Do you think Norman Rockwell could’ve captured my family quality time last night? It was Dirty, Gus and I hovered around the couch Facetiming with Danny. If you don’t know, Dan is very independent. He doesn’t need a thing from his mommy. Which is okay, that’s what the whole goal is, right? So it’s not uncommon for mommy to be the one who generates the numerous unanswered facetimes. Which is also okay.
These two great humans I bore don’t exist to meet my needs. They are much more than that. And further, I am responsible for my needs. Not them. But I really do like both those boys. If they weren’t mine, they would absolutely be people I would choose to have in my life. They’re quick witted, hard workers, goal focused, introspective, fucking hilarious, and basically perfect.
Last night, the stars were aligned, (or perhaps a new video game update was loading) and Daniel ANSWERED my facetime. I tried to play it cool. I know I failed. But you could tell it was a big deal for all of us. Dirty even paused the movie he was watching. It was an exciting time.
Daniel has been in Kansas since mid August, and he is doing great. Heading into this adventure, he was worried about upper division courses in things such as marketing and whatnot. That worry seemed to be unfounded. “My lowest grade right now it 85.6%.” Then from half a continent away, Dan started to roast his brother, “I don’t know why you dropped out. This is easy.”
“I would’ve stayed too if I had my own bathroom. Do you know what it’s like to have 5 of 6 toilets covered in puke, shit, fecal matter, and whatever else? The jail is less disgusting than that place” (Side note: I should probably check in about his understanding of fecal matter. Sounds like there may be some confusion)
Dan talked about his pastimes. He said that recently he and his buddy were headed to a fishing hole and saw a bunch of Cat equipment; scrapers and the like. He said that his buddy asked him if that’s what he worked on in his former life. Daniel said that as he started talk to the buddy about the equipment he had a moment of clarity. “I was like ‘Shit! I sound exactly like Brian and Gino.’” Dirty responded with “Dude. I rode with them to MacArthur. That’s all they did was talk about tractors.”
The four of us also had a deep chat about Dirty’s new endeavor. And by “deep” I mean we watched the video of Dirty being tased and had questions such as “You have a belt, and stuff?”
We learned that Danny’s buddy had never had mac and cheese with butter before. I asked, “What did he have in it?” “Butter now.” As though whatever Talon’s previous mac and cheese life experience was had just been cancelled out with the fell swoop of butter.
We checked in about what had been Dirty’s favorite meal on our trip there. Daniel said, “I don’t eat sushi made in a grocery store in the middle of the country.” Fair enough.
There were numerous quips and burns back and forth. Deals brokered. “Tell Tanner to ship me those wheels. I have a real job now and can afford the tires.” “Maybe. You got to fix the coolant leak in my 6 liter first.”
It was a great chat and sweet reminder about sibling connections. Brothers don’t need close proximity or frequent contact to hop right back in to brother mode. Norman Rockwell can put that in his pipe and smoke it.
Thanks for reading!
Bifocals and Barbells 