Staying positive.: Seattle with my brother

My "baby" brother is nine and a half years younger than me. (Okay, more like nine and a quarter.) He just suddenly appeared one day, long after I had gotten used to all the perks of being an only child. I immediately learned that there are wonderful perks to having a little brother too. The day my brother was born, my dad picked me up from school. I didn't have to ride the bus! Not only that, but I was allowed to skip my violin lesson to go meet the newest member of the family. Those are the kinds of things that make brothers cool to nine year olds.

Since there was such a gap between the two of us, I became kind of a second mother to my little brother. I was always so proud of Victor. When he was a baby, I wore a necklace with his photo in it. When he got a little older, I'd show up at school wearing his yarn/paperclip/rubber band jewelry creations. In college I'd show off his drawings, letters, and photos. We were as close as siblings nine and a quarter years apart could be.

The thing is, conversations between a 20 year old and a 10 year old are pretty limited. Victor could tell me all the things that concern a fourth grader, and ask me for help on his homework. I could not really share about all that I was experiencing and ask him for advice on life and boys. So when we spent time together, we would talk about teachers we had in common, books we had both read, or make music together.

Fast forward a decade or so. My baby brother is now an adult. *gasp* I don't know how or when it happened, but at some point he grew up. Before I knew it, we started having normal sibling conversations. It has been such a blessing to me. I entered such a scary phase in life, and sometimes I really needed to talk to someone who knew about the yucky background stuff that doesn't get talked about. Poor Victor became that someone.

No worries. I'm

still Big Boss Sister Karen. He's still Little Bratty Boogerboy Victor. I still tell him what to do. He still does everything he can to annoy me. But somehow, our siblingness has reached a new level, and that's cool.

So, after Victor graduated from college, the two of us flew off to Seattle to celebrate. Well, we claimed it was to celebrate. Really, it was to annoy our beloved Cousin Lilly (Lillian). We never took a trip together without our parents. It was so much fun, even if we wanted to strangle each other by the end of the week.

We did all kinds of wonderful touristy things you're supposed to do in Seattle. We were nervous in the beginning. When we left the 'burgh, temperatures were in the 90s. It was so hot and humid. Then we arrived in Seattle. As soon as I got off the plane, I sneezed five times in a row and kept saying, "oh I hate Seattle." When we got outside, it was rainy, windy, and temperatures were closer to the 40s. I got a lovely email from Joe's best friend Mike welcoming me to Seattle and informing me that it was the coldest first week of June since the late 1800s. Boy did Victor and I feel special to be experiencing such a monumental event...

The week ended up getting warmer, and we ended up falling in love with Seattle. Lilly was the perfect host. In between all of our tourist activities, Victor and I had the privilege of meeting up with several Pittsburgh "kids" who moved to Seattle. We also met some of our relatives for the first time, including our 8th great-aunt. They were really special times.