Baby brother all grown up

Today is my little brother's birthday. 24. 24! The idea that he is getting so old is a little bit scary to me, though I have no doubt he is prepared for it. In celebration of his day I thought I'd share some of the things that I like best about him/most impress me about him/make me laugh at him.

• He is a teacher. And a good one. He teaches a bunch of high school kids that could wear down Mother Teresa's patience and he never even blinks. He is realistic about their futures, yet hopeful and encouraging all along. He even took his kids to visit his Alma mater, resulting in an acceptance to the school. I'm amazed at this, because more profoundly, I am amazed he hasn't thrown any of them out the window. I surely would have.
• He does the best imitations of people I have ever seen or heard.

David immitating a really annoyed brother whose sister will not stop taking pictures of him. Perfection.

• He is an artist. An amazing artist. He has given me several pieces which I love to display. He has an eye for detail that makes his work unique and hard not to stare at for hours.
  
• He wears his emotions on his face. When David is pissed, you know it. When David doesn't like you, he doesn't hide it. While I don't particularly love this, I can appreciate it because you always know where he is coming from. More than that, I love that when he is happy because he has the best laugh and smile in the entire world.

Mostly likely cracking up due to a fart joke.

• He krumps. Seriously. And with gusto. Some of my favorite memories are dancing with my brother in the house and in the car. And not just a gentle swaying. I'm talking full throttle, balls to the wall gyrations and spasms. I'm not saying that either one of us are particularly good, but that doesn't mean we don't give 100% every time.
• He is a bleeding heart liberal. He loves politics and can out argue just about anyone, even when he is wrong. He has some serious convictions and he will fight you to the death to get his point across. He has a soft spot for the most vulnerable and underprivileged among us and has proven he doesn't mind getting his hands dirty in helping tackle those issues. I love all this leftist enthusiasm even more because I knew him way back when he was in 9th grade and was a staunch Republican.

If this isn't the portrait of a budding political mind, I don't know what is.

• His hands look like paws on a puppy.

He has hands like this, only more hairy. Also, there was another picture here, but SOME people found it offensive. Prudes.

• We both get Franken-neck pretty regularly. Genetics.
• As we get older we start to look more and more alike. While he complains that in pictures we always look like boyfriend and girlfriend (it is creepy, we know. It's been discussed and we aren't proud of it), hopefully soon we will look similar enough that people will either assume we are just happy siblings or from Appalachia.

Loving brother or sister or future parents of a very inbred child? Ew..I'm sorry. That was too much.

• David can have some foul moods. I mean, seriously foul. But the nice thing is, no matter how mean he gets, or whatever nastiness comes out of his mouth, he will always apologize when he knows he's really hurt your feelings. I have a million little notes somewhere saved from when we lived under the same roof that say the sweetest, most heartwarming things.
• When we were little kids and we wanted to get our mom's attention we would pool our annoyingness together and I would yell, "MOMM-" and then he would yell, "-MMY" over and over until she would come to us. While I'm sure my mother would remember this as one of our less charming attributes, I think it was pretty adorable. Go Teamwork.

I have a lot more things I like/think are funny about my brother, but from here on out, the stories/opinions I have fall into the category of things my brother would kill me for sharing. But I think you can get the gist of him through what I have disclosed. Starting in high school he began evolving into Dave. Dave is how his friends know him. David is the hip guy who dresses smart and listens to kick ass music. I like Dave. But really, to me, he will always be David, who danced our choreography while lip-syncing to "Master of the House" from Les Miserables with me around our family room. So Happy 24 Dave and David! I hope the next 24 will bring you more success and happiness than your bleeding liberal heart could ever imagine.

No family vacation is complete without...ME!

As I mentioned before, this June ruled. I've had one more weekend to add to a fantastic month. The last weekend in June happened to be my parent's 30th anniversary. Wow. That means my mom has been married more years than she was single and my dad is getting close. That just blows my mind. Personally, I think my parents are an excellent example of how a marriage should work. They don't always (or ever) get along, per se, but they both have a lot of love and respect for the other that keeps it going. Most likely, they each have pretty detailed, well thought out plans of how to get rid of the other and make it look like an accident. But not once in 30 years have either one of them reverted to those plans and I think that takes guts and should be commended. My parents were planning on going to New York to visit my brother that weekend and my brother had the brilliant idea that I should fly out there secretly and surprise them for their anniversary. That's David, always thinking. So that is what I did. (I realize this plan/anniversary present all hinges on the assumption that someone (my parents) would want to "receive" me or time with me as a gift. In fact, in this case, it goes so far as to assume someone would not only like to "receive" me, but pay for all my meals, cabs and lodging on top of it. I'm pretty awesome, so I'm going to say it is a pretty safe assumption.)

Manhattan, as seen from Brooklyn.

I planned to arrive the same day as them, just a little later so I would meet them at their hotel after dinner. Possible revelation scenarios included me already in the room, yelling surprise when they entered, a bell boy knocking on the door saying, "Delivery" and then the delivery was me or me randomly walking up to them in the lobby asking for the time. All my good intentions flew out the window when it stormed for three days in Chicago, prior to my departure.

Their flight was delayed. My flight was delayed even more. I ended up arriving at their hotel at 1:30 am. David had informed the front desk of my pending arrival and they had a key for me. David was pretty sick and took a Tylenol PM, so he said I should just let myself in if he didn't answer his phone. The only problem with that plan was the chain lock on the door. So after calling David about 15 times, he finally answered and let me in. We snuck into my parent's room where David woke them saying, "I have surprise for you." I snuck out from behind the door and said, "Surprise!" My dad barely rolled over. My mom picked her head up and looked at me (without glasses or contacts) and said, "What?" I said, "It's your daughter, Jenny!" My mom said, "What?" Dad said, "Jennnnnnny. Hello. " and then went back to sleep. My mother was pretty confused, understandably. The most she could spit out that night was, "What? I don't understand. But how did you get here? I don't understand. Where were you? How are you here? What? I don't understand." It was pretty cute. There was a pull-out couch that David was sleeping on, but he was very, very sick and contagious. So my parent's 30th anniversary ended just like every couple imagines theirs will end. In bed, with their 26 year old child in bed with them. Now that's what I call romance.

Little do they know this scene will be repeating itself 26 years from now, minus the contented smiles.

The weekend was great. David was really sick, and I felt pretty bad for him. But he hang in their like a trooper. He recently moved to his first apartment where he will have no roommates and I think he is just going to love it. He has a pretty sweet set up there. The apartment seems nice, it has cool people in the building and it is very close to a lot of fun.

It worries me that my brother just continues to get more good looking. Soon I'm going to have to stop uglying myself up so as to make him feel better. I hate him thinking I got all the good looking genes in the family.

We ate at some pretty incredible restaurants in Brooklyn, went to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, went to the MoMA, walked along the river and just had a great time. Brooklyn is pretty kick ass. The more I go there, the more I really enjoy it. My parents were happy with my presence and were glad to have the whole family together. So overall, Operation Surprise Anniversary was a success. Even with the co-sleeping.