I thought it would be fun to start a series of guest posts written by some of my favorite writers, bloggers, and real-life people. Today you hear from the older of my two younger brothers, David. When he feels like it, he blogs about design, sports, music, horror movies – or any combination thereof. He told me I wasn’t allowed to edit what he wrote, which is too bad because if I could I would totally remove the picture of me with bangs (that was a bad life decision) and not go so overboard with the compliments (how embarrassing). He is an amazing guy himself, and will always be the best friend of my childhood. Enjoy!

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If you know Kathleen at all, you’d know she’s pretty hard to live up to.

She is one of the most beautiful, patient, intelligent women on the planet (just like her mom! Hi mom!). This, inherently, presents a problem for me: When people know my sister and then subsequently meet me, they seem to project her qualities on to me. “Nice to meet you David!” they would say. “What book are you reading?” That’s when I casually look aside, order a beer and say, “ESPN.com.”

My sister is starting a whole series of guest blog posts and fairly recently she asked if I would like to write one. I immediately said yes, but wanted to make sure I had heard her right. After all, we’re not a whole lot alike; what would I have to say of interest?

“I’m not in any book clubs, you know.” “Yes, I don’t mind.” “I can’t really cook anything but pasta.” “Then don’t write about that.” “I can barely take care of myself and my puppy.” “What?” “You’re a nurse. It’s what you do.” “So?” “So I was just pointing out our differences in a theoretical conversation with you, trying to impress upon your readers that we’re different and finding some common ground to write about would be tough.” “Oh, gotcha. Carry on then.”

Anyway, if you ever start dating someone or meet a good friend’s spouse, you always want to press them on the hilarious, behind-the-scenes things they wouldn’t ever tell you. So here’s a little about me and my sister Kapachino, behind-the-scenes, with the one common ground I’m sure we all have: A love for Kathleen.

• For some odd reason, we got stuck in the same chemistry class in high school. And because our teacher alphabetized seating, we sat next to each other at a two-person table. And let me tell you: If you ever want to compare yourself to someone, sitting next to them in a chemistry class will provide you any number of benchmarks.
• She made an ‘A’ in the class. I made a ‘B+’. And that’s probably the best representation of us I can think of.
• My sister always had an incredible voice (and she still does!). It allowed us to get closer than we ever probably would have been because we could play music together (and still do).
• Re-designing this blog for her made me realize just how picky she can actually be sometimes.
• Growing up, when it was early in the morning or if she would talk back, my Dad called her “Snippy Kins.”

• Kathleen eats cereal like a champ. Every morning before going to high school she would always, always have a bowl.
• Speaking of going to high school, we both rode with our friend (and at the time, probably one of her best friends) Erika before we could drive ourselves. Erika dictated what music we would listen to (with good reason; she was driving us to school), and occasionally she would put on rap. I think this is where I developed my love for the genre and Kathleen began to develop her distaste for it.
• A distaste I’m positive still exists today.
• When we were younger, my sister and I were always on a team against my brother. We were an athletic bunch so we liked to play games all the time, but it was so unfair: my sister and I (only 14 months apart) against our baby brother Barry (effectively two years younger). It was outstanding.
• About that same era, we used to get our brother to do stuff for us by challenging him. Let’s say we wanted a glass of water or a coke. We’d say to him: “I bet you can’t get it to us fast!” And he’d sprint off to get it and we’d “time” him. We’d always try to get him to “beat his last time.” This was also outstanding.

  

• I’ll end with one of the greatest life lessons I’ve ever learned, taught to me by my sister. One day we were both up at church and I wanted to tell her something. She wasn’t around me at the time, so I scoured the church for her and eventually found her tucked away in a back room where, if you wanted to talk to her, you really had to look. She was crying, curled up on a couch. I had never seen my sister cry; she was always very strong and in control. I came in the room, sat down, and asked her what was wrong. She started to tell me, and I would interject every once in a while trying to ease her feelings. She would start talking again and then I would comment again and she’d have to start talking again and eventually she just turned to me, stared me down and said: “Shut up! I don’t always need you to fix things. Sometimes, women just have to talk. And all you have to do is listen.”