you were by my sides, will you explain: real rhyme or reason for those future games

I like to think that I'm pretty important to this blog, but I think it's clear who the real star of Ashcan Rantings is: Nicola.

Nicola and I

Nicola is the dearest person in the world to me. I have only known her for about two years, but I can see now that my life before her was dull and gray. Each day, slow and monotonous. Since we became friends, look what I have accomplished: met Arlo Guthrie, Marianne Faithfull and Jeremy Schmidt of Black Mountain; been introduced to fantastic vintage, amazing people and excellent times; and my life just generally has more sparkle and joy.

Why is Nicola so great?

Underneath her ridiculously wonderful clothing, Nicola possesses a heart of gold and a quick, interesting mind. She is easily my favourite person to talk to, and sometimes our conversations end up sounding like something out of Seinfeld.
Nicola owns about 30 different books about Jim Morrison and the Doors, is Norwegian but gets asked if she's Chinese or Native American (which she is: 1/32 Blackfoot), has a 80-something grandmother who gets up at 5 o'clock in the morning to go jogging and Nicola always wears dresses in the summertime.
Ah, the dresses. Simply put, Nicola has great dresses.

Sometimes I feel so bursting with Nicola love that I might explode so I have to release it into rambling blog posts such as this one. Nicola can always cheer me up and find the bright side to any issue I might have. Without her, what would I be?
Incredibly unhappy, that's what.

Sonja and Dale, thank you for bringing Nicola into this world, for without her, I would not be who I am today.