Happy Birthday, Brother! Today is June 9.
This morning, my dad and I worked together to create a wonderful breakfast spread for my brother to celebrate his 23rd birthday. I’d gotten up around 10 a.m. and lounged around for a while, and because none of us was in a hurry to get the day started we didn’t start cooking until a little before noon. We decided to make French toast, sausage, smoothies and fresh fruit. While my dad was in charge of the French toast, sausage and smoothies, I took it on myself to wash and cut up the fruit. I noticed a few moldy blueberries in the mix, so when I was washing them I looked at each berry individually to check for mold. I also washed and cut up strawberries to create a beautiful blue and red fruit mixture.
The meal was delicious, and we all sat around talking and enjoying the food for a while. Sometimes I’m impatient with when we eat if I’ve helped with the cooking, but because it was my brother’s birthday I made sure he could sleep in as long as he wanted. We didn’t have a specific plan for the day, so after breakfast I rested on the couch for a while. I hadn’t meant to, but I ended up falling asleep for an hour and a half. Normally that would leave me feeling grumpy and out of sorts for the rest of the day, but to my surprise I simply felt rested and re-energized when I woke up.
This Thursday and Friday I have my college orientation, so before then I needed to take my required math placement test. Because my Advanced Placement Calculus AB test score won’t become available until mid-July, I needed to test out of the basic math classes so I don’t end up paying or signing up for classes I don’t need. I was pretty nervous about the exam, which consisted of three separate tests. It covered pre-algebra, algebra and pre-calculus concepts. I took pre-algebra in seventh grade, algebra in eighth grade and pre-calculus as a junior. I was worried the test would be difficult or cover topics I couldn’t remember, but for the most part it involved factoring, word problems and basic unit circle concepts.
Overall, I think I missed four questions: one on the first test, one on the second test, two on the third test. The most difficult problem I encountered dealt with Cramer’s Rule for solving matrix equations. I’d never even heard of the concept before the test, so I ended up guessing and moving on for the sake of time. Each test was between 20 and 30 questions, and I had 90 minutes per set of questions to complete the test. All in all, I spent about two and a half hours testing. Even though it was my brother’s birthday, he was my moral support as I tested, and he even gave up playing tennis with my dad to hang out with me and keep me company. In the end I was elated about my high scores and glad I won’t have to take entry level math courses in college.
In the evening, my grandpa came over to our house and hung out on our deck with us to celebrate my brother’s birthday. The five of us ended up talking about police brutality, government policies and a number of other topics. Around 6:40 p.m. I went inside to pick out a birthday card for my brother. I’d ordered him a shirt, but because of the pandemic it didn’t arrive on time, so he’ll get it in the next week or so. Once I’d written the card, I left our house and drove to Crushed Red to pick up our dinner order. We ate our salads outside on our back porch and chatted about college and our plans for the future.
When we’d finished eating, we brought my brother’s gifts outside for him to open and enjoyed some Oreo ice cream cake. My brother lit the tiki torches around our deck, and we hung out enjoying the weather and talking. We tossed around the idea of watching a movie, but for the most part we were content to talk and be with one another. This was one of the best days I’d had in a long time, and I was so glad I could share it with my brother. I love him so much. I know I can be annoying and hard to deal with at times, but he is patient and kind. He is passionate about what he believes in, and I have no doubt he’s going to change the world. I hope this next year of his life is full of happiness, joy and all the good things this world has to offer.
P.S. Happy belated best friend day. I missed including it yesterday, but I wanted to spread a little love and kindness anyway.
“Mistakes are part of the dues one pays for a full life.” ― Sophia Loren[TS_VCSC_Lightbox_Gallery content_images=”331226,331228,331230,331227,331231″ content_images_size=”full” content_images_titledata=”caption” content_title=”A glimpse into Bailey Stover’s 84th day of social distancing” data_grid_preloader=”-1″ lightbox_title=”caption” thumbnail_size=”full” lightbox_effect=”simpleSwitch”][/TS_VCSC_Lightbox_Gallery][penci_text_block block_title_align=”style-title-left”]How did you spend your 84th day of social distancing? Let us know in the comments below.[/penci_text_block]
