“Narcissistic Bragging About How Lucky I Am On Social Media And How Beautiful Life Is Post Despite What A Loser I Am From Viewpoint Of Traditional American Society Materialism…and also The Power Of Social Media Chain Reactions”

Yesterday morning woke up and was scrolling FB and came across a post from my longtime close circle friend Joe’s sister Michelle

She and her husband own a store in Cranford where my twin brother lives and she was advertising the store and an event called a “SouperHero” walk where residents for ten American dollars could buy a pass that allowed them to get free samples of a variety of soups for all participating stores while simultaneously viewing the variety of superheroes each store made out of balloons

Only took one pic, it’s X-Men’s Wolverine. For a late 80’s/early 90’s kid that loves TV, Wolverine was the star of the original animated series that ran from 1992-1997. Disney Plus actually revived the series for us kids turned adults in the form of “X-Men ‘97” in 2024. Different animation style, picks up where the story left off. Excellent first season. Surprisingly gorey and aimed at adults. Season 2 drops this summer!

Sent twin brother text about the walk asking if he and family were available for the event with my 14 year old son and I, a win-win-win-win as we all love superheroes to some degree

Look outside and realize it snowed last night and that’s probably not happening

He texted back with the invitation for my son and I to come watch him coach his 11 year son play ice hockey and hang with his wife, my sister-in-law, my son’s Aunt in the stands

Ask my son’s Mom for permission and get the go ahead!

Get to rink and marvel at the place. It’s beautiful. It’s cold for sure, but it’s winter anyway and of course you need the cold for ice hockey

This is my son’s first hockey game experience!

Can’t believe I’m watching my twin brother coach and mentor his son and a whole team of kids. I remember how it all started for Brian. We used to play makeshift hockey with sticks and a pink bubbletape container as a puck when we were little in our cousin Stephen’s driveway across the street from our childhood home. Then we graduated to street hockey with those red nets, no skates just yet. I played goalie, pads and glove only, no stick. Then came roller hockey in parks and behind Lloyd Rd school. I dropped off. Brian kept going. Bulldogs was the first league team formed out of Clinton Street Park before going to Good Sports and official leagues. Year after year after year Brian still to this day plays ice hockey and roller hockey beer leagues. Although I’ve never physically played in the leagues, pretty sure in Brian’s youth he got kicked out of a league once for fighting and used my name to rejoin. Wonder my stats for that season?

Marvel at my nephew’s skating ability. That’s hard alone let alone when you throw in sticks and pucks and speed and body contact

Enjoy conversation with Jenni, we are extremely similar people in general

Watch my nephew get a penalty for a crash, which is a teachable moment for him and my son. I explain the rules of the game. Basically he had to take a timeout, but just explain he is in jail for a little bit and we have to wait a little bit until he gets out

They win!

Meet some of the community that comes to the games for their kids, specifically a friend of Brian’s, a comedian named Chris. Say, “Wow, that takes balls.” He jokes,”…and narcissism”. Say, “A little, but all art does. However, I’m a natural depressive and when I go to a comedy show I come out healed and tuned up.” He jokes, “Sometimes when I perform them I go there feeling great and leave feeling horrible having just bombed”

Learn about parapalegic hockey after asking Jenni, a special needs teacher by trade, what those contraptions are

Brian solved the “SouperHero” walking problem by suggesting we just drive around and play eye spy with the characters all the while laughing and making inappropriate jokes. Couldn’t resist joking eye spied “Captain Asshole!” referencing the giant “A” on his forehead. It was actually Captain America

We actually do park at one point and go check out Michelle and her husband Jason’s store

Have a wonderful conversation with Jason even though Michelle stayed home because of the weather. Find out a little about his life. He’s from Edison, used to live in Chicago, asked if he ever watched the American version of “Shameless”, says he watched the whole thing! Tells us surprisingly that he never ran into them filming there despite living there during the same time period and recognizing spots from the show literally around the block from where he lived!

Before heading back to Brian and Jenni’s for lunch Brian parks car and goes to get gourmet Italian raviolis, gluten-free pasta for his wife, and Italian pastries including Sfogliatella infused with Nutella which I’ve never had before! I peel the flakes off first and then eat the center so Jenni joked it looked like I was eating poop, rofl

Give son half of candy bar he picked out at store and he splits with Type-1 Diabetes cousin

Ask nephew to describe his cousin. Responds, “Aura”. Ask son to describe cousin, responds, “Good”. Ask son to elaborate, “Good at hockey”

Go back to their house for lunch

Play living room makeshift hockey with nephew and son while Brian and Jenni make lunch all the while just talking, joking, and catching up

Enjoy a meal together as a family

See and hear about campaign he did for his pharmaceutical funded graphic design firm where he is a Senior Art Director that helps make websites and videos for medicine. See campaign video he did that millions of people have viewed for Schizophrenia medication. Absolutely love the colored glitches in the video, asked him about them, and he says that was his doing! See picture of award he got for his work with him in a tuxedo. Looks like AI, but it’s real! Realize how private my twin is and how we are opposite on that front

Brian noticed earlier at the rink I had to pop my hood because of a stripped battery terminal. After lunch we take a ride to auto store so he can fix it, as he just fixed the same issue on his car. Aunt Jenni watches the kids. Brian and I get alone time. He fixed my car while we reminisced about holding the flashlight for Grandpa as kids

Go inside and Jenni is teaching my son to make brownies. Nephew is in his room making bracelets. Reminisce about making lanyards in the 90’s at Gravelly Brook Park at “Recreation”, day camp. Those staircase and box stitches as well as the ones I never learned like that diamond pattern one that kind of looks like the patterns on certain snake’s skin. Notice nephew wearing Cooperstown shirt. Nephew is quite the althlete like Daddy and also plays baseball. Think about the time my Grandparents took Brian and I to Cooperstown. Remember old Abbot & Costello “Who IS on First” skit they had there from the comedy of my Grandparents generation, YouTube it, and show it to nephew

Pet their dogs at some point. One, Rain, sat at the table with us during lunch. The other Zamboni, a special black lab that was trained to detect my nephew’s low blood sugar that was made possible to become a family member and service dog by a loving community was jokingly called “Zamuel Lambuel” by my nephew at one point yesterday

Backtracking

Brian knows I have to get to a holiday work party and he gets us going

Family hug

Beautiful day, gratefulness abounds