This weekend we played host to J aka Pony, my twin brother from another mother. We lived two houses away from each other and officially met when I was two and he was three, two diaper clad babes looking to learn the mysteries of the potty. His mom used to only allow health food in the house so when he overheard my parents trying to bribe me onto the pot with M&M's he jumped on the opportunity to score some candy and promptly potty trained himself.
We may not share the same blood but he's been as close as or more so than my biological siblings and people were convinced we were going to get married. We were convinced for most of our lives too until I realized at about 12 that you couldn't marry your siblings and since Pony was obviously my brother, that just wasn't going to fly. Instead, he was the best man/man of honor at my wedding to E, who we met when I was 7, J was 8 and E was 9.
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| E, S and J <3 |
I would do anything for those two, for the boys they once were and the men they've become. I'm very fortunate to have married such a wonderful childhood friend since the relationship between J and I is deep and enduring, and someone who hadn't grown up with us would likely misunderstand our bond. One of these days I'll post some footage of our home movies, we have a great one of my four year old self scolding a boy for taking my Pony's toy. We have each other's backs, twin style, and we wouldn't have it any other way.
Since my grandpa passed away, I have slowly adopted J's grandpa as my own. He's an incredible man who has lived a fascinating life and this weekend he turned 90 years old. To celebrate, Pony came into town along with scores of other relatives for a luncheon honoring grandpa. Pony's mother, P, had requested a few hours of my time to help with a video project of grandpa's life.
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| Baby Grandpa |
This quickly turned into a massive undertaking that involved me spending every evening at her house working feverishly on sound editing. I'd go to work in the morning, come home to kiss E and Milou, and then head to P's house. When it got closer to the party, E joined me and again we were in front of her computer all night, sometimes until 3am. We finished just in the nick of time the night before the party and the movie debuted Thursday afternoon at the luncheon. There wasn't a dry eye in the house, Pony and I were sitting in the back crying into our napkins and the biggest praise was from Grandpa who thanked E and I profusely for our efforts.
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| Pony and family including grandpa and two of his brothers in the front |
After the party, the rest of the weekend was a whirlwind. We visited with family, went to Six Flags where it was way too hot, went to a friend's birthday party and paid a visit to the Natural History Museum and the Science Center. More food than our stomaches could hold was consumed with P planning every meal at a different restaurant and I'm pretty sure I'm going to need a weekend to recover from the visit.
