Hello there.

Long time no see.

As with many of you, recent events (Virginia Tech) have got me thinking again (dangerous, and something I try not to do too often).

My brother who is 9 years older than me was doing a brief stint at Ft. Bragg, NC this week. He is usually stationed at Ft. Leavenworth, KS. All that sounds boring, but Ft. Bragg is where this Rex0 came into being. I was born there. My brother called me the other night from the hospital I was born at. He was looking in the very maternity ward that I was in 30 plus years ago, where he first saw me.

He was an excited brother and refused to believe that I would be a girl like the doctors said. His faith proved right and I was forced to wear pink for the first 6 months of my life.

It was the first time either one of us had been back to NC. We moved from NC when I was just a few months old. My brother and I spent a long time being nostalgic remembering many things. Due to the recent VT news, we starting thinking about the disasters he had nearly avoided. Years ago he lived in Kileen, TX when a man drove through a Luby's window and started shooting people killing many before police shot him. He was in Waco during the Branch Davidian debacle. The scariest was the Oklahoma City bombing. My brother was stationed there at the time. He had people that he looked after in an office in the Federal building. His office was outside of town, but he visited the Federal building multiple times per week. Needless to say, I was a worried wreck at the U of Arkansas not that many miles away. The phones in OKC were down forever and he finally got a hold of me at 2 am the next day to say he was okay.

My brother's phone conversation with me quickly turned to happier thoughts as we reminisced about growing up together. One of our favorite memories is going to the ROTJ premier together. It was one of our first outings we took on our own. My brother was recently 16 and was driving. I'll never forget that anticipation. We were living in Lawton, OK at the time. It had two movie theaters then. We picked the newer one and got to the theater the day before its release. That is right, we camped out and had a great time with his friends. I'll never forget that experience. While I had seen the other OT films in the theater, I didn't remember them much and this was my first premier. It was crazy and will never happen like that again. We were lucky enough to get seats. The problem was that we were also saving seats for my parents. Well, long story short, I sat with my Mom and my Dad and brother were left standing in the back of the theater. That's right, they sold WAY more tickets than were available. People were lined up the ramps to the seats and standing in the back. I think my mouth was literally open the whole time and when Vader through the emperor down the reactor shaft, the cheer that went up was so exhilarating. I think I might have even been standing in my seat. Great stuff.

In short, the recent VT news got me thinking about family. You never know what might happen. It could be a terrible shooting, car wreck, or disease. The point is life is short. While I feel terrible about the tragedy at VT, it is a reminder to cherish the family you have. I have been giving out a lot of extra hugs to family and friends. They are what matters.


In other news, I've managed to stay with DRIVE on Fox for the first 4 shows. I was very optimistic at first but the last two episodes have not been that great. I'm going to stick with it for a variety of reasons. If you've missed it though, then you haven't missed anything spectacular except some wonderful camera shots. I need someone in the film biz to explain how the heck they do those camera pans from inside a car, to outside the car to inside another car. It's awesome. The show itself needs some work. Nathon Fillion is brilliant as usual, and he is the big reason I'll stay with it.

Happy blogging and keep the peace my friends.