25 Years of Pickle

Pickle is my brother. His real name is Michael. I don't remember when or why I started calling him Pickle. It was his birthday last month (25th) and I meant to dedicate a post to him, but I've been a slacker. Here is a list of 25 things about my brother.

1) He has very curly, very blonde hair. It didn't become curly until he hit puberty. I won't say how old he was when that happened : ) Let's just say we have a bunch of late bloomers in our family.

2) He and I had great childhood and teen years being goofy together. Not much has changed, but now Jeremy and Amanda are in on the action.


3) He plays a mean rendition of Richard Marx "Right Here Waiting for You" on the recorder.

4) He is one of the most sensitive and compassionate men in the world. He is brought easily to tears by others' suffering.


5) He has very long, narrow feet with long, finger-like toes. Knowing my distaste for feet, he loves to leave photos of his feet for me where I will come upon them unexpectedly, left shaken. I found the following photo on my camera upon returning home from our trip to Japan.


6) He is an awesome uncle. Our nephews and niece absolutely adore him. Here he is with Evan making wet paper balls to shoot at people with a straw.

And here he is with Juniper. He doesn't usually wear a dress--that photo is from his college graduation.


7) Speaking of college, Michael absolutely loves to learn and he is very well-educated on several subjects. Subsequently, he loves to teach people as well, and was very successful teaching inner-city children in Chicago as part of the Teach for America program. His students moved up from being several years behind in their math skills to passing their grade level expectations by the end of the year.

8) Michael is big on family. He is always so excited for our family gatherings-- it makes us feel good. We have such a great history of going on adventures together.


9) He is married to an absolute sweetheart, and his best friend, Amanda.


10) He is very friendly and can talk to anybody for hours. When he was little his stories would drone on forever. If one wasn't giving him their full attention, he would grab their head with both hands and turn it towards him.

11) Michael has always looked up to his big brother, Alex.



12) He has a wicked good memory. He is constantly telling me stories about my life that I don't recall, and he is 5 years younger.

13) He always chooses a traditional English meal of lamb with mint sauce for his birthday dinner.

14) He is very athletic and was good at all sports growing up.

15) He loves skiing and the Utah mountains.



16) He speaks German and likes to irritate me by answering the phone and speaking it to me. I know to hang up as soon as I call and he answers with a chipper, "Guten-tag!"

17) He was a real mama's boy when he was young.

18) He looks remarkably like our maternal grandfather, Gilbert Tobler, who was a stellar man whom we all love and admire deeply.


19) He is very fun to give gifts to because he is so genuinely grateful and excited about them.

20) When he was little his friends playfully nicknamed him, "Bo," somehow a derivative of "Albino." He's not really, but he does have very light skin and hair.

21) Michael reportedly feels a kinship to the albino squirrel that lives in our parents backyard.

22) He is the baby of the family and as a result he referred to himself as "Baba" during his early years. One day my mom decided to teach him his real name. I returned home from school one afternoon to find him sitting on the stairs. "Hi Baba!" I called out as I reached for a hug (he was a VERY loved little boy). He crossed his arms over his chest and glared,"I NOT Baba! I Michael David Bates."

23) Don't give him unlimited access to beans. Jeremy and I learned that the hard way.

24) He has a cheerful disposition.


25) When he was little I told him his legs looked like chicken drumsticks. They really did. Skinny ankles with a little ball of meat at the top.

Love you Michael! I'm glad you had a good birthday.