valentines day after.

We couldn't really do the whole 'valentine's day' thing yesterday, so we did it tonight. This was my v-day surprise for Mark...

my baby brother.

Kyle is five years younger than me, six in school years. I asked God for months for a baby brother when I was five, and when he was born I begged God to take him back because I wanted primary access to my mom's lap again. As an elementary and middle school kid, I treated Kyle pretty terribly because I was selfish mostly, and because he was an annoying little brother. And then, mid-way through high school, I realized that he was actually kind of cool. By the time I graduated high school I was downright devastated to leave him. He is 19 now. He is six foot four or five, and he is my dear, dear friend. He is the only person I have that fills this one specific place in my life. I am not sure when he switched from little brother to best pal, but he did. And sometimes, when we are driving from Winston-Salem to Chapel Hill because he slept over on a Saturday night and he has to get back to school, and we are talking about swimming and girls, and marriage and stress, and our family and our dreams, I have a mental about-face and think how uncanny it is to be best friends with your siblings. Both of them.

Kyle is a swimmer for Carolina and this weekend kicked some serious Duke and NCState tail. Here is a video. He is in lane 2--far away from the camera. He won :)