead. Once again sorry this is coming in late but...

Hope it's spectacular :) and hope we can talk soon!

George Rateb