¤ More than 30 years ago, two weary travelers named James and Edna stopped in a small town. Edna, pregnant with her second child, was due to give birth soon. All of the hotels were full, so the young couple had to spend the night in a barn. Surrounded by the farm animals, Edna gave birth to her first son. He was placed in a manger. Suddenly, three wise men appeared and offered James gifts. When James asked why, the men said they were attracted by the bright star and followed it. Wait, it didn't happen that way...
¤ Three years earlier, James and Edna 'jumped the broom.' Mister Wilkens allowed for them to be married. James worked in the Virginia fields, Edna worked in the house. They already had a daughter. One quiet May evening, Edna started to go into labor. Coloreds weren't allowed in hospitals so, with a help of a mid-wife, a baby boy was born on a dirt floor. O.K., that was someone else...
¤ The normal serene woods was shattered when a baby boy yelled at the top of his lungs for the first time. Inside the log cabin, James and Edna welcomed their first son. Log cabin? Try again.
§ Seriously, I have had a simple, uneventful life. I was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. My mother still lives in my childhood home. By the way, would you believe that my mom has had the same telephone number for at least 30 years? My sister Karen is three years older and my brother Michael is three years younger. The years went by fast. My parents split up when I was 8 or 9. My father has always been in our lives. Karen started calling him 'Pop' and Mike and I followed along so I don't ever remember calling him 'Dad.' He was a phone call away and we would see him a lot. We used to go to Cedar Point Amusement Park every year.
§ I had a lot of friends growing up and I lost touch with all of them during various points. It is hard to keep up long distance relationships especially when you are not coming back into town anytime soon. The only person that I see when I go back to Detroit is John Bridges, my high school best friend. We started hanging out in 11th grade and remained friends until I joined the Air Force. We actually tried to be DJ's at one point. We bought a Radio Shack mixer and got two turntables, a mike, and a tape recorder. We "specialized" in Rap and a little R&B and house music. I lost all of our tapes but it was fun while it lasted. John is a Detroit police officer and still DJ's on the weekends.
§ Karen joined the Army and Mike when to college so I was the last kid to leave my mom's house. Looking back, I didn't have a real reason to leave home because rent was cheap and we got along well. When I was stationed in Florida, I lived in the dorms for four years. I didn't have a roommate but I had to share a bathroom with another room. In 1995, I moved into my first apartment, a two bedroom, one bath downstairs place. It was alright just for me. When I was in Italy, I had a 2 bedroom, 1 bath upstairs apartment. Italian apartments are different: they don't have closets or kitchen cabinets. The military base loans you those items and a refrigerator, stove, washer, dryer, and electric current transformers. There is tile over the floors so if you want carpeting or rugs you have to buy them yourself. Also, the second bedroom was very small. There are two things that I tell my military friends when they go to Italy, make sure you have a garage or carport and make sure you can control your own heat. Italians like to keep it cold so if you want to freeze, let your Italian landlord control your heat. I moved to a different Florida base in 1998 and rented a townhouse with two bedrooms and 1½ baths. It had a community swimming pool. When I knew that I was going to Arizona, I found a realtor who met my co-worker on an airplane. I had several e-mails with Lou Creber before I arrived. Once I drove out, Lou and I spent a week looking for a house. We started looking at new houses then resells. We looked at at least 30 houses before we got to my future house. It was the best house that we saw. I am lucky that we found it, but in retrospect, we didn't look at any houses with swimming pools and I would like to have one. Also, I should have either built my own house or went with a almost finished spec house. I haven't made a lot of changes to my house, but I plan on painting at least two rooms this summer and hang some artwork in my living room.
§ I have had to wear glasses since I was young. So have Karen and Michael. Just like any other kid, I hated wearing them. I finally had to embrace them when I couldn't see the blackboard in school and I had to drive. I bought contact lenses just out of high school. I wore them off and on between wearing glasses. I investigated getting eye laser surgery back in 1993 but it was very expensive and untested. Also, the military wouldn't pay for it. While I was somewhat content with switching between contacts and glasses, I wanted to get rid of them. Finally, I did some more research and decided to do the surgery in September 2003. I used a health flex account to save up the money to do it. Before the surgery, called LadarWave, they measure your eyes so that everyone has a custom operation. On the fateful day, you go in and lay down on a gurney. They take a vice that makes your eyelids stay open. The doctor cuts the top layer of the eye to create a flap. You go blind(!) for a few seconds. You have to look straight up at a red light while you can here a computer voice saying how long the laser is going to take. I think I heard something like two minutes! Then they close the flap and put a lot of fluids on your eye. Then they do the next eye! Kelly drove me home and I rested. My vision was blurry but I could see. I drove myself back to the doctor the next day. My eyes were healing well. Over the next few months, I felt that I couldn't see as well I should. I went back to get a touch up, which is the same procedure. Yes, I did have to pay but I can see 20/20.
§ Several people ask me why "Brian 4" on my Michigan and Arizona license plates. What does the four stand for? Does it stand for how many times I have been married? The number of times I was acquitted of various crimes? The number of illegitimate children I refuse to acknowledge? The number 4 is deeply rooted in mystery. The origins may never be revealed to regular humans. Anyway, the four stood for the number of vehicles that I had when I bought my MI plate in 1992. Brian 4 was my second or third choice; my first was KING B. Later on, Brian 4 stood for the four new cars that I bought. For the record, here is the Brian 8 list: