I have been home visiting my family for winter break. I love my family, but also feel very lucky that we are friends too. Not everyone has a brother or a mother that they would chose to be their friends. I have been having a great time with both, but hanging out with my brother is particularly fun. And on that note, he has earned a meme. Generally he is a great guy, but in the last week there were two really amusing incidents which illustrate his matter of fact stance on equality.
Elliot has never been one to discriminate, but as he got older and more aware, he became a feminist and an equal rights supporter. The best part is how nonchalant he is about it, it is not something he believes, it is just something he does.
While I was home for winter break my mother and I were considering going out and getting pedicures. But then we had a discussion about not having enough time, and we decided to forgo the pedicures. My brother was in the room and was aware of the subject, but not participating. My mother then switched the subject from human pedicures to the dog’s nails. Elliot still wasn’t paying attention fully yet when mom asked him if he would give her, Pumpkin–our Rhodesian Ridgeback, a pedicure. Unaware of the subject change, he glanced at me, shrugged and said, “Sure. But I am not sure how good I will be at painting the edges.” He was willing, if not able, to give me a pedicure. Instead, together we ended up taking care of Pumpkin’s nails. He wielded the trimmers, while I held the huge dog still.
The next day we were picking up a four wheeler. We had to get it repaired for the new owners of our childhood home. We had to move a table with two large (occupied) rabbit cages on it to access it. Once we had access to it, it was still a little tough to get it up on the truck. We only had two narrow boards and a hand winch to get the massive four wheeler up on the back of the big truck. We started out with Elliot working the hand winch, while I guided the four wheeler up the boards. Then we changed places thinking if someone had to push it over the edge of the truck bed, it should be him. Feminism aside, this dude is way stronger than I am.
So there I was, slowly winching the four wheeler up the steep boards, and Elliot is somewhere off to the side. I called out to ask him what he was doing, and he said he was standing away from the four wheeler so if the sagging boards cracked he wouldn’t be in the way. It made sense. Though if the boards did crack, I would be the one holding the the ATV by the hand winch with no other supports.
So I finally finish winching the four wheeler up, and the ATV is completly up on the bed. After, Ell comes around from the side. I hadn’t seen him the whole time. I asked him what he was doing in the garage when I was getting the four wheeler up onto the truck. His reply, ” I was petting the bunnies. They are really soft.”
So there you go, from pedicures, abstaing from the assumption he would do the heavy lifting, to petting bunnies, for equality in all ways, my brother. Though I have to say, I was dissapointed. I would have liked to pet the bunnies too. 
It was a small place and informal. When we said yes, we would like to see the winery, we we told to just on on through and come back to taste when we were ready. We had run of the place. It was like a dream!
Far From The Sticks 
