September 15

It had been several months since I'd FaceTimed my brothers, so at my not-so-subtle prompting, we did just that this evening. And we enjoyed a lovely hour-and-a-half-long chat about all kinds of things.

Truthfully, I don't know that we knew each other all that well as kids. I'm the cream in the Oreo --four years younger but five grade levels behind Bobby, and three years older than Charlie-- but even so, I was almost never in the same school as either of them. And the age gaps meant that we didn't really share any friends, either. Nor did we seem to have many shared interests.

So I consider it a blessing that now, as adults who are all (almost) in our 40s, we're kinda-sorta getting to know each other a bit better. We're still separated by plenty of miles with Bobby in Maryland, Charlie down in Los Angeles, and me up here by the Bay, but the FaceTimes definitely count for something. And I am grateful.