My Brother, My Aunt, My Friends

Russell is the funniest brother I have. He's also the weirdest brother I have. Actually, there are lots of adjectives to describe Russell, but I think this picture captures the essence of who he is. I love how the picture makes his hair look like the branches of the trees; the great part is that Russell's mind works exactly like that.

I woke Russell up at noon in my most favorite way: putting on Mexican music and banging pots and pans together acting like I'm celebrating. We used to do that on New Years' and it was a lot of fun. I asked Russell what time he went to bed "this morning" and he said 8am. I actually wasn't surprised seeing as how I played Civilization 3 for like 10 hours two weekends ago.

I made a lunch appointment with Elise Eggett, a friend from BYU that now goes to UVSC and isn't Mormon any longer. I told her I would be at the Cafe Rio by Movies 8 at 1:30pm.

As we were driving south, Russell played a tape of a voicemail message his roommate received. On it, his roommates sister left a message, failed to hang up the phone and started saying bad things about Russell. She was talking to her friend and said, "My brother has a roommate that is always watching R-rated movies, swears, and is gay and stuff. Someone should stand up to him because he shouldn't do those things at BYU. Someone should tell the bishop or something." She went on to say how her brother was a wimp for not standing up to Russell. Here was a message from a Molly Mormon that was terrible; she talked so badly about Russell and made judgments about him. If it were me, I would have ripped the sister a new one--but not Russell. He called the sister and said, "I'm going to share this voicemail where you talk badly about your brother unless you do something for me." Russell told me that the next Sunday, she delivered 3 dozen cookies to him. He's blackmailing a Molly Mormon and I love it--it's so Russell.

Before we got to Provo, Brian, Russell and I stopped at my Tia Lorena's house. When I went back to New York for Christmas, my mom gave me presents to give to various people here in Utah, including Tia Lorena. I finally got around to delivering them all and Lorena's was the last. It was the first time Lorena met Brian and it wasn't weird or anything. Tia Lorena is the first person from my mother's side of the family to meet Brian so I was kind of scared, but everything turned out wonderfully. She just got a Yorkshire terrier that was really cute and Brian played with it the whole time. My cousin Rodrigo's daughter Isabella was there (she was being babysat my Abuela Lorena) and she was a blast. At one point, I said "Isabella, run to Russell" and instead, she ran to Brian and hugged him. It was so cute.

Lorena gave us tons of plants to take because she's moving to Florida. We left with 5 plants that Brian was excited to have because he loves plants. It was funny because Tia Lorena kept pointing to different plants and saying, "Keep it. Keep it." We didn't understand what she meant until I asked her if she meant we should take it. She laughed and said that is what she meant. She's a lot like Mom so I always look forward going there.

By the time we got to Provo for lunch, it was 2:30pm, an hour after I told Elise we would be there. I apologized to her and told her we should do it again since she had finished eating. I know we will.

After we dropped of Russell at BYU, Brian and I drove to Aunt Wendy's. On the way there, we got into a fight over money. We didn't talk from Orem all the way to Sandy. I hate fighting over money because there is nothing that I can do about it. He was basically mad at me for not working more during Spring Break, something that I can totally understand. I had more time to work but instead stayed up late, woke up late, and went to work late. I didn't tell Brian this, but I was actually late to work twice even though work starts at 11:30am. We worked out our differences on the way to Wendy's so by the time we got there, we were okay.

We did some house work there and then eventually left around 7pm. I was too tired to do any real work like I usually do there. I'll have to make it up to her next Saturday.

Tonight, Adam Bass invited us to celebrate his birthday with him at Applebees at the Gateway. Brian and I showered and went to the restaurant. I gave Adam the present I got him for Christmas and said, "For your birthday, I decided to get you your Christmas present." He laughed and thought it was funny. Eventually, Adam, Derrick, Scott, Nathan, Brian, Megan and I sat around the table talking and it was like old times. Nathan was being funny because he had spilled gas on himself at a gas station and smelled like gas. It wasn't that bad but it was hilarious because Nathan was so embarrassed about it.

After dinner, we all went over to our house and played Loaded Questions. I had a good time because there was no drama and everyone acted like adults. It made me realize how much fun I have hanging out with Adam; I miss him but I don't want to go back to all the drama that always happened between us.

And I wish people would stop making fun of my video.