Thanks, Bro

So, my younger brother has been living in our basement since September. He travels Monday through Friday for his job as an oil landman, which means he's usually only at our place from Friday night to Monday afternoon. Much of that time he's with his friends or girlfriend, so we hardly ever see him.

I don't think he would ever intentionally snoop around our place, but it must've happened. I talked with my dad last night and he said, "Sean says you're pregnant." First off, I'm not so, ouch. Secondly, I ask him why Sean would think that. He says, no kidding, that Sean found my "nativity vitamins." I correct him that they are pre natal vitamins and that doctors recommend them for all women of childbearing age. I'm pretty sure he knows something's up, but I don't mind because he's definitely not a blabbermouth like my mom.

My dad's sort of a hippy who grew up and now he's pissed about it. Up until when I was in high school he made a good effort to hold a steady 8 to 5 job, coach softball, etc. But, once I got in high school he quit his job and has been self-employed ever since. I was pretty dubious about whether being self-employed would actually generate any income, but he's found a real niche for himself providing training for aircraft manufacturing employees. He also sells on ebay a lot, which is slightly embarassing. He's an excellent and hilarious writer. His ebay sales actually have quite a following because each posting reads more like a funny blog entry about the item (a little like the item descriptions on woot).

I went to graduate school at an Ivy League university that was full of some students like me who had simply been bright and worked their asses off to succeed. There were others who were bright and hard-working but also happened to have notable parents -- business owners, ambassadors, etc. You can imagine the awkwardness when I revealed that my dad's primary occupation was selling on ebay.

I think everyone who is trying to conceive their first baby spends time imagining how friends and family members will react to the news. When I think about my dad, I never imagine actually telling him I'm pregnant, but I do spend a lot of time imagining him playing with our baby. He's great around kids and his specialty is the toddler-phase. I'm looking forward to watching that.