My brother Spenser is staying with us temporarily while he gets the details of his Navy housing settled. While it’s nice to have him around again, I realize that it has been nearly a decade since we’ve lived together, so we’re both getting to know one another again and learning new personal habits we’ve developed in the intervening years. For example, yesterday my brother learned that at any given moment there’s a good chance I’m singing a TV show theme or commercial jingle to myself. This came up while I was cooking dinner on the stove.
Spenser: Are you humming the theme to National Geographic?
Me: What? No, I’d never do that. It’s the theme from Red Dwarf.
Earlier it was my turn to learn something new about him. On his first night in town we took him and my mother (who had helped him road trip from South Carolina to New York) to a local barbecue place. All was going well until the waitress came to take our drink orders. Ella and I ordered beer, mom ordered a glass of wine, and Spenser ordered something off the mixed drinks menu, a drink with root beer and orange Stoli (I don’t remember what it was called.) Ella and I glanced at one another.
Me: That’s kind of a girly drink, isn’t it?
Spenser: What? I don’t like beer.
Me: How can you not like beer?
Spenser: I’ve never liked beer. I just don’t see the appeal in it and I can’t get around how bad it tastes.
Me: What about all those times we sat behind the garage and drank Bud Lite?
Spenser: Well, we both know that hardly counts as beer.
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