Happy Birthday to the Man I love Best, Andrew Stewart

Today is my friend Andrew's 30th birthday. I once wrote him a cheesy poem to celebrate the cosmic event of his birth. I was sick last night, so there wasn't enough time to make it rhyme or write it iambic pentameter. Instead, I think I'll just enumerate the reasons I love him.

1) He is an enthusiastic dreamer. Right now his dream is to open a tortilla shop in Provo. I want to see him succeed. No, I want to help him succeed.

2) He is an accomplisher. Andrew sees his ideas through. At the risk of being redundant, I'll just remind everyone of the BYU smokestack.

3) He is a lifelong learner. While many would be more than satisfied with one master's degree (Transportation Systems), Andrew is starting an MBA program in a few weeks. He already speaks Polish (the best foreign language ever), has a good command of German, and is constantly working on Spanish. He wants to know how things work. Then he finds out.

4) He actually has some fun fashion sense. Andrew is a really handsome chap, but what makes you notice him is the way he does things in a little bit of an unexpected way. He let the girls buy him some man-capris in Poland for his b-day (5 years ago!) and he faithfully wore them even though they were a couple sizes too big. He looked great. When he came to visit me in January, he not only wore his brother's hat (and no offense to James, who I'm sure also looks cute in it), but he also looked better in it than any other man possibly could. Plus also, he wore the charming belt-buckle I got him one Christmas.

5) I love Andrew because he pushes me. Sometimes physically, but not in an abusive way. I'm deathly afraid of heights, and I remember my knees shaking as we started to climb the tower in Old Town Lublin. But he just yelled, "Hurry up!" and gave me a little shove. I probably wouldn't have made it otherwise. Sometimes the pushes are more difficult... like the time he told me I wasn't allowed to wear makeup for a day. I think he really thought it would save us some time, but when he watched me put it on in the train later, he realized that I'm fast. Regardless, he still made me take pictures sans face paint. Sometimes, he gently chastises me, like when I was a little less than kind to the proprietor of the Pol Art store in Santa Fe. Usually, though, he just inspires me. Andrew is going to Poland again? Why shouldn't I? Andrew is considering grad school? Let me go out and buy a GRE-prep book.

6) I love our inside jokes. Ta-da!

7) My darling friend is a grand gentleman. He didn't get (too) mad at me when we had to find a toilet in Prague only half an hour after we left our hotel. He carried the big heavy backpack (with all my clothes) leaving me to take the light load (his, of course). Even though we had to share a cabin with a stranger on a train from Warsaw, I knew he'd look out for me, and I remember him watching our things. When we stayed over at Michal's mother's house, he slept on the floor and pretended to be Jason Bourne while I took the bed. I don't think he minded too much when I laughed about him not falling asleep right away, and I think I made it up to him a bit when I ironed his shirt. He saved me from having to eat some hard-boiled eggs one night. He even claims to have not seen me in the bathtub at Aska's house, even though I'm pretty sure that he did. But he was still nice to me, even though he'd seen how bad I looked naked.

8) Andrew looks good (in a creepy way) with a mustache. And you know what they say-- "Un beso sin bigote es como un huevo sin sal."

9) Andrzej is always on the move. I've ceased being surprised to hear, "Well, I just got back from Nicaragua" or "I'm planning on a trip to New England/Mexico/Germany/South Carolina/etc." One day I'll call and he's leading the choir in church AND teaching Sunday School in his ward AND subbing his dad's Sunday School class, and on and on. He overbooks, like I do.

10) He loves his family more than any boy I've ever seen, particularly his sister. I love the way he protects her. I love the way he was so careful in carrying pottery back to his mother. I like hearing about the way he helps his brothers with various projects.

11) Andrew let me break him down a bit and he let me in. He's shy, but he went against his better judgement and let that crazy girl in Dr. Talbot's class be his friend.

12) I love the way he let me stay in his condo before he ever did. I loved that I was the one to tell him how comfortable his bed was, and about the effectiveness of his bathtub. I loved the way I used to email him for his address and he'd always also include the security code to his garage.

13) I thank Andrew for letting me hold onto him (and Nathan) on the Tram.

14) I love our mutual love for Mucha.

15) I love that we had dinner with President Hinckley and that he wore his Neapolitan tie.

16) I love that he thought my co-workers from Excel were cool, even when they were at their dorkiest.

17) I love that every time I use a heated mud-mask, I think of my dear friend. Remember that night I put them on everyone? How we ordered Telepizza and had a party in my room? Remember how your face looked like melting candle wax and how Josh got all surly and how Emily was the sweetest person alive?

18) I really liked when Andrew would stick up for the little guy. I love his compassion. It was pretty cool when it was demonstrated in some big (yet quiet) social cause, but just as nice when he got mad at the girls for making fun of his roommate's weird behavior with his girlfriend.

19) Once, Andrew gave me a ride home from campus, even though it was out of his way. He was listening to the Dixie Chicks. I don't know why I loved that, but I did.

20) I always loved having Andrew in my house. I liked when he'd go play the piano for a while (what doesn't this guy do, right?). I loved sitting across from him at the breakfast table, telling me and Nathan how he'd woken up with the sun streaming into his room. I loved finding him doing dishes in my kitchen, wearing a BYU shirt to match the ones he'd brought us.

21) I really appreciated that my little friend occasionally let me mother him. He had some major allergies to Linden trees, but he let me take care of him with water and medicine and tissues and whatever else. It made me feel like I could contribute a bit.

22) I also love that he's consistently there when I really need him. Advice? He's got it, because he's my sage. I want to rage about something, and he'll listen. If something crazy goes down, he's glad to hear it-- especially when it involves a 55-year-old man confessing his love for me. He knows I talk too much (and he's let me know), but he still listens.

23) I like his blue eyes, even though he's legally blind in one of them.

24) I like that he drives a station wagon. It's kind of hip.

25) I love that he believed me when I told him his passport picture made him look like Matt Damon.

26) I used to like sitting with him in church in Lublin and listening to him sing. Sometimes he didn't like to sit with people (a sentiment I understand and echo), but sometimes we'd sit together anyway, and he didn't treat it like a sacrifice.

27) I remember when he asked me if he could read my final paper for Dr. Talbot's class, and how he said, "That's pretty good." I remember thinking, "Uh-oh. He thinks it's stupid," but then him telling me how he got an A- (I think) to my A.

28) I liked when we were on the world's longest bus to Krakow, and he let me listen to his CDs with one of his earphones on the bus.

29) I've heard him pray, of course, but I've also seen him praying when he didn't know I was looking.

30) I love that we're still friends after all this time, and that he's had a profound influence on who I am. Dearest Andrew, you have helped make me the woman I am today. May you live 100 years for all of us.