He ain't heavy

Someone in Arizona has 32 birthday spankings coming to him. Yep, my brother Ryan (better known around these parts as anonymous commenter "Brian Callahan") turns 32 today. Which means that 32 years ago today, I got a new baby brother. Honestly, I don't remember him coming home from the hospital. Hell, I don't even remember mom being pregnant with him. Of course, using this logic, I can't ever remember a time in my life when I didn't have a brother. And honestly, I don't want to imagine what that would be like.

True to form, here's a couple pictures of us when we were growing up. Notice that these are both from our early life, sparing every reader of this blog the trauma of our awkward years. It's bad enough that we had to suffer through them.

That's me in the front (obviously) looking like one of the boxcar children and Ryan's in the back with his shirt full of slobber. Man, could that kid drool or what?

And what the hell were Mom and Dad dressing me in? Ah, the 70s - love them or hate them, they're all over my family photo albums. (Mostly I love them in retrospect - fascinating history that stuff.)

As with most brothers, we're a bit of a study in contrasts. He's more classic rock - I'm cheesy pop music all the way. In high school, he discovered body building and became, as a friend of mine so succinctly put it "2x3 Dans." He's a dentist in Arizona - I'm a pharmacist in Iowa. But he's also a pharmacist, too! However, a couple years of working the graveyard shift in a very well known chain drug store caused him to apply to dental school (and has rendered him a twitching mess whenever he walks into said chain drug store.)

We haven't always seen eye to eye, but hey, he's my brother. Always has been, always will be.

Here's to you, Ryan! Hope you have many more. And I promise I'll make it to Arizona soon - I just have to figure out my finances!