Conversations

On Sunday my family celebrated my brother's day of turning 40. Yes the middle child had swung yet again through another year and into his fortieth birthday.

Such exciting, memorable times for him. You could see such excitement bursting forth from him anticipating such a huge milestone.

Actually he took it all in stride. He handled the teasing, jokes and gags quite well. Although I know and being his younger sibling sensed this, silently he was cursing the whole celebration process under his breath.

"I'm not 40. I don't feel 40. What does 40 really feel like? I'm still only 23 years old. Young and feeling good. Do I look 40? Crap. Maybe I look 40. Will I be carded next time I purchase an alchoholic beverage? That would mean I look 40. Holy heck, I'm 40."

My sweet sister-n-law, God bless her and all she does put up with including my brother, threw him a surprise birthday party on Sunday. He had no clue. No idea and didn't realize her sneakiness until the exact moment he became surprised.

Old friends showed up to wish him well, as if to say, "You're old now. You're 40. I turned 40 last year and it sucked."

For myself I played Ms. Paparazzi. Seems the best thing for me to do I suppose. Capture moments of life on film. Those moments you can look back on and laugh and giggle, recall what exactly was going on. Moments frozen in time. That's what I did. Froze some moments. Thing is I shot some pictures of friends and family talking and clearly, unless I had been a mosquito on the back of their necks, do not know what was being discussed. I have no clue what conversations were being made.

I just shot pictures of people enjoying one another's company and whatever words were being passed back and forth.

As I pulled up these pictures on my computer there were a few that made me shake and cock my head wondering what the heck my brother was doing.

Take for instance the above picture. Cute little conversation going on here but my brother appears to have obscured some strange guesture towards his wife. Or was he swatting at a bug?

Maybe he was saying to his wife, "Go away. You concocted this party just to remind me I'm turning 40."

Or was it, "Stop what you are saying. We are not having anymore children. I'm 40 now. Aren't four kids enough?"

Here is another shot of my brother talking about something to some friends and again, since I was off in the distance silently shooting pictures, I have no clue what he was saying.

"Right over here, right above your pony tail, is where the beach used to be. The lake is so high this year it is now over here."

Course, knowing my brother's sarcasm, he probably said "My wife parks her jet ski right here, right over your pony tail. The jet ski that eats up five gallons of gas in 23 minutes."

I like this picture because it shows three guys carrying on an adult conversation of well, I have no idea. My brother has clearly decided to dump the coffee cup and move on to more encouraging beverages.

It is his birthday after all. He can do this.

I know my dad sees me snapping pictures of them. You can see his smirk, along with my brother's grin, wishing I-would-just-go-the-heck-away.

When I first opened this picture I snorted, giggled, shook my head knowing all to well this picture spoke volumes.

I'm not sure what volume it spoke though. Was my brother discussing his recent attack of gastrointestinal distress from my spicey Pica Da Gallo the night before?

"And my stomach contracted and gurlged to no end. Not even Rolaids could save me."

Or was he comparing notes with my dad on colonoscopies. Again, the hand guesture completely baffles my brain. It could mean so many things. My dad's grin, his slight nodding of his head in agreement to whatever my brother rambled on about tells me he's been-there-done-that before.

Brother, your hand scares me.

Maybe I shouldn't be taking pictures like this. Maybe my days as Ms. Paprazzi are coming to an end.

Except I love to capture sweet moments like this one. My little niece, having a late afternoon bout with a napless day, began showing her tired, cranky side to her daddy. Something upset her. Perhaps one of her seven cousins made a silly face at her or took off on her little tricycle without asking for her permission.

Whatever happened, her sweet daddy, the birthday boy, showed his soft side and coddled her to no end to make things better and stop the tears streaming down her face. Because she's a girl it is a safe bet this precious moment rarely happened with my two nephews.

Little girls have that effect on their dads. Emotional, unpredictable, hormonal.........

Upon placing her in his lap his face suddenly paled and became quite serious. The birthday boy quickly had an "Uh Oh" moment silently in his mind.

"OH MY GOD. When I turn 50, she will be 13 years old."

Looking over at me, camera in my face, capturing this priceless moment, he clearly has visions of what I was like when I was thirteen. Those visions turn to nightmares.

"Crap. I think I will enjoy being 40 today."