I picked a good week to write every day with all these birthdays popping up. Today is another very special day. My brother Parker turns 24 today (also Arnold Schwarzenegger is 62 - who knew the gover-nator was so old?!).

Parker and I are very different and with those differences sometimes comes frustrations, but honestly for the most part it's these things that I respect the most. For example, he's extremely dedicated to his goals, if he sets his mind to something he's going to do it - he said he wanted to be a dr. and now he's in his third year of med school. He has a clear vision of what he wants his future to look like and always has a plan on how to get there. I, on the other hand, graduated with a degree in anthropology and work at my parents' restaurant with a very small view of what my life will look like in the next few years.

He's also paved the way for me in a lot of things, there are many avenues I've travelled that I probably wouldn't have if he hadn't gone their first. In the 6th grade when the time came to pick an instrument to play it was Parker who convinced me that percussion was the way to go. In high school he was involved in student council, eventually becoming president, I jumped in and two years later I was the president. He moved off to go to school at UT and became really active in BYX and the Austin Stone, I moved off to a different and better university (gig 'em!) and found my own Body with his encouragement. You can even thank him for this blog, because he started one first.

So, Happy Birthday Parker! Thanks for being such a great brother and example in my life.

And feel free to give me a hug after reading this heartfelt post ;)