Allow Me To Introduce...

my brother, the pod person.

I have suspected for some time that E-rock is not like the rest of us--and by rest of us, I mean human beings. He seems to live in this world of perpetual good luck, where everything he does or wants to do works out in golden spades. Midas would be jealous of this man.

For example, people give E-rock--on a regular basis--random things like expensive running shoes, snowboards, and computers and they don't ask him to pay for any of them. It's weird, especially since these people aren't always even his friends. One time, a complete and total stranger gave him the keys to an expensive hotel room in Tahoe and told him to make himself, and his friend T, at home.

Now honestly. These sorts of things do not happen to normal, everyday people. (Especially that last one.)

I remember one time driving around Huntington Beach with E, and he was completely amazed at the fact that he was having difficulty finding parking. "I always find a place to park!" he said in wonderment. I looked at him, disbelieving, and said something along the lines of, "Welcome to the world of the rest of us." Because who on earth finds good places to park in HB on a sunny, beautiful weekend? No one, that's who! But I did not suspect the truth even then (which was, of course, that it was because I, a normal human being, was in the car, thereby effectively blocking by my mere proximity his alien find-awesome-parking-place powers).

Last night, though, it all became abundantly clear, through one short conversation that started like this, "Oh by the way, I won tickets to Vegas."

(And you better believe it wasn't ME that said that.)

I stared at my brother. "What?!"

"Yeah."

"No wait, what do you mean, you won tickets? Won them how?"

"On the radio. I listen to this talk radio station and the other day I called in and I got these tickets."

"To...Vegas."

"Yeah. Wanna go?"

Cue "Twilight Zone" music.

What made this really eerie was the fact that we had been talking a few weeks ago about taking a trip to Vegas, because we were bored and we thought it might make for a fun little adventure, but we couldn't find any tickets at a good price. Then suddenly ("by the way"!!!) he just WINS tickets. I mean, come on! Talk about blowing your cover, Mr Alien Man.

Well, I guess there are worse things in life than finding out your brother is not actually from Planet Earth. One might be that he would decide to take someone else with him to Vegas.

So what can I say? Beam me up, Scotty.