I lived with my friend Susi Doring during 2002. Living with Susi was an absolute blast. I met her my senior year of high school through our German class. Susi is one of those special people who is just so full of life. I always envied her because of that. No matter what life threw at her, she danced her way through it. She literally danced all the time, while making hummus or guacomole, ironing her shirt, walking to the bathroom, and especially while getting ready to go out. Madonna would be blaring and Susi would be dancing. I loved the year we lived together.

Kelly fell in love this year to tall drink of German water. We were friends with every international student at TU and met him at party one night. They fell in love and when he went back home and she decided, why not… I am going to go give it a whirl in Germany. I decided that year to leave TU and move to Norman the following Spring semester to finish school at OU. So in honor of Kelly and me moving on to more fun and exotic places we decided we would commemorate our friendship by getting Glamour Shots. Not 2001 style Glamour Shots either, we wanted the late 80′s early 90′s style Glamour Shots. We walked in there and asked them to do the big hair, big makeup and big shoulder pads. They all acted offended that weren’t taking their jobs seriously, and we assured them that the pictures that they do are stellar pieces of art, but we wanted something bigger. Oh the fun we had. Oddly enough they still had the wardrobe of that era. So we putting on sequins and denim jackets with American flags on then, posing back to back while popping our collars. It was quite amazing, especially the one where we looked naked and had red satin and angel wings. Sadly those pictures are MIA… They will be found soon and I will dedicate and entire blog post to their glory.

But most importantly in 2002 my brother and Evie got married. It was a beautiful wedding. It seemed so crazy to stand as bridesmaid watching my big brother become a husband. Their ceremony was the most beautiful ceremony ever. They used a ceremony from a Robert Fuldgem book. It was such a powerful union and one day I hope to use the same words to marry my husband, just as my sister used to marry her husband. Like always, Millie and want to do the same thing as their big brother. That day I gained another sister. And I will always thank God for that.

We ended the year in style. The family rented an RV and headed out on Christmas day towards California to go to see OU in the Rose Bowl on New Years Day. I won’t talk about that since that was 2003 but the last day of 2002 we went to the Jay Leno Show. Snoop Dogg was the musical guest and he was totally entertaining. Jay Mohr was there and several other folks that I can’t remember. It was a wonderful way to wrap up a year.

Millie & Me with the Bride

Me & Julio Down by the Schoolyard

President: George W. Bush
Vice President: Richard Cheney
Population: 290 million

Federal spending: $2,011 billion
Federal debt: $6,228 billion
Unemployment: 5.8 %

No. 1 Song the week of February 12, 2002: U Got it Bad by Usher

Nobel Prize for Literature: Imre Kertész (Hungary)

Random Facts:

• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets opens
• Pennsylvania miners rescued after spending 77 hours in a dark, flooded mine shaft (July 28).
• Kenneth L. Lay, chairman of bankrupt energy trader Enron, resigns; company under federal investigation for hiding debt and misrepresenting earnings.