The Sibling and I

Since I don't have a lot to write about, I thought I'd do a good old-fashioned theme entry!
Do you have any brothers or sisters? How have they influenced your life?

On the snowy, stormy afternoon of February 28th, 1984, the life of two-year-old Zachary Kenneth Zintel was changed forever. He now had a baby sister named Holly Rachael. Although I'm sure little Zachary loved having Mom and Dad's full attention every second of the day, I don't think he really minded the fact that I now got to share the spotlight with him. After all, Zach was still the little genius of the household.

I learned a lot from Zach in the first few years of my life. One of the first things he taught me was that vegetables are gross. I liked vegetables, but I wanted to be like Zach, so I promptly stopped eating them. Zach could sing the entire Sesame Street theme song, which I found most impressive. He could name all the states and capitals by the time he was three, and he even had dance moves to go along with the 3 Stooges song, "The Curly Shuffle". This guy was very cool.

Although I quickly developed an addiction to Nick Jr. cartoons, and shared my mom's love of soap operas, I knew I could count on Zach to always find something funny to watch on TV. My favorite thing to do at home was hang out with Zach in front of the TV, watching Heathcliff and playing this awesome new thing called Nintendo.

Through the years, I've stayed pretty close to Zach. He was my best friend during the first few years of elementary, and I loved to hang out with Zach and his best friend, Tim. While I was sill in junior high, I was very proud when I went to see Zach and Tim march in the band during half-time at school football games. At night-time in the summer between 7th and 8th grade, I stayed up late at night, watching Conan O'Brien and Letterman with Zach. Those were the best times of my life.

In high school, Zach had an on-again, off-again relationship with my best friend, Sarah. All 3 of us hung out with Zach's pal, Bobby, and we all had a lot of fun together. Finally, Zach and Sarah had a very ugly breakup, and I was in total misery, feeling like I had to choose between my best friend and my brother. I ended up choosing both of them, but I would really miss hanging out with Zach and Sarah at the same time.

Although Zach and I rarely get the chance to sit down and watch Conan or play Nintendo together, we still make time to hang out with each other, and I still think he's one of the coolest guys alive. Hats off to Zach, for being the best brother a girl can have.

--Holly Rachael :-D