Phil

I love my little brother. I've always known him as the shy, gentle boy who loves Nintendo and cries outside my bedroom door because I won't let him play House with me and Marisa DiTrapani. I guess in my mind he's still the 8 year old boy who drives me crazy by singing "Oh Canada, shoot the bow and arrow in da shaaaaaark" when I'm practising piano (not the real anthem lyrics, by the way). Or the pudgy little kid who gets scared at night and crawls into bed with me. Well, Phil came to visit us in Costa Rica for Christmas and I quickly came to the stark realization that that boy is gone. Phil is a man, baby. He's exerted mad charm skills that we never knew he posessed and is now engaged to a beautiful, smart woman. He's pretty ripped, a far cry from the little hacker who would play Diablo until 3am and eat Little Ceaser's Crazy Bread.

Having him in Costa Rica was so much fun. He and Rivers took an adventure to Nicaragua and, judging by their photos, spent 90% of the time hanging out with a braless 60 year old woman and her monkey.

While they were gone, my mum, Harper and I hung out in good old Ciudad Colon and had girl time. I think we went to the mall every day, and Harper even watched her first Soap Opera! (Twilight/New Moon. Oh boy...)

It was bitter-sweet to see Phil leave at the end of the week since it's the last time I'll see him as a bachelor. Weird. I'm so glad he's marrying such an awesome girl, someone who really deserves him. Still, to me, he'll always be the little boy who shared my room and held the other end of a bunny scarf so he could pull it when he got scared at night. Now I guess I'll hand that torch to Tawny. (Note to Tawny: he's especially scared of the toothless old lady that emereges from the bedroom wall)