Birthday Season

Everyone,

Birthday season has hit our house. Last week it was my Dad's birthday. Today is my brother's birthday. In 2 weeks, it's my nephew Cappy's birthday. Then my Mom's birthday is a few days after that. Then 2 weeks after that is Juice's birthday. 3 weeks later, the boys' birthday. And 3 weeks after that, Butterfly's birthday. Whew! Talk about packing them in. I switched my calender over yesterday and almost every single day this month someone in our family is celebrating something. (Birthdays or anniversaries for my cousins, aunts, uncles, Juice's family, etc)

Since today is my brother's birthday (Happy Birthday Bro!) I thought I'd share a story about him, MusicMan. I've been trying to think of my earliest memories with him. I vividly remember running after his back at my first elementary school. So I must have been in 1st grade maybe. We were at the bus stop (which was a park) and we were running for the bus.

I remember playing Voltron in our basement. He always made me be the pink girl but I wanted to be the blue boy. My parents had a big folding extra bed that we used to climb into and that was Voltron's cave. It was a favorite hiding place. Also in the basement, I remember the storage room being locked near Christmas time. We tried to plan out ways to pick the lock or look through the wall some how because we were sure our presents were in there. (We were right, the year we got bikes we saw them. Sorry Mom.)

As we got older, I remember playing a lot of Nintendo with him. Well, I did a lot of watching. He was very good at Nintendo. Especially Final Fantasy. I can still vividly see him fighting those three sisters over and over. They were hard!(Us in 1989 with our dog.)

In 1990 in the Mountains in Colorado.

When I was about 10, on Easter Sunday, MusicMan and I were alone in the pew at church. Both of my parents were singing in the choir and were on the stand. So MusicMan and I were alone for that hour (or so) of service. He was about 12. About half way through, he and I were fighting over a hymn book. A full out fight (as much as you can in church) with lots of hip checking and trying to rip the book out of each others' hands. I looked up at my mom for some support and she gave me "the look of death". You know, the one you got when you were in trouble and your parent can't yell at you. Then I glanced at my Dad and I could see him glowering at us too. So I poked MusicMan and pointed up at our parents. We both stopped fighting and smiled angelically up at them. We weren't fighting! No! MusicMan even had the dramatic flair and put his arm around my shoulders to show that we were friends. That satisfied both my parents and they looked away.

That's when he swooped in with the attack. He swung his hand around my shoulders at my face and caught me right on the nose. Which then started to bleed. Badly. I was no stranger to nose bleeds as a kid but I didn't want to get blood on my dress. I remember getting up and trying to get out to the bathroom as fast as possible. MusicMan saw what I was doing and followed me out of the chapel with his arm around my shoulders again.

(Us again in 1991. These are all Christmas time pictures.)

My mom said she knew something was wrong when we walked out like that. And then the Relief Society president followed us out as well and followed me into the bathroom to make sure I was okay. I was fine a few minutes later and no blood on my dress.

I do remember getting into a lot of trouble for fighting in church that day. But probably not as much trouble as MusicMan got into for hitting me in church.

As teenagers, he was ALWAYS late. He was also my ride to school. His first period was drama. No one cared if he was late. By my first period was English. And I was late every day for almost a month. I got detention at least 4 times that year because of tardiness. Which was totally not my fault! I even resorted to pouring cold water on him in the mornings to wake him up. Seriously didn't phase him.

Even with all the trouble that we got into with each other, we've always been good friends. I never worried about being bored at family things because I knew that MusicMan would always be there to talk to or hide out with. Vacations were fun with him. I knew what he liked and he knew what I liked.

I wished we lived closer so that we could be closer but such is life. He is my only sibling and I know that we will always have a connection. I'm glad he's my brother!

Safire