Typical, oh so typical

I figured that every blog needs a little bit of a background and so here's mine.

I come from a broken home, broken meaning my parents are divorced although I don't remember them ever being together. My dad and my mom got divorced sometime when I was two and my brother was only about 6 months old. Originally, we lived with our mom. That is, until she decided she was too young to have two little kids staying with her. So we were shipped back to our dad. Guess how I found about this? In an argument with my dad a lot later in life. We're both very stubborn and have to win every argument. I pissed him off and he responded with that little bit of knowledge. I was crushed at the time and it also broke my brother's heart. He wasn't even involved in the argument and yet still ended up being hurt. We're past that now, however. I love my mom, I love my dad. There is absolutely no one in this entire world that I would rather have as either of my parents.

In hindsight, it was good that I ended up with my dad. We didn't have much, in fact we were outright poor. But my brother and I were taught that life isn't free and life isn't fair and that everyone has to do the best with what they have while continuing to strive to be better.

My mom remarried pretty quickly. My stepdad, Mike, has been there for as long as I can remember. They ended up having two kids, my half brother Joey, and my half sister Meghan.

My dad remarried when I was in third grade. My stepmom already had two kids, Ashley and Brandon.

My only real sibling is Jake. Throughout my entire life, he is the only person that has been a constant. We like to think that subconciously we both learned early on that each other were the only people we had that didn't change or didn't leave us alone. Probably as a side effect of that is that we have never fought a day in our lives. We know each other like open books. Today, I'm finishing up my undergrad career and he is about halfway through his term in the Army as a medic. This is the first time in our lives that we've been apart for so long. It's very strange for me to be able to say "I haven't Jake in over a year." I miss my brother very much.


My dad's parents are country folk who are amazing individuals. They actually took my dad, my brother, and me into their home after my parents got divorced. We lived with them until about kindergarten when my dad moved us to an apartment house that was basically the basement of a house where two elderly lesbians lived upstairs. We got a long great with Louise and Mary and still keep in touch with them to this day.

My mom's mom died from breast cancer way back when I was in middle school. My mom's dad is still alive although we never see him anymore. He used to beat my grandma until she left him and took their kids to try and make it on her own. She later remarried and the man she had remarried to is the only person I consider my grandfather on that side of my family.


See, just a typical American boy from an oh so typical American family.