tall, tan, laid-back nomad

for some reason, writing my first blog entry makes me feel like i have writer's block, and it makes me nervous. this is ridiculous, because a) hardly anyone knows i have a blog and is going to read this and 2) (ohhhh that joke never gets old), what am i trying to prove anyway?? yesterday i was thinking that i just need to have a kick off point, and i remembered the first line my friend beth wrote in one of my high school yearbooks: "your yearbook smells like iced tea. perfect kick-off point." but i don't like tea, iced or hot, so i'm going to kick it off with an equally important topic: my brother's hair.

i saw my brother for the first time in a few months last weekend at the pearl jam concert at the gorge. we have been experiencing an extreme heatwave, as you, my loyal readers, are surely aware. brad and i stayed with our friend christy in wenatchee on saturday night (temperature on saturday: a horrifying 113 ish degrees, according to one mr. eddie vedder, who sported a tank top and shorts with his tall white socks and tennie runners - and wore the same exact thing on sunday, except with doc martens instead. explanation? "it's f***ing hot!") and we were going to meet ty at the gorge on sunday. it was blazing hot. i couldn't find him anywhere in the parking lot or at the ten club ticket pickup line. brad rushed inside to purchase some collectible posters as i called ty's cell phone repeatedly, which went straight to voicemail.

finally, i looked to my left and saw a vision in white approaching. at first i honestly didn't recognize him, but it was, in fact, my brother. he was wearing the dirtiest, filthiest white tee shirt and swim trunks of all time, a pair of borrowed sunglasses, and his feet were literally dark brown with dirt. he carried a huge backpacking backpack. i told him he looked crazy. he said he had fallen asleep under a tree, after spending the last several hours alone in the scorching heat after the friends he had camped with left early in the morning. i could not stop laughing at how ridiculous he was, and how pathetic. am i mean? maybe...mostly i think i just have a good sense of humor.

but i said i was going to talk about his hair. after we got back to spokane late sunday night he took a shower, and with the dirt removed, the freakish beauty of his hair really began to show itself. it is truly a marvel. it's probably about chin-length at its longest point. for some reason, it is kind of curly at the ends. the curly-ness makes the ends flip out perfectly, but by some hair miracle, the top portion of the hair remains wonderfully smooth and shiny. and to top it all off: he has lovely, sweeping side bangs. it is a beautifully styled coif. all of this is the result of absolutely no effort, product, or forethought. but the result is that he has the exact hairstyle that is much coveted by many a girl and woman - in fact, it is the same hairstyle that my friend noelle once worked to create on a daily basis (and maybe still does?). all in all, the look on a 21-year-old male may not be exactly "manly" or "attractive", but i found it to be equally astounding and delightful on my tall, tan, laid-back nomad brother. i'll have to see if i've got a picture i can post.

so that's about it for me. one world-class blog down, and many more to follow.