Brother Stuff

Two of my brothers and I are pretty goofy. (My other brother is the oldest and has successfully transitioned into adulthood, leaving us behind. My sister is still on the fence.) We see each other at least every 2 weeks, and during UCLA football season almost every week. We live within about 15 miles of each other, yet our main mode of communication is Facebook. Yes, the social networking site designed for people half our age. And, the saddest part about our communication is that it consists almost entirely of movie quotes. Often times one of us can write one word from a movie and the others know exactly what he’s talking about.

“Cheater”
“FOR-EV-ER”
“Automobiiiiiiile”
“FRA-GIL-E”

It really is fun. But the most fun we have together is our yearly trip to a UCLA football game. This year we'll be joined by my dad and my son, Tod in Seattle. 3 generations of Pfaff's. In the past, the four brothers have gone to Alabama, Texas, OU, Notre Dame, Michigan, usc, and the Rose Bowl among others. Some of the best venues in college football. About half the time we take our clubs and play a round of golf. I have noticed though, that every one is getting better. We drink Canadian Club and smoke cigars. We talk about politics, religion and ethics, business, family, sports and life. We slip back into the conversations from the previous year as if it was later in the same evening, not a year later. We support each other, challenge each other and make each other laugh. We celebrate the fact that we have almost 80 years of marriage between the 5 siblings (with our original spouses!). We thank our wives for letting us steal away for a weekend every year. We raise a toast to our parents for teaching us about God and family. We reminisce about growing up in Los Alamitos. We talk about MCI Tooling. We regale each other with the latest feats of our sons and daughters (just sons for me) and marvel that we are all so lucky.

I think what makes each one better is that we truly appreciate the time we get to spend with each other. We don’t worry about the little stuff any more, we just enjoy the time together. We see our kids growing up and ourselves going gray. We realize that we are truly blessed to have loving wives, beautiful, healthy children and brothers we love. I love you guys. (And you too Katy!)