My boyfriend thought I was selling his dog on the black market.

I conceptualized this gift months ago – and worked closely with my dear designer friend, as I still lovingly refer to as “Tattoo Chad” all these years later.

Brad is obsessed with music. I know everyone says they “love” music, but I have never known someone more passionate about music than Brad.

While on our first vacation together (16 days after meeting), Brad asked me why I got two different types of sauces at Burger King. I said, “Buffalo for my chicken, barbeque for my fries.” He joked that that sounded like a hit single off a country album.

“BUFFALO FOR MY CHICKEN, BARBEQUE FOR MY FRIES!”

Over the next few weeks, we shared some more inside jokes and decided our jokes actually sounded like names of Fall Out Boy songs, with how weird and random and bizarre they were.

And then, BOOM. My idea was born. I was going to create an “album” with our inside jokes as “tracks” and the cover art was going to be inspired by his favorite Fall Out Boy album – Infinity on High.

Cute idea, right? I thought so, too. But through the months, my idea turned from cute to … brilliant (if I do say so myself).

One time, I asked him, “What was your VERY first reaction when you got to your car after our first date?” He replied, “Yes.”

I inquired, “Yes?”

He said he ‘screamed’ YES! and punched the roof of his car because he was ‘fucking thrilled’ that the date went so well, and I was beautiful and amazing. Then he told me he listened to ‘Infinity on High’ on his way home.

Internally, I was like, “YES! This makes my gift that much cuter.”

I don’t know why, but somewhere down the line, I decided to replace the iconic sheep on the original album cover with a photo of one of Brad’s dogs, Finn.

As I was sending the project details to Tattoo Chad, I had an “ah-ha!” moment. I was going to do a play on words and change the word “Infinity” in the title to “Infinnity” – a deliberate typo that still hurts my eyes, but whatever.

Tattoo Chad told me I would need to take a photo of Finn in a similar position as the sheep, and over the course of a few weeks, Brad became strangely concerned with how many photos I was taking of his dog in his poses. He was like, “Lauren, are you trying to sell Finn on the black market or something? WTF is going on?”

It doesn’t help that Finn is huge and quite possibly the dumbest, goofiest dog I have ever met, and he has NO spatial awareness. I finally got a photo that was close enough, and Tattoo Chad worked his artistic magic to bring my vision to life:

Fun fact: The name of my blog, 'Fix me in 45' was inspired (i.e. stolen) from a lyric from this album. Cry on the couch and all the poets come to life/Fix me in forty-five.

P.S. These won't make sense to anyone else, but here are the track titles:

1. … snails.

2. Bruiser and the Broccoli

3. Justine and the Water Bottles

4. Buffalo for my chicken, barbeque for my fries

5. Go Longhorns!

6. He. Doesn’t. Own. A. Bird.

7. Undercover Narcissist

8. Clayton and Lloyd = John Laid (CLOYD)

9. Winnie needs a job.

10. “It’s a shed.”

11. Rutgers, Maryland

12. We're playing Chess, and he's playing Candyland.

13. The gays

14. Rose, Bud, Thorn (RBT)