Fly Bye

When Matt came home for Christmas, he announced that he was being recruited to go to Korea to teach English. He has a degree in English. But it wasn't a done deal. Part of the reason he'd made the trek home from Atlanta was to gather the paperwork he needed: passport, diploma, transcripts - that kind of thing.

Then he (we) waited. And waited. And waited. Finally, last week, the word came down that his work Visa had been granted. It is almost a done deal, but close enough for Matt to begin the process of closing down his life in the US. He still has an interview and physical to go through at the consulate before they put him on a plane. That probably means shots.

I found out he was in town by reading his FaceBook page. "Back on the farm" it said. Really? I called Mom. "Oh, yeah... he's back. He dropped his bags off and went to town. I haven't seen him in two days." Well... he does have a lot of friends in town.

Finally, I called him and arranged to have lunch with him today because I don't think I'd have gotten to see him before he left, otherwise.

We met at the Golf Course, my baby brother and I. We sat down at a table near the window so we could have sunshine and golfers with our lunch. He ordered a bacon cheeseburger and I ordered a reuben and the waitress went away so we had a little time to visit before the food arrived.

"So... what have you been doing with yourself since you got back?" I asked rather cautiously. Sometimes, you don't want to know what baby brothers have been up to, really.

"Well," he said, and pointed to his shirt, "I went to midget wrestling last night!"

I inspected his shirt a little more closely. A "MWF" (Micro Wrestling Federation) logo graced the front, along with two autographs from Meatball and Trixie. I could feel my face trying to quirk and fought to keep it straight. Losing battle. At least I didn't guffaw.

"Are they really midgets? Or are they actually dwarves?" I asked.

"A little of both, actually. Meatball was a dwarf. A really BIG dwarf. He's like 4'8" and weighs 270 lbs. (no wonder they call him Meat BALL). And Trixie is a midget. She's trying to become the first midget to appear in Playboy. They were pretty cool."

Being Matt, he actually spent a little time talking to them and finding out how Midget Wrestling works. He's really good with people that way.

After we exhausted the subject of Midget Wrestling, we moved on to what happens next. Like the 1st Annual "Buy My Crap Before I Move to Korea" Garage Sale. He's gathering up much of his stuff, carting over to my cousin's house, dumping it on her lawn under tents (it's supposed to rain) and selling as much of it as he can. That means boxes of stuff stored at Mom and Dad's and at Jerry's place are potentially going to go away! I'm sure the parents and Jerry will be thrilled. And hopefully, Matt will make some money out of it.

We wrapped up lunch. I had to get back to work, he had to go do... something. But I took pictures on our way out.

The Shirt

The back says: I Support Midget Violence

After the garage sale, he's heading back to Atlanta for that interview, and probably one last get together at Man House with his brothers for cigars, trivia, and stuff cooked on the grill.

Bye, Matt. We'll miss you!