Brother/Sister Bonding

At 10:45, as I was rubbing my tired eyes and getting ready to say good-night to my family, realization dawned on me. 

"Oh man, it's Tuesday and I totally forgot to blog!" 

My comment piqued my brother's attention. "Wait, you have a blog?" he asked inquisitively. Then, almost instantly... "Show me!" 

For the next ten minutes, I put on my tour guide hat and showed my brother around my blog. Although I was hesitant at first, wondering if he'd find it boring, I found myself gradually giving more detail as he expressed a growing interest. Each question he asked or comment he made led to a new explanation of a different facet of my writing or of the Slice of Life challenge. 

"So, do people read your blog? How do they find it?"     

                            We looked at the statistics section of my blogger account and then jumped to the 

                             TWT website to learn about the Slice of Life Challenge. 

"Wow! That post got a lot of views! What was it about?"

                             We clicked over to skim through a few of my posts...

"What else do you write about?" 

                              ...and then we kept scrolling and reading together.

"Oh, Mrs. M (his English teacher) would love that sentence..." 

                             My heart smiled as he singled out and recited one of the sentences I had tried to carefully craft in a previous post. 

           

And then, my favorite question came..."So, are you going to post tonight?" he asked. 

I had been asking myself the very same question. "Well," I responded, "I do every Tuesday, but we were so busy today that the day just sort of got away from me. It's the first week I've missed since March 1st, though..." 

"Write a post now!" he cried, inching a bit closer to the laptop. "You could write about our day today! You know, write about all of the places we went together. Or write about all of the details we had to go through when we bought the laptop just now." 

"I was thinking about it..." I told him hesitantly. I wasn't sure if I had it in me to craft a blog post this late at night after such a full day. 

"Come on, I'll help you!" 

And that was all of the convincing I needed. If my "little" brother (it's hard to call him "little" when he is 18 years old and towers 15 inches above me, his "big" sister) was willing to help me keep my Slice of Life commitment, then how could I resist? 

Having just spent the entire day together running errands for his upcoming graduation party, we certainly had enough to write about. We could write about the brother/sister breakfast date we had at the local diner... or about purchasing a graduation cake and party supplies...or about any of the errands we did as we hit 14 different stores together today! 

But as the clock inched closer and closer to midnight, I decided to rely on two simple pictures (per Andrew's suggestion) to relay how Andrew and I felt after a very fun and productive (but exhausting) afternoon. After all, they say a picture is worth a thousand words... and we are both far too tired to write that much tonight! 

Secret snapshots taken by my mom after Andrew
and I came home from a marathon of errand running for his
upcoming high school graduation party

~

Slice of Life is a weekly blogging challenge hosted by Two Writing Teachers.

Check out their webpage and then join us each Tuesday to share a slice of your life!

A Birthday Celebration

A gleeful shriek escaped from my mouth when I found out that I was the "lucky caller number 15" and that I had just won a fifty dollar gift card to a fancy restaurant in Dublin, Ohio. Immediately upon hanging up the phone, I pulled up the website for La Scala Italian Bistro to peruse their menu and long list of live entertainment. This restaurant was definitely out of our price range for a normal date, but with my prize the menu prices seemed more manageable. "When should we use it?" I wondered. This was not a "regular" date night restaurant. No, we needed to save this gift card for something extra special. I put the gift card in a safe place and waited for just the right occasion.

So, when my birthday rolled around last week, my husband and I decided that we had finally found the perfect time to use my radio prize winnings. I was giddy with excitement as I got ready. I spent extra time primping--dressing up far more than I would on the average Saturday night. I carefully tied the belt around my new dress and even lined both of my eyes!

My husband and I walked into the restaurant holding hands and when we were escorted to our table reserved for two, I knew that this was going to be a special birthday dinner.

The lights were dim and soft piano music played in the background. People all around us were celebrating--high schoolers in prom dresses and tuxedos, a table full of friends posing for a birthday photo, and a family with two "Happy Birthday" balloons floating above their table. My attention didn't linger around me for long, though. My husband and I were in our own little bubble. We had escaped from the "real world" for a short while and had entered our own magical little world of happiness and celebration.

We chatted happily while our waitress delivered our shrimp cocktail, carefully arranged in a martini glass. We spoke with anticipation about our upcoming trip to Greece as she refilled our drinks, delivered a fresh, soft loaf of bread, and later presented our main courses to us--dishes that both looked and tasted exquisite. I savored each bite, but what I truly savored most was the quality time and conversation with the man I love.

I realized that I didn't need a gift card to a fancy restaurant to make my birthday a special one. Sure, the ambiance and delicious meal certainly contributed to making my birthday more special, but what truly made the night perfect was the quality, uninterrupted time with the one seated across from me. And that's a gift I don't have to win a contest on the radio to enjoy!

Slice of Life is a weekly blogging challenge hosted by Two Writing Teachers.

Check out their webpage and then join us each Tuesday to share a slice of your life!