My Brother, My Buddy

I've been trying to get more organized around the house, and a big part of that is getting all of my hundreds and hundreds of pictures in the same place, in some kind of order. So, I've been finding all these great pictures that I haven't seen in years. Some of which were of me and my big brother, Tony.

We are almost exactly 10 years apart (his birthday is the day before mine), but that hasn't stopped us from being extremely close. I've always looked up to him, even though he's the biggest redneck that I know, and even when he was sporting the fiercest mullet known to man. He's probably the coolest older brother a girl could have. He even rode a motorcycle, for Pete's sake!

I looked up to him so much, that when he came home one time from one of his cross-country truck driving expeditions with a tattoo that he got at Oceanfront Tattoo in Venice Beach in California, I vowed that I, too, would one day get a tattoo at Oceanfront Tattoo in Venice Beach, California, by a guy named German, who was Tony's tattoo artist. I was sixteen at the time. Years went by, and I always wanted to keep that "vow."

The day came. It was so perfect. I had graduated from PCC,

moved out of my parent's house, and was in LA for Tony's wedding. I couldn't turn my back on the promise I made to myself and to Tony so many years back. So, Grant and I took a bus to Santa Monica, walked from the Santa Monica pier to Venice Beach (which we didn't know was like 3 miles), and found Oceanfront Tattoo. I went in and asked for German. Nelson told me that German had gotten killed in a drive-by shooting about 2 weeks before. So, I settled for Nelson, and got my tattoo.

All that to say, that I value my relationship with Tony very deeply. I still and will always look up to him as the coolest older brother ever!