My Brother is a Rock Star in My World

My brother, Dan, is a wonderful, wonderful part of my world. I love that he's my brother.

When my parents first brought him home, I was almost three. I wanted him to go on my slide with me. Mom said he wasn't old enough to use the slide. I said, "Then what good is he?"

Over the years he served his purpose:

1) A smaller creature I could boss around.

2) Partner in crime when we threw slime on the living room ceiling leaving red splotches.

3) Loan officer when I tried to pay a speeding ticket without our parents finding out.

We've had a lot of great laughs together.

We complement each other well. We have really opposite skill sets and do things really differently. And, we happily give up what we don't do well to the other one. That makes us a really good team when we work together. A lot of projects involve me doing stuff and Dan paying the bill. It's fun.

One thing that we do have in common is our sense of humor. We both think the same things are funny. Sometimes when no one else does. We always know when the other will laugh at a story.

One of my favorite stories Dan's told me is about the time he was on an airplane, in the air, during a flight, and the maintenance crew started unscrewing bolts to get to a panel to do some routine work.

We have the same Starbucks order: Tall Vanilla Nonfat Latte.

Dan will point out that he gets his sugar free and I don't. But I will not point that out because it ruins my point about us having the same Starbucks order.

When we were little and Dan was mad at me, he would slip a note under my bedroom door saying, "You realize of course, this means war." Everything was spelled wrong, but I didn't know because I spell as poorly as he does. (I still maintain that we have complementary skill sets. Spelling is the exception.)

This year, Dan got me a new camera for Hannukka. It arrive the day before Kate's Holiday Sing Program at preschool. Perfect timing. I took great pictures. Dan always comes through in a pinch. Even when he doesn't know he's doing it.

How would I sum up my relationship with my brother? I don't understand much of what he does, but I love the whole package that is Dan.