My Older Brother (The REVENGE of the Princess Faith Post)

Alright, day 2 of the I-Love-My-Family-So-Eat-It challenge. For those of you just tuning, I challenged my friend Princess Faith to write about what she loves about all 2534678 of her siblings and do it better then me. So far Princess has posted about her sister Dayle and her brother Gordon. (But, see, Princess is cheating by using Gordon next because she know's I'll have to say that his post is great because he's on my youth group team.) I've already written about my sister Jenny. Today it's my brother's turn.

* A Note to Princess Faith*
I'm on too you. (In the words to your older brother Shane) #ILLEGAL

Day 2-My Older Brother Alex

My brother has something of an odd role in my life. He's there and he's not. While we aren't all that close we still care for each other like we are. My dad has described it as him "hard wiring" Alex to always protect and stick up for me. Not only that, but he's been a great role model as well. He's a good friend, not afraid to tell someone what they're doing is wrong, been more sympathetic then most boys I know. All-in-all, he's pretty good at being a big brother.

2008-2009 Christmas/New Years Vacation

Along with being a Class A older brother, Alex also happens to be extremely funny. First off, he's a master at keeping a straight face. Seriously. He kept a straight face during a whole dinner at Ed Debevic's. (For those of you who don't live in Chicago, Ed Debevic's is a burger joint that pays actor to wait on you and be extremely sarcastic and mean to you while you eat. Now, in theory, this seems like a terrible idea, and yet...) And while Alex can keep a straight face he also does the weirdest stuff he can think of. He's a classic goof. 

Four Years Later....And now he's showing off the guns...

Another thing I admire about Alex is his passion for Christ and his willingness to serve. He's volunteered at Camp Awana every summer and almost every winter weekend since he got into high school, he's been a founding member of a college aged bible study, and recently (literally the day after I got into Columbia College) he was admitted to Bethel College. He's a brother easy to be proud of.

He later told me he was considering pushing Sean in....

Guess who's idea this was.

He was so proud of me for graduating, OH WAIT...

Now these few short paragraphs cannot hope to begin to describe what Alex means to me, but with any luck it's a decent start. And all there's left to say is that I love you Alex, thank you for being a great brother. 

The Five Stages of Post-Novel Completion

That dude looks like he just finished a novel, right?

The Dinner Stage: You've just pounded out your last sentence and YOU ARE THE FREAKING BOMB YO! You're bullet proof, nothing to lose. Fire away, fire away. Ricochet, you take your aim. Fire away, fire away. You still remember it, the very last sentence. You will never forget it as long as you live. And now that you've reported your successful endeavor on Facebook, why not celebrate with dinner?

The Honeymoon Stage: You're reading it, and it's pure gold. Easily the best piece of fiction to ever exist in the History of Man, Monkey, and Comquate. Seriously, you should be doing this for a living or something. Centuries from now historians will speculate as too just how it could it be possible to be as awesome as you? And you know what? THEY WILL FAIL! BECAUSE IT DON'T GET BETTER THEN YOU SO DEAL WITH IT YOU IGNORANT BARBARIANS! Now, just sit back and wait for the awards to start rolling in.

The Sharing Stage: The best things in life should be shared, don't you agree? So pass around the draft, let your friends shower you with praise over your sheer awesomeness. If they can handle it, that is.

The Dreading Stage: So you've gotten some feedback for your manuscript. All in good spirit, you know. As they say, no matter how awesome something is, it can only get better. Still, there's something in the pit of your stomach, and it's either dread or the intense need to pee. But you haven't drunk any fluids for the last few days, you've been so anxious about your baby-YOU MEAN BOOK-out in the world for the first time. Hmmmm....maybe its time to give your manuscript another work.

The Editing Stage: You can't remember what happiness is. How could you ever love this abomination? Look at it, it's disgusting. It's literally making you puke. THeir r jst SO MaNy, gramer, mitsakes,,,that. you dont no waht! tO do "wi"th ur self>/ And that kissing scene in the bathroom? Ew. So overdone. You know what? That whole romance is so over done. You should have just killed off those characters. Not only that, but this is so obviously based off of your life. Yeah, that's right. You hoped no one would notice but it's so glaringly in their faces that they'd have to be blind not to know. No, wait, even a blind person could tell. AND OHMYGOSH WHY DO YOU KEEP USING THE WORD PROBABLY? This is no novel. This is toilet paper, at best. You need Jesus.

~Sigh...Finished my fourth manuscript (third in the series) yesterday. Have a fantastic freaking day people.