birthday boys get hungrier every year [May 09]

Mission: provide birthday boy with birthday meal. When I think about the volume of food it takes to keep this machine in gear, I think in terms of quantity and availability - taste is sort of an afterthought when we're talking survival. Isn't it fitting that for his 21st, I took my little brother Jens to the local Buffalo Wild Wings? This is suburban restaurant chain delight in its finest, and something of which we were deprived in our youth - but don't worry, Casper has 6 Taco Johns to serve you best. Our meals together are how we reconnect. We are no more than 5 miles apart geographically, but our lives rarely cross paths. When they do, it's over our monthly meal at the local Mexican restaurant, or in this case, a special celebratory date to the outer suburbs.

Here he is, supremely confident while he finished off his "first beers" and his own platter, the rest of mine, and some of his roommate Thomas'. My little brother is about 6'5." He dwarfs 98% of people who stand next to him. Walking alongside him, I feel like an aging, gimpy pug, chugging to keep up. That day at BW3s (is that the achronym? I'm new at this), Jens shamed me in his consumption of our massive variety of wings. Young Matson dominated with the prowess of a bulldozer, or more fittingly, some kind of sink disposal.

Some may think gluttony, but in Jens' case, it's simply a meal needed to maintain balance with energy output. He truly is a machine. Not only is he a member of the college's Nordic ski team, which requires hours of daily endurance training, Jens also volunteers, works two jobs, and two majors (art and exercise science, believe it). On a daily basis, he quietly deals with constant, sometimes debilitating chronic pain in his lower back. He's inspired to help people with their pain and hopes to pursue physical therapy; not to mention, Jens is hugely talented artistically. And very humble.

This has started to sound like a letter of recommendation (figures, since I've read about 50 of them in the last 24 hours), but I guess in a way I feel propelled to brag about him a bit. Writing this, I realize I don't think I tell him enough how much he rocks. Maybe I'll do that over our next meal at El Tequila.