Brothers 'til the End...

Today, as I was driving from a conference in San Diego to see my brother, Carlos, near Los Angeles, I was trying to figure out how long it had been since he and I had "us" time. Goodness. It must have been... what? a year... two?  No... keep going... to my surprise... how about NEVER. Well, since we were young kids. Considering I left home for the Navy nearly 18 years ago, it has been TOO long.

So although we didn't have but only a few short hours... we ended up...

1. catching up in his hotel (he is working here for a few months)

2. talking about anything really... running, health and fitness, work, family, hobbies, food, the list goes on and on!

3. having sushi at a killer place near his hotel

4. stopping by a nice little coffee shop and realizing we had walked in on a church bible study gathering and it was FULL of ladies chit chatting in great Christian fellowship... but it was SO loud!

5. coming back to his place and bouncing back and forth between things on my computer, his... our phones, papers on miscellaneous things we wanted to share... SO much!

At one point, he had me ingest a glass full of water and with some tiny seeds that resembled a cross between sesame and poppy seeds (chia seeds). We were on the subject of running since he and I are both running a half marathon on Sunday (in Phoenix). He handed me a 287-page book called Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. The cover reads "A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race The World Has Ever Seen" I asked him if it's a good book. He says... "Jose, I have read it FOUR times since November.

I said. "SOLD." Gimme, gimme, gimme! So, I NOW have two days to read it and return it to him by this Friday when I return to catch our flight. I'll keep you posted on my thoughts.

But, the best part... we S H A R E D.

. . .

1. Books.

2. Seeds that I PRAY don't get me to pop on my next whiz quiz at work! Ha!

3. Knowledge.

4. Experiences.

5. Laughter.

6. Plans on the future (he's getting married in the fall and I am his Best Man! SUCH an honor, upcoming marathons, my business trips, etc.).

7. Thoughts.

8. Advice.

and... the best part?

9. Love.

I gave him a part of my heart tonight.
He gave me a part of his.

I love my brother.

Wish I had our old picture to post on here. It was of the two of us on our "cHiPs" motorcycles (with pedals... I think I was Paunch and he was Jon).  I was around the age of 3 and he was around 2.

Anyway... we've sure come a long way from those days.

Who would have guessed we would be where we are today.

W h o  w o u l d  h a v e  g u e s s e d . . .

I could go on and on and tell you about some HILARIOUS times we spent growing up together but...

Saving that for another day! ;)

I'll leave you with this...

All for one and one for all

My brother and my friend

What fun we have

The time we share

Brothers 'til the end

~ Author Unknown