Brotherly Love

"There once was a woman who lived in a shoe, she had so many guests she didn't know what to do." 

 

This is my newest situation. Somehow while I was braving the awful Midwest heat index last weekend, my brother accidentally moved in with me. Its rather odd, I'm not going to lie. He called Saturday and asked if he could "rent the garage" for his stuff.  He apparently decided to terminate his lease so he could move to a better place, but didn't realize there was a gap in time...3 weeks or so. When I asked where he was planning on staying, he didn't know. Ah, so the real issue emerged!  Having his bed and whatnot in my garage and him homeless didn’t make any sense.  So of course, I invited him to stay.  He got the keys from my parents and I came home to his official residence being my back room for the next bit.

 

This was a lot to handle as I have not lived with my brother since I was 19 or 20. You have to understand that my brother doesn’t really call me unless there is a major life crisis.  Dad is in the hospital.  I’m thinking of breaking off my engagement.  Those kind of things, so when I got the call Saturday I had a little post traumatic response going on. However, he is my brother and I will always be there to help.  I’ve also always wanted us to be closer so I’m hoping this time together will be bonding. 

 

To make things a bit more complicated, one of my dearest friends showed up on my doorstep last night about 10:15 needing a place to crash for a couple of days. She is now on the aerobed in the third bedroom downstairs. She will be with me until tomorrow night.  However, she is not the point of this entry so I’ll move along…Even though I had been up since 3 AM MDT to catch flights and I had a rough day at work, I still couldn't sleep very well. Psychologically trying to wrap my brain around so many people in my space was difficult.

 

Although a decade had passed, some things hadn’t changed.  He still had laundry piles around the bedroom and a basket to be washed in the basement.  He had jimmy-rigged his Nintendo/Game Cube/X-Box/Evil Male Time Robbing Machine so that it could be eye level while he was in bed.  This was done by precariously stacking the TV on top of a stool on top of a few cardboard boxes.  His toothbrush was randomly placed in the shower although my toothpaste was half gone.  Instead of empty coca-cola cans, there were beer bottles.

 

Other things hadchanged.  He asked if I needed something when he went to the store.  He was so appreciative of letting him crash at my place.  He gave me privacy when I wanted to talk to my boyfriend on the phone.  In fact he was so concerned that he didn’t want to interfere with the way I did things he was always checking if I usually sleep with the A/C on or what time I usually got up in the morning. 

 

It was strange to realize he wasn’t the personification of my little brother I had in my head.  He is a grown man with real grown up problems, but someone who always knows that his big sister will be there on the playground to stick up for him no matter what.