can you imagine being that interesting?

i am one of five children. i truly and deeply love all my sibs but i want to tell you about my baby brother preston, named after our maternal grandfather. he has led such an amazing life thus far for his young years (he's ten years younger than me) that one day years ago i slipped up and not realizing what i was saying to my husband i opened mouth, inserted foot and said:  can you imagine being **that** interesting?

it's a good thing my husband is not short on self esteem (which comes from God esteem) because though he got my oops! it didn't phase him one bit.  we laughed and laughed about my oops!

my brother pres lived in france for several years after graduating from college. he says he lived there so long that he began to dream in french.  he set out without any connections to speak of with the goal of living abroad for a few years and so he did.  back to the states for his masters in linguistics and then he went to taiwan to live for a few years to make more money than he could in the states (sounds like an excuse for another adventure to me!) translating children's books from chinese into english (if i've got that right, it's very hard to keep up).  

it was in taiwan preston met his wife-to-be vered who is from.....israel! she was abroad collecting data for her asian studies masters and they ended up being roommates with two other people and lell in fuv! they quickly became twitterpaited (from "bambi").

being raised in our pentecostal-jewish home with the "believe whatever you want to believe" mentality, he chose to convert to judaism to marry vered and because of circumstances i'm not sure i could explain here (something to do with a green card?) they were first married in the u.s. by the justice of the peace. then, they were married a second time a year later in tel aviv, israel with a big jewish wedding with the chuppah (the canopy under which the couple stands) and the ketubah (the formal wedding contract) and the smashing of the glass just like in "fiddler on the roof" (oy vay, i tell you, it must've been beautiful) (are you catching my drift here: can you imagine being this interesting???????). oh how i regret not attending that wedding. i can't remember all my excuses for not going - money, time commitments, etc. - but oh how i wish i'd been there. 

now they live in delaware and have made beautiful music together along with two beautiful girls noa and ariel.  in israel names are neither male nor female - they're interchangeable -  for example noah over here would be a boy's name but in israel it's a girl's name as well. or ariel in israel can be a boy's name like ariel sharon.  each of their girls are multilingual. pres speaks only french to them every day. vered speaks only hebrew to them. and they speak english at school.  my brother who now has a doctorate in linguistics speaks a few other languages and throws in some spanish for the girls and probably some chinese for all i know.  

though he speaks many languages well, his first language is english afterall and he's written 4 books (fiction) in his spare time! he's combined the first 3 into one and has an agent in new york city to tote it to publishers.  i've read the first two books and they were quick, exciting reads of a story taking place in israel and palestine.  best wishes to him for getting them published. remember, i knew you when!

i still say:  can you imagine being **that** interesting?  

one very important postscript:  the interesting brother has a very interesting mother - ours!  she traveled to the places he lived - france and taiwan (they toured china and hong kong); she went to his wedding in tel aviv in 1999 and in 2007 i nervously put her on a plane by herself to meet him all the way around the world at a meeting in cairo, egypt! she doesn't miss a beat in keeping up with her youngest child. i'm just proud all the way around! here's two pics of them in egypt hh helped me add to this post.