"I didn't choose the thug life, the thug life chose me." - Swoozie
#NewYorkForever
Throwback Thursday: The First Chapter in Texas
This may be the last time that I was the tallest of the crew. This was taken in the backyard of our first Texas home. I remember my dad was visiting Texas for the second time, while we were living in Oklahoma, and he called to tell us he had rented a home there. That's is the way my family's life has moved - with surprising twists and turns, sometimes at the speed of light. Who could have imagined we would stay in Texas for so long?
Throwback Thursday: That One Year That My Sister and I Shared a College
Somehow my sister Kerissa manages to share the most in common with each of my siblings. She has shared jobs and friends with each of us, and even college with two of us (so far). One of my favorite college memories was sharing my college experience with her for a year. It turns out she didn't love the school as much as I did, but I am so glad that she was there for a time.
Btw, I have no idea who took this picture, but I guess I should thank them. We are not in the habit of taking pictures, so it's nice to have this one.
Tuesday's Ten: 10 Sensory Childhood Memories
The Georges siblings B.Z. (Before Isaiah)
Who knows what we were even doing here? And who cares? Childhood is so carefree.
- Childhood looks like New York streets in yellow taxi cabs. And in a green Saturn. And in a beige Ford Taurus. Interesting people and places whiz by. Graffiti murals stretch over building sides.
- Childhood sounds like car stereo playing 90s hits, and gospel cassettes, and eventually CDs, because we are so modern. Music never stops and technology is so exciting.
- Childhood smells like lemon cleaning products, because that is what clean smells like. There was Ajax until we had Joy and there was Pledge.
- Childhood tastes like cheesecake - Junior's strawberry cheesecake - the late night delight that dad brings home after work and the any occasion treat.
- Childhood feels like hugs and kisses from folks I can't name who love me all the same and from family gathered for miles and miles around.
- Childhood looks like Tulsa hills rolling to and fro and up and down, to school and to market, and best of all to home.
- Childhood sounds like opening credits and marvelous film scores. Composers' songs play over and over, out of my speaker and inside my head. - John Williams, James Howard, and best of all, Hans Zimmer.
- Childhood smells like eucalyptus resting in a vase on the small table in the entryway of our home, the first thing that I smell when I walk in the door.
- Childhood tastes like Little Debbie Snacks for lunch at school and for snack at home - yellow marshmallow creme pies, and mysterious cosmic brownies, simple oatmeal creme pies and double Swiss Rolls.
- Childhood feels like wind in my face - chasing a soccer ball down the field, swinging like a pendulum between sun and clouds, and zipping downhill on my bicycle wheels.
Tuesday's Ten: 10 "Weird" things siblings do (or is it just mine?)
I've been told that my siblings and I are scary alike from our looks to our habits. I figure it's a sibling thing in general, but I sometimes wonder if it's just us. Of course every family, and especially siblings develop a set of norms between themselves, but some of our's seem unique.
1. Finishing one another's thoughts and sentences - It has been said that great minds think alike; perhaps we simply have great minds - every single one of us. Of course that may not be it at all, since they also say that cute couples and married folks finish one another's sentences, and that certainly does not apply to us.
2. Sharing endless inside jokes - Of course any set of people who spend a significant amount of time together, especially if they are close, build a collection of inside jokes among themselves, but our collection is huge, spanning from all our favorite movie/TV/book/personal quotes to the many references we have to situations we have been through with one another and with others.
3. Breaking out in song - You know how some people would totally be up for life being a musical (or is that a select few of us)? Sometimes life with my siblings is not unlike that. You know how on How I Met Your Mother Ted and Robin share that "General Knowledge" joke? If you don't here's a clip for you.
That's how me and my siblings are with basically any set of words that coincides with song lyrics we know. It's fun for us, but could possibly drive other people nuts.
4. nickNAMES - For starters, all of our names sound a bit alike since they all end in an "ah" sound (Moriah, Uriah, Kerissa, Ayana, Isaiah). Our nicknames share the same rhythm since they are comprised of a doubled syllable sound in each of our names (Momo, UU, KK, Nana, ZayZay). Personally, I often refer to my siblings using a single syllable sound (U, K, A, Zay).
5. Laughing in tune - We literally laugh in tune, same start and end times, same kind of laugh, pretty much the same sound. It's weird, I know.
6. Reacting to everything the same way - We pretty much react to everything in the same manner, from the look on our faces to the intonation of our voices and the actual words that we respond with. I am sometimes convinced that we share a brain.
7. Telepathy - Likewise, we seem to be able to communicate without words. Since we've already had one HIMYM example, here's another that illustrates the way it looks.
via jinavie.tumblr
8. Being Co-workers - Ever since my siblings started working there has always been a shared workplace between at least two of us. At one point, all three of us who work were working at the same place. It had not occurred to me that that was uncommon until people said so. Apparently that doesn't usually work out and it is rare for siblings to even want it in the first place. There are days that I wished that we did not work together and I know they feel the same of me, but most days, it's great to work with them.
9. Sharing Friends - Being that we work together, attended school together, go to church together, and pretty much do everything together, we share a lot more friends than most siblings. The fact of that matter is, you can't know one Georges without knowing another, or in most cases, without getting to know us all.
10. Conference Communication - Sharing the number of friends that we do, we often communicate in conference style, whether it's a conference call or a shared Facebook message. It's kinda funny, because it's a bit like texting the person right next to you, only with an added person who is not present in the vicinity. It's most efficient as compared with the times when more than one of us is communicating with a shared friend separately at the same time.