White Man's B-day (yes, we mean Shamlan)
Happy Birthday to my biggest and bestest and Ali's little and bestest brother Shamlan!! I called him today and that was the highlight of my day. I think we talked for almost 40 minutes. It was good, but not enough because back in VA, Shamlan and I talked on the phone everyday, several times a day (he’d get bored at work and then call me up and pester me... I know, he needs to get a life. :) )
He is 29 today. I looked for cards in English to mail to him, but I didn't find any. Apparently, I also didn't look hard enough.
Great White (my brother’s nickname, among others, for AliBob) talked to him too for a little bit. They had a ‘white-to-white connection’, another term coined by my brother. And yes, the inside jokes really are as silly as they sound, but we all get a kick out of it anyway.
Anyway, I should take this time to say that my brother really is awesome. He gave me an ipod mini for my last birthday and, not having ever thought of buying one, I now wonder how I got along without it. Seriously, it makes me *want* to do housework. I have spent hours just going from one chore to the next and enjoying myself the whole time. In fact, when AliBob wasn't around and I couldn't get online, it was my other whitey (the mini) that got me through a long, lonely, boring and internetless day full of crappy chores.
The moral of this story is: give your little sisters material gifts, such as expensive electronic devices, and they'll write you lame odes.
But really, for example even in high school, when I had to be driven all over Virginia for college interviews, it was my brother who would leave work early for me and drive me there through rush hour traffic and wait for me in the car for an hour or two while I did my thing and would drive me back.
Years later, one weeknight when we were in Charlottesville, we realized at 7 or 8 pm that AliBob needed a tie for some interview (and had left some stuff at my parents' place) and so my brother actually drove down (it's a 2 hour drive each way) from Northern VA to bring all available ties so AliBob could pick a tie and be set, and then he turned around and drove right back home and went to work the next day.
He is his parents' son. My parents have done weird and extreme things like that for us too, so I guess I know where he gets it.
He's also ready to give me his credit card at the slightest hint of my desire to buy something. And he takes us out to the coolest places for dinner. He makes awesome fried eggs, brit/paki style french toast and doodh patti (a milky tea drink). That's all he makes. Oh, and toast too.
He's also been one of my biggest fans and supporters and he's also brutally honest with me when I least want to hear it. He also worries like a mom. Really, he freaks out. Haha.
He also makes really lame jokes that still manage to make us laugh... but is it out of pity? Oh, and he lets the entire family (extended included) make fun of him to no end and just laughs along with the rest of us. We can be quite cruel.
He speaks awesome Spanish, and when he doesn't know something, he still speaks it anyway like it's correct and doesn't care if he makes mistakes.
He and I gang up on our little sister Ayesha and tease her in Spanish because she doesn't speak it. They're sports aficionados and watch sports together and gang up on me and make fun of me for my nerdy bookish ways and for my love of libraries (what's wrong with loving libraries, I ask you??). I'll watch sports games but I'll always bring a book, which I end up reading instead. My sister and I gang up and use our girl power to provoke his delicate temper and then laugh at him for losing it.
AliBob is a mercenary and takes sides as he sees fit and laughs at us for being such idiots. They always side with him against me and it's never a fair fight.
I miss my family.
~Sara
He is 29 today. I looked for cards in English to mail to him, but I didn't find any. Apparently, I also didn't look hard enough.
Great White (my brother’s nickname, among others, for AliBob) talked to him too for a little bit. They had a ‘white-to-white connection’, another term coined by my brother. And yes, the inside jokes really are as silly as they sound, but we all get a kick out of it anyway.
Anyway, I should take this time to say that my brother really is awesome. He gave me an ipod mini for my last birthday and, not having ever thought of buying one, I now wonder how I got along without it. Seriously, it makes me *want* to do housework. I have spent hours just going from one chore to the next and enjoying myself the whole time. In fact, when AliBob wasn't around and I couldn't get online, it was my other whitey (the mini) that got me through a long, lonely, boring and internetless day full of crappy chores.
The moral of this story is: give your little sisters material gifts, such as expensive electronic devices, and they'll write you lame odes.
But really, for example even in high school, when I had to be driven all over Virginia for college interviews, it was my brother who would leave work early for me and drive me there through rush hour traffic and wait for me in the car for an hour or two while I did my thing and would drive me back.
Years later, one weeknight when we were in Charlottesville, we realized at 7 or 8 pm that AliBob needed a tie for some interview (and had left some stuff at my parents' place) and so my brother actually drove down (it's a 2 hour drive each way) from Northern VA to bring all available ties so AliBob could pick a tie and be set, and then he turned around and drove right back home and went to work the next day.
He is his parents' son. My parents have done weird and extreme things like that for us too, so I guess I know where he gets it.
He's also ready to give me his credit card at the slightest hint of my desire to buy something. And he takes us out to the coolest places for dinner. He makes awesome fried eggs, brit/paki style french toast and doodh patti (a milky tea drink). That's all he makes. Oh, and toast too.
He's also been one of my biggest fans and supporters and he's also brutally honest with me when I least want to hear it. He also worries like a mom. Really, he freaks out. Haha.
He also makes really lame jokes that still manage to make us laugh... but is it out of pity? Oh, and he lets the entire family (extended included) make fun of him to no end and just laughs along with the rest of us. We can be quite cruel.
He speaks awesome Spanish, and when he doesn't know something, he still speaks it anyway like it's correct and doesn't care if he makes mistakes.
He and I gang up on our little sister Ayesha and tease her in Spanish because she doesn't speak it. They're sports aficionados and watch sports together and gang up on me and make fun of me for my nerdy bookish ways and for my love of libraries (what's wrong with loving libraries, I ask you??). I'll watch sports games but I'll always bring a book, which I end up reading instead. My sister and I gang up and use our girl power to provoke his delicate temper and then laugh at him for losing it.
AliBob is a mercenary and takes sides as he sees fit and laughs at us for being such idiots. They always side with him against me and it's never a fair fight.
I miss my family.
~Sara
posted by Irfan Ali at 4:45 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home