andy.

i love my brother. (i will add pictures to this post asap... check back)

and i have always looked up to him.
(except that time he punched me in the stomach.)

i have many wonderful memories from growing up with him.
and there are times when i think of him that make me laugh out loud to myself.
sometimes i start laughing so hard that i can hardly get the story out.
and sometimes when i actually do get the story out, people i'm sharing it with don't get what's so funny.

but that's my brother. and i get him.
he's hilarious. strange. wonderful. chill.
salt of the earth. kind. trustworthy.
and chatty late at night.

we are a year and a half apart.
i was one grade behind him.

i survived my teen years because of my brother.

so i thought i would share a quick story about growing up with andy.

do you remember when everyone used their home phones to talk to one another?
as a teenage girl, the phone was my friend. i could spend hours on it.
(odd, because now, i totally dislike talking on the phone.)
i would spend time up in my room "doing my homework" or listening to the radio while on the phone.
call waiting was a dream to me because i didn't have to get off the phone in case someone was expecting a call.
when the phone did ring, inevitably, two family members would pick up at once. it could get tricky because i never wanted my parents to hear all of my important teenage talk.  so, i always had to wait to hear the other family member who answered it hang up before i could really begin a conversation.
that's what it was like as a teen in the late eighties /early nineties kids. communication was strategic. ;)

my brother knew it that i liked getting phone calls.
my brother knew that i would run to my room to answer.
so, what he did was pick up the phone in his room (there was no cordless phones at this time- we all had a phone in our room attached to the wall) and he waited for the dial tone to stop.
once there was silence, he called out loud to my room, "kaaaate- phooone."
(remember i didn't need to hear the phone ring to think i was getting a call because of call waiting.)

so, i  inevitably jumped up and picked up the phone with eagerness and answered, "hello?"
and instead of a friend calling, i heard,
"hi kate!" from my brother.
then i stood up and looked into his room from across the hallway, and while still holding the phone to my ear, i said, "hmph, andy!!!"
he laughed hard at me, but then, still talking on the phone, asked if i would come into his room and hang out with him. which i did.

this happened many times after. sometimes, i would already be in bed going to sleep and he would yell that i had a phone call and then ask me to come hang out. i would get all irritated about how tired i was and why couldn't he just come into my room to talk and why did i always have to come in there, etc.

but deep down, as much as i wanted to be mad at him, i never really was.  i actually was thrilled to be a part of his life and considered him my best friend throughout this time.

he would ask me why i thought he didn't have a girlfriend. i would ask him what guys liked. he would tell me about his friends or how his day was. i would tell him who i had a crush on... and so on.
and that's how it went.

and i miss those times...
they are one of the most valuable memories of high school for me.

the end.