people i love: rye rye.

i think one of the responsibilities of brothers is too make things just a little less convenient, at least for his little sister. i know for mine, his "little less convenient" tends to be hilarious, no matter what it is.

my favorite example is the handcuffs.

it was christmas eve morning. i was probably 8, and ryan was 10. i was fast asleep, until i realized ryan was standing pretty close to my bed. i woke up, and realized he had just handcuffed my wrist to his belt loop. awesome. did i mention this was christmas eve?

when i questioned his actions, he said "no, no, no, don't worry, christi [my oldest sister] has the key." [christi was in a police training academy for high schoolers, hence the handcuffs].

well you know where this story goes. christi, in fact, didn't have the keys, so christi drove us to the police station, walked us in, and said [probably a bit embarrassed of us], "my brother and sister are handcuffed together, do you have a key to unlock them?"

the look she gave us was priceless, but she did unlock us, and we all lived happily ever after. although i'm still confused what convinced ryan that handcuffing me would be a good idea. lots of people have asked why we didn't cut his belt loop, so we at least weren't walking into the station attached, but i don't have a good answer for that. i guess we weren't all thinking straight at the time. 

i'm hoping this christmas eve doesn't hold any handcuff surprises for me.

circa the 1900's, obviously.

but there's more than the inconvenient. there are so many memories, both fun and traumatizing.

like naming all the different "sitting" spots in the tree in the above photo together, and then having ryan demote me to only be allowed to sit in the lower spots. cool.

or playing two-man wiffle-ball [which is possible, by the way] everyday for an entire summer.

hearing ryan say the words "katie if you buy those shoes and wear them, and you weren't my sister, i would kiss you, that's how cool they are." in a shoe store. you have to know that ryan has a thing for shoes [huge understatement]. i bought the shoes. 

being convinced that my grandparent's water bed had an alligator living in it. naps at grandma's didn't seem quite as relaxing after that.

planning a backyard carnival with my best friend when we were in 6th grade. we invited all of our neighbors, and a few actually showed. the finale? my brother and his friend snuck from his friends house [6 blocks] to our backyard in FULL fatigues and threw water balloons at us while we were carnival-ing. i've gotta give him props for this one, as ticked as i was at the time.

playing endless hours of trampoline basketball.

creating really awesome and descriptive names for different types of people: dudebros, greshams, etc.

hearing a salvation army bell ringer [years ago] say "merry chris, merry chris" as we walked by, and then repeating it every christmas and holiday we can. for example, "happy easter merry chris."

and finally, an explanation for the top photo. we had quite the christmas snow [for portland] one year, and my parents had to pick up my brother and his wife [then girlfriend] at her house. ryan called to say "see if you can make it all the way up to the house, because we've got a lot of presents." he called back a few minutes later and said "nevermind, stay on the main street, i figured something out." we turned the corner, and saw him mushing his way toward us with that incredible gift-carrying snow sled. i almost died laughing. 

my sister and i can also take credit for giving him the best present ever that year: mister rogers in your pocket. sah-weet!

happy [yesterday] birthday, rye rye! i love you, and thanks for all the fun and torture!

xoxo.