Your name is Whaaaaa?

Ok so... For almost 5 years now my last name has been Orr.

Still I get
What's with the name change?
Your name is what?
Brett Or What? (haha... You are funny.)

So for anyone that is that interested in my little life and wonders what the name change was all about, allow me to explain.

In no way did I change my name to hurt anyone's feelings or make a point or to get out of speeding tickets.
The story of the name change goes like this.

 My whole life I carried the last name of people that I never really knew. As billions of kids do, I came from divorced parents. At no point in my life did I ever connect with that side of my family. No matter how many times I tried. It never happened. I watch all kinds of kids going through this. Parents split up, one gets custody and the other starts a new family almost forgetting that the other kids even exist. Sucks. But it happens.

Here where my story is a touch different. Before I could even remember a memory I had my step dad. A step dad that not ever even once treated me like I wasn't his. I grew up with him. He loved me. He scolded me. He was proud of me. He was disappointed in me. He checked my homework. He helped me study. He taught me right from wrong. He told me where babies come from. He taught me how to throw a football. He came to my swim meets. He came to my plays. He bought me my first drum set. My first guitar. My first keyboard. He fixed my cars. Taught me about engines. Cooked me fried macaroni. A Lot. He taught me how to treat a woman. He taught me how to be a man.

He taught me everything I know about being a good person. A good husband. A good father. Everything I have good inside me came from him. (and my Mom of course)

Almost 5 years ago Sarah told me she was pregnant. We were going to have a son. He was going to have everything good in him that I had in me. And he was going to be named after the man that I got it all from.

That is why my name changed.

The Sunday Fundays

Ok. So.

     It is no secret that I have an addiction issue when it comes to being surrounded by people I like.
When you travel through life you meet some wonderful people that you truly enjoy spending your time with. Nothing makes me more sad than when these people disappear from our lives because of life. We grow up. We get married. We have kids. We move away. Whatever the case... It makes me sad.

     Well... I don't give up that easily. I don't except the life is busy excuse.

So in this little family of mine we listened to Ferris when he said..."Life moves pretty fast, if you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."

      So every Sunday we stop to look around.

Let's face it. Life is hectic. Life is not all rainbows and butterflies. It is work. Kids. Mortgage. Bills. Cleaning. Laundry. Work.  Dishes. Taxes. Work. Crying. Whining. Work. Rushing. Deadlines. Driving. Picking up. Dropping Off. Work. Cooking. Yelling. Attitudes. Weeding. Mowing. Work.

       So every Sunday, we stop to look around.

Here is the tricky part about Sunday fundays. Not everyone feels it. I understand that. They don't need to.
"Alexander is a long drive." "Can't drink if I go." "Too many kids." "I don't really know everyone."

Let's get one thing clear. As much as I love stopping to look around with all the friends and family I have acquired over the years... I don't want anyone to feel obligated to come here to our little get togethers. The last thing that should ever happen at a Sunday Funday, is complaining. It is meant to be a sit back and relax, catch up, share stories, watch the kiddies play, eat some grub and perhaps a few cocktails kinda thing. If Sunday Funday is an inconvenience to you and yours... Don't feel obligated to come.

I will not love you any less.

Here is how Sunday goes for me. I work on the weekends in a hot gross kitchen. Sundays are a non stop, hot, sweaty, frustrating feed the masses kind of day. At 3 o'clock when my shift ends... This is what is going to happen. I am going to come home. I am going to be greeted by my smiling son. Kiss and hug my beautiful wife. Then I am going to take a shower. After that I am going to enjoy this life we have built. I will fire up the grill. Open a beer from the stocked beer fridge and I will take in the blessings we have been given. If you want to be a part of this then, as always our doors are open. If not. Do your "thing". That thing that keeps you sane. Don't ever feel obligated or guilted in to coming here.

I promise I will not love you any less.

Blogging... Really? Who is this guy?

Ok so...

          By the suggestion of my usually correct wife, I have started to "blog". Whatever that means. She says I have a lot to say and that I should start a blog to say it. Some of my besties rock a blog. So why not me?

Where to start?

....Perhaps how I turned into the person I am?

Well in short. I grew up in a pretty loving home. There was no shortage of hugs, kisses or encouragement. My mother was a slave to the restaurant industry. (apples don't fall far) My Dad was a sheriff. Then a captain, then a chief deputy, then a accident re constructionist, then a judge. There was a tv maker, handy man and some other odd jobs in there too somewhere. I have 3 older step siblings that are all smarter than I am. I didn't really connect with them until adulthood. I don't really know why so much.

      I have a sister that I was always connected with. She has always been the one that protected me or the one the beat the shit out of me. She was always way more rambunctious than I ever was. Always popular. Always the center of a room. I think like most siblings, we have our moments of pure dislike and our moments of not wanting to talk to anyone but each other. I'm sure she will come up a lot more if I continue with this whole blog thing.

       I also have a family I actually know nothing about. I have a father and a step mother. I have 2 half brothers. I never connected with them. I mean I went there every other weekend for a while. But never connected. This created some Daddy doesn't love me issues but eventually I found a pretty awesome shrink. I think I would like to connect with all of them before I die. Anyway, that's a whole story in itself.

       I sucked a school. Well, toward the end anyway. I started working as soon as I was allowed and pretty much just wanted to work and make music.

         Then... I unknowingly ran away from home on a quest to become famous. I did this with a group of people that I probably should not have ran away with. I live back in Alexander...So. That didn't work. Obviously.

           Then I fell in love. Got married. TOO YOUNG. I married a woman that liked relationships with my friends more than me. Thanks to that marriage I learned some things.
1. Even the strongest of people will attempt suicide if they are sad enough.
2. No other person is worth taking your own life.
3. Marriage does not mean what it meant "back in the day".

            I spent the next few years drunk. I lived in run down shit shacks. Lived on perv row in strip clubs. I dated girls I knew I would never want a future with, but felt crushed when it didn't work out.


           THEN. I woke up day and decided I did not like who I was. SO. I stopped talking to pretty much everyone I hung out with then. I moved to a farm house far away from pretty much everything. I spent everyday going to work and working on myself. I met new people. Good people. With good families. With good hearts. Through them I remembered that I was good too.

           THEN. I had back surgery at 25.
           THEN. The docs found a mass on my nut
            NOW. My back hurts and my friends make one nut jokes.

            Then through my new friends I met Sarah. In a crowded bar on New years Eve, one of my new friends brought her sister to watch the band I was in. That day my whole life changed forever. She was pretty, smart, ambitious and had the biggest smile I had ever seen. She smelled good.

            We got married for all the right reasons. We have 2 kids. We are AWESOME.

      So... through a lot of life experiences, I learned a little about a lot of things. I have opinions on all of them. So I shouldn't have a problem making posts. Maybe...Just maybe, someone may actually want to read it. Therapeutic anyway, right?


So What have we learned about Brett in this condensed life story?

1. I don't handle rejection well.
2. I have lived in a lot of situations that I think in the end taught me a lot of who wanted to be.
3. I have no issue walking away from people that have no positive influence on my life.
4. I have a lot of love for my true friends.
5. I have no love for my fake ones.
6. I love my family.
7. My wife and my children are the sun in which my world revolves
8. I am pretty awesome.
9. I say "so" a lot.