My gorgeous cousin Marisa (whom you first met here) is celebrating a birthday today!  We had dinner together a couple of nights ago and I’m heading over for a little cake action later tonight (by “a little cake action” I mean “I’m going to watch everyone else eat cake while I think about how great it’s going to be to fit into that silly bridesmaid dress”).  Little Miss Birthday Girl is a fan of the blog so I thought it was only appropriate that she see a little post about her cute self on her big day!

Marisa is just a few years younger than me and actually lives here in Cleveland, making her one of the closest family members in my life both in distance and love.  We’re complimenting opposites to each other in a lot of ways — she helps me have more fun in life and I help her apartment shop; she gives me flirting advice and I give her older-cousin-life-advice; she fixes my hair for me and I… well, I just let her fix my hair.  Girl can do some hair, y’all, and in that arena, I am much happier to receive than give.

Over the past year or so, I’ve watched Marisa go through some of the biggest struggles of her life.  One of those struggles in particular would have sent the best of us crying in our beds for a month; Marisa, however, let God make her stronger through her tears and got her ba-donk-a-donk right out of that bed while the rest of us stood by watching, jaws hitting the ground.  She fights like a girl, one of highest compliments I can give anybody in my life.

If that wasn’t enough, the chick is just gorgeous as evidenced by the picture above and the ones below, too.  I cannot tell you how many times I’ve jokingly asked God if He couldn’t have passed a little more of the family beauty right out of Marisa’s veins and into mine.  When we were having dinner the other night, she told me a story about meeting some people that know me via Starlite and telling them that she was my cousin only to have them tell her they could see the resemblance.  It was the highest compliment I’ve received in awhile; there’s no one I’d rather look more like than my baby cousin.

Happy birthday, my love.  And do you think you could do my hair after your party tonight?