OK… I have WAY more brothers than that but that is an awesome movie, am I right?! It shows that anyone, under the right circumstances, can be family.

Let me explain…

I am actually a bastard only child, my mom and dad weren’t together too much longer after I was spawned and neither one of them decided to have another accidental child… I mean… if you have perfection on the first try… why bother, right?

My step dad had a bunch of boys and a girl before meeting my mom, unfortunately, his worthless ass ex-wife didn’t allow them to have contact with each other so I grew up knowing from 7 years old that I had brothers and a sister but they didn’t know about me until we were all grown. I have only had contact with my sister because my brothers are a gaggle of bastards who won’t give my dad a chance which is sad because they are really missing out. I know the pain he went through my whole life not being able to see his kids but they are being loyal to their shit-bum mom or whatever… I’m not bitter.

I do not have an abundance of “sisters” because most of my really good female friends are girls I am in friend-zone with… so, if given the chance, I would touch them inappropriately… I may still be there if I am needed but they are not the people I rely on. So, a lack of sisters.

The reason I write this post is because I talk a lot about my brothers and though I don’t have a big following of people on here… several times I have had to explain this to people… and I have been thinking about them lately… I miss them and I will really miss them when I move.

The term brother for me refers to those ride and die folk you meet throughout your life, the ones who leave an impression upon you… and though you may not get to spend as much time with them as you would like, you would do everything you can to be there for them in times of need… even if the need is just bullshitting. I have some people I still consider my brother even though they have ditched me (mostly due to my ideals on the world and politics)

I have some people I still consider my brother even though they have ditched me (mostly due to my ideals on the world and politics). and I have many more that I won’t mention here because they will probably not end up in any blog posts… but I know they know who they are if they read this, especially if we were overseas together.

So, without further ado, I will introduce you to my brothers whom I have gained over the course of my life.

1996 (ish… I forget shit), Neelyville, Missouri – I met the most rhythmically inept yet musically talented person I have ever known. This goofy, scrawny, Mexican metalhead shows up in band class apparently without the ability to work a tambourine but he is a funny smartass and I enjoy talking to him. His name is Sam, though for some reason I will never figure out, he garners the nickname Taco for a little while… thankfully that went away. We were pretty inseparable for years and outside of a few years of being apart, he remains one of the most important people in my life. Turns out this goofy bastard is amazing on the piano, viola and violin and plays around with the cello. I have had hopes that one day, if I have kids, that their uncle Sambob would teach them music… it blows my mind how he can’t keep a beat to save his life. Sam is the person I usually go to about this blog for proofreading. It was through Sambob that I gained my other sister Ana who is a large source for advise, encouraging words and places to eat 🙂

1999, Harviell, MO/Minneapolis, Minnesorta  – Before I made my move to Minneapolis for college, I decided to get on the interwebs and maybe find some people I would want to hang out with since I was going somewhere that I knew no one. In doing so, I met Johhny F. Cliche. This big burly bastard went to my very first Type O Negative concert with me which was coincidentally my very first concert… which is even more awesomer as they are my favorite band… that’s right… awesomer. We have done a ton of cool shit over the years including him moving to Missouri for a while after my moving back from college and working at the Strip Club with me. Johnny is currently helping me out by putting my ’55 Ford F100 together.

2002 (ish… fuck you), Poplar Bluff, MO – I was around this time that I met two of my brothers, both former police officers, and I met both of them at the Strip Club.

Jon Bates was my original biker friend who also happened to be a tattooist. Back when I first met him he was recently separated from his wife at the time and had opened a shop up in Poplar Bluff called Skin FX. He wasn’t a huge partier… but he liked boobies and so ended up at the club which, in turn, ended up hanging out with me. Now, although John has done the largest portion of my tattoos… I was never one of the hangers-on who only spent time with him for ink and that is why I think he has been in my life this long. It was years of us hanging out before he ever gave me his first tattoo on me. Jon and I have been there for each other many times over the years and nowadays though I am no partier, I party a bit more than my boy. He has settled down with an awesome woman and his shop has gone from Skin FX to Tattered Soul Christian Body Art which unfortunately will be closing later this year as Jon has plans for a new chapter in his life (but I have been told that I will still have a source for ink)

Chris McNail is the other brother who I gained through this time and without a doubt Chris has had more of an impact on my life than anyone else. He spent a bit of time at the strip club while I was the VIP bartender, so he hung out with me at the quiet bar a lot. He was actually friends with Johnny F Cliche before he was friends with me. It was through being brothers with Chris that I moved up to Jefferson City, MO. It is with him that I started my 4-year stint in Iraq, my 3-year stint in North Dakota and we have been all over the world together… so it is that dirty bastard that I blame for the daily pain in my heart that I feel when I am not traveling. Over the last 14ish years we have done most everything together including owning a Coffee Shop, a couple Gun shops and the closest I have ever come to almost having to shoot someone (for trying to threaten us with a BB gun). I wish he was in on this move with me like I wish all my brothers were but like most of my brothers, he has provided me with nieces and nephews and doesn’t relish the thought of leaving them for an extended period of time. Me, on the other hand, would be on the next thing smoking if I could be.

2007, Mosul, Iraq – While working in Iraq, we had these people we referred to as SCW’s working with us SCW stands for Sub-Contract Worker… The term was later changed to TCN or Third-Country National for what i can only assume are Politically Correct reasons. One of these TCN’s ended up working directly with me and became one of my favorite people in the world. His name is Darwin Bugarin and he is from Manilla, Philippines. We worked together on two bases in Iraq and he is one of the best people I know… after he quit working in Iraq, I followed him to The Philippines and his family and I went to several beautiful locations in that country and he is a large part of the reason that the Philippines is on the short list of places I would like to move first. Darwin is currently working in Dubai, U.A.E. with his wife and my niece and nephew are in Manila. I hope I can see them soon… I haven’t seen them since 2008.

2008, Qayarrah/Q-West, Iraq – I met one of the funniest people I have ever met, the guy who used to sync up his days off with me so we could sit in my hooch eating pizza and watching movies. This man is Robert Lopez though everyone calls him R-Lo. We hung out in Iraq together as much as we could and never lost contact when we got back stateside. I didn’t meet his oldest son till he was almost grown but I watched that kid grow up. R-Lo joined Chris and I in North Dakota and was able to talk his wife into coming too so I got to spend a bunch of time with his middle child who takes after his dad in being thouroughly entertaining. R-Lo is a member of the Tohono O’odham tribe out of Arizona which is where he is currently located… so between him, Darwin and Sambob, I tell folk that I am a very pale Native, Filipino, Mexican.

2015, Facebook, World – The cat who may cause me to diversify my racial profile even further is a new addition to this list. Josh Jaye, I have not known him for long and we haven’t met but we have talked enough over the recent months and have enough in common that I would try to get him to go on the move with me, he has the wanderlust also but has not had the chance to see really any of the world. The reasons I add him here is due to the fact that he has been in my thoughts a lot this week because his mom, who he moved to Wyoming to take care of, passed away a few days ago and he is having a rough time. He is someone I hope may one day realize his dream of travel (among other dreams) and in turn provide a second income to living expenses overseas which would make it cheaper on both of us, so, if he is down for working toward this goal he may be part of the blog a bit… he is also a pretty good writer so I may ask him to guest post on here as I may with Sam and Chris also.

So there you have it… When I mention my brothers, this is a short list of the people I am talking about, to keep from being confused…

Honestly, I just miss them and wanted to talk about them.