Happy 47th Birthday, Brother!

Happy birthday, Tom. Another year has passed and it’s time to catch you up on all the things you have missed.

Game of Thrones ended. I know you would have been on the hate-it side of the fandom. I’m sure of it. Especially how you felt about other things. GRRM has not released his latest book. By now, you would have read all the books like me and would be waiting on the next novel that is never coming out. Like that Onion article, it’s like he is just waiting to hand over his work to a fan who knows the series in Willy Wonka style to finish it.

Marvel ended their run of ten years of movies with End Game. Tony Stark-Iron Man- Dies. Makes the ultimate sacrifice and dies. “I am Iron Man.” OH, man! It was great! Tears all around. Captain America is worthy and is able to call Thor’s hammer to him to beat up on Thanos. Then in the darkest moment, Cap hears in his coms, “On your left.” And the whole gang, everyone, including Howard the Duck appears through the portals to fight. It was amazing. It was a great end of an era. You would have really appreciated it. I missed seeing it with you. I was something we would have really liked sharing together.

Another great thing you have missed in the last year is CBS has a streaming service. I recently got rid of my cable and now have all streaming services.  I got CBS so I could watch a few of their shows and watch this new show “Picard”. It is a Star Trek show about Jean Luc Picard. You would absolutely be in love. It’s all fan service. The storyline isn’t bad. Patrick Stewart looks good for being 80 or close to 80. I just love him and his character. I love the series so far and look forward to it every week. I wish you could see it.

Lastly in the world of TV and movies comes your favorite, Star Wars. The Rise of Skywalker was the last of the nine movies. I saw it twice. I saw it opening night with a critical eye and gave it a C-. Then I saw it with Cheryl. After being able to stew on it for a week, and think about it. I was able to really appreciate some of the subtle things that the movie did. I liked it much better and gave it a B+.  I saw all the Star Wars movies with my friend Matt opening night. Then I saw them all again with Cheryl when she came to Vegas. I’d like to think we would have seen them opening night. I’m not sure that we would have with your schedule. Would you have taken the night off to have seen Star Wars? I don’t know? I guess the movie would have been over before your shift so you wouldn’t have had to take it off. I’d like to think we would have seen it together opening night.

I wrote a book this year and am thinking of publishing it. You are a key figure in it. I hope you don’t mind me using your name. You are dead after all and I don’t think it tarnishes your image a whole lot. You come off like a turd in the beginning, as you were as a child and then as the loving and generous big brother you became. My best friend. I talk about our family, you, my life, my trauma, my bipolar, my teaching career. All of it. It just kinda all pours out on the page. It was a work of mania but I’ve worked it over in a normal state of mind.

Aunt Angie passed away last month. That was difficult. Took the wind out of me for a month or so. I couldn’t write or do anything. I feel better now.

Your t-shirt this year is another Firefly shirt. It says “Stay Shiny” with the Serenity making the letters with the exhaust. I love it. I wanted the shirt that said “Big Damn Heros”. But I couldn’t have worn that to school so I didn’t buy it and they didn’t have it in my size.

Your birthday plans for today are breakfast. Had you stuck around, you would have found this place called Baby Stacks. We would frequent them often. You would love it. So that’s where we are going. Jesse and I are going to get a pedicure. Something you and I would have done today, together. Then, I have a doctor’s appointment. I haven’t quite decided on dinner. Maybe Thai food. Since you liked that.

Anyway, That’s the year. That’s the day. I hope you enjoy watching us. I hope to feel you around us. Send us a message that you around. Don’t break anything but you can’t send a subtle message. Like, let me gamble and win a thousand dollars like James.

I love you, Tom. I miss you every day. You have missed so much. We’ll have fun for you today.

Love-

Your sister, Bah