At the time I was traveling a lot for work (about 75% of the time), I loved it but did not spend much time with loved ones. My brother was going through a rough time with his family and really needed a break, so I took him to New York for the week-end.
It was great in so many ways, I felt like I was doing a good thing helping my brother briefly get away from his troubles, it gave my brother some space & fun, and it was really the first time that we bonded as adults.
Growing up we had a love/hate relationship. We used to fight like cats and dogs, I thought he was lazy, selfish, rude, self-centered, he thought I was a little witch (his word was actually not that nice). At the same time, we relied on each other a huge amount and would always back each other up to Mom or Dad. I think that this dynamic is pretty common for children of divorce, your sibling is going through the same thing you are and is a constant in the back and forth between parents.
For years prior to this trip we had been getting along fine, but in general we didn't hang out together, just family occasions.
On this trip we were together for a whole week-end and it was good. We did touristy stuff (Empire State Building, Brooklyn Bridge, Times Square), we shopped (normally I shop shoes, but we shopped a lot of sports stores), ate at diners, we walked and walked and walked. My Brother is a huge basketball guy and we were able to get tickets into a March Madness game in Madison Square Gardens.
It was fun, but the best part was seeing my Brother happy & excited. He called our Dad from the Brooklyn Bridge to say Hey - I am smoking a stogie on the Brooklyn Bridge and called his buddies from the game, even though you couldn't hear a thing.
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