Ode to Cat!!! I Wish You the Happiest B-day Ever!!!!!!!

  This may be the most enjoyable blog I ever get to write because I get to thank, tell a story or two, toss in some timeline pics, and generally brag a lot about the most incredible person I know in anticipation of her 30th birthday. Yes, on April 17^th, midnight tonight my wife is finally moving out of the spring chicken and into that middle aged hottie phase. My wife and I don’t really do the gifting thing and so I will try to use this medium as a way of showing Cat what she means to me. I wanted to start by telling a story or two about a few of the events that have shaped our last ten years together.

  In the Fall of 2002 I was playing golf at Walkingstick and Cat was along for the walk (this was while we were just dating), I was telling her that usually this time of the year we see tarantulas crawling all over the golf course and how cool it would be if a person was not be terrified by them, let one crawl on their back and then walk up to someone else and start talking to them, and then watch the reaction of the person as they see it crawl over their shoulder and they *oop themselves. Cat sang “she wasn’t scared of spiders or snakes” and then said she really wasn’t scared and that she would let one crawl on her if we saw one and I was like, no way. A few weeks later Cat, Brandon, Zack and I went up to Beaver creek to hang out and play in the water. As the late afternoon started to cool us down and we got back to the car, Cat and the kids took their shoes off because they were soaked and getting chilled. We started driving out of the canyon on the dirt road I could see something up ahead that looked like it might be a medium sized rodent but as we neared I could see it was the most gigantic tarantula I had ever seen. Trying to be funny I stopped the car and told Cat to get out and show us that she was tough enough to play with the monstrosity. She said sure and went ahead and jumped out with Brandon following her. Cat walked up and bent over and tried brushing the tarantula on to her hand. The spider reared up and lunged at her and just barely caught her sock as she jumped out of the way. Brandon had shot back into the car and locked the doors before Cat had even hit the ground. At this point we figured she was done but Cat was not going to let that spider make a fool out of her. She knelt back down and brushed the spider onto her hand and started to walk over to the car to show us. At this point I rolled up all the windows and triple checked to make sure the doors were locked. Cat stood outside my door playing with that tarantula for what seemed like an eternity and had the most incredible grin on her face, the grin could only be rivaled by the one Paul Newman had after eating the 50 eggs in Cool Hand Luke. It was a grin that I will never forget and the go to vision when we are away from each other for any extended period of time. As we were driving back to P-town that day, I looked at her and realized how incredibly special she really was.

 Shortly after we were married Cat expressed her interest in joining one of my fishing adventures so we decided to head up to Grape creek to camp a night and fish. The first evening we were there, Cat caught a small brown on a spinner and I got skunked. And believe me, if you think I pick on Cat when I out fish her, I am still trying to get even from the things she said to me that night. We didn’t sleep very well that night because we had two bears around the van all night, but the next morning we got an early start and headed up the creek. We were up a mile or so and I found this nice bend with an undercut bank and started tossing a Hopper to the inside seem. Every cast and the little bows were taking it like they were starved. I knew Cat grew up bait fishing and had never really seen what flyfishing was all about so I called her over and told her to watch and as the next cast hit the water another rainbow came up an destroyed the hopper. I looked back at Cat and her eyes were bulging and her jaw had dropped about 4 inches, she looked as if she had just had a face to face with Jesus himself. Cat spent the rest of the day in a daze with the images of rising fish streaming through her mind. The next day we went to the flyshop and bought Cat’s first set up and she has not looked back since.

  The last ten years have been the most incredible years of my life and I owe so much of it to my wonderful wife Cat. If I tried writing about all the ways Cat has impacted my life I think I would crash my computer from TMI. I am lucky enough to have this medium to share my gratitude for her on her birthday. Cats 30^th birthday is tomorrow on the 17^th and I will add some pics from our lives together and some from when she was younger, some are not as flattering as others but hopefully they paint a great picture of Cat’s life. Cat’s schedule at the shop will be a little strange this week because she will be out of town celebrating her b-day this weekend. I have heard so many stories over the years as to how Cat has positively affected different people’s lives and I think the comment section of this blog is a great place to relay b-day wishes and even better, short stories as to what Cat has meant to you and I hope we crash the comment section of this blog from so many thanks. I will always be grateful for the time I get with Cat and hope the next thirty years will be awesome for her as well!!! As always, thanks for reading..Connell, 30 year old Cat, Winston and The Drift Fly shop……..