I think this utter distain stems from the fact that my parents made us do the Olan Mills photo shoot every year when we were growing up. Every year like clockwork my mom dressed us up in matching outfits fit for Easter Sunday, piled us in the car, and drove us across town to have what seemed like an endless photo shoot with some stranger trying to make us laugh while awkwardly positioning us on furry blankets and in front of crazy, dreamlike backgrounds. I swear, it was easier for my mom to get us to the dentist than it was that dreaded Olan Mills appointment. I think the biggest problem was that the whole thing was so far from who we really were. We would never on a normal day dress like that or pose and act like that. It's just awkward.
In fact, one year me and my brothers put up such a fight that half way through the why do we have to wear this? argument, my mom gave up and told us to put on our baseball uniforms instead. That is probably the best sibling photo we have because it's real! That is what we were really wearing several nights out of the week for most of our lives.
So back to a few days after Christmas 2011 - I needed new photos and it was now or never. With Josh back at school, J.J. working in the afternoons, and Sam's social life, we had a small window of time where everyone would be at the house. I spent the day looking for places in our yard that might produce decent shots and then looking through stock photo families in search of cute yet natural poses. That's the other problem, all of our sibling photos that my mom takes are SUPER awkward. We aren't even touching each other and sometimes we are so far apart it looks like we are posing for completely different photos. It's terrible. I was determined to get a good picture, or at least a decent one that wasn't 2 1/2 years old.
So for your enjoyment and my selfishness I present to you...Sibling Photo Day!
First up, me and baby brother Josh.
Name: Joshua Louis LaSelva
Age: 15
Occupation: high school Sophomore
Interests: church youth group, his new girlfriend Lily aka: the former governor's granddaughter, and currently living his dream of playing baseball for Forest High School
When it came to Sibling Photo Day, Josh was the most compliant, probably because the final Olan Mills torture session occurred before he could talk or fight back, or know what was going on.
Next up, middle child Sam.
Name: Samuel Ross LaSelva
Age: 19 when we took the photos, but 20 as of yesterday
Occupation: Sophomore at the University of Central Florida - Go Knights!
Interests: playing the guitar and piano (but refuses to showcase his talents if any family member is within a 10 mile radius) weekend excursions, and all of those things college boys do that parents would rather not know about
Sam had a have a few cigarettes to mellow himself out enough to consent to his photo shoot. Even then, we only managed to get two pictures out of him.
Last but not least, eldest son J.J.
Name: John Joseph LaSelva Jr.
Age: 21
Occupation: student at Central Florida College - formerly known as Central Florida Community College and one of my alma matters. In addition to making all B's last semester J.J. interns for a guy named Buddy Martin and his local radio show. If you know sports, Buddy's name may sound a little familiar.
Interests: the Dan Patrick Show, the Atlanta Braves, the Miami Hurricanes, the Buffalo Bills, any NBA game that does not involve someone who was at any time married to a Kardashian, some random county's soccer team that I have never heard of...ok, let's just say I can't remember the last time I had a conversation with him that did not include sports.
J.J. pretty much hated his life for the entire 30 minutes it took us to do the photos with just me and him and the ones of all of the siblings together. He might have been thinking of ways to kill me while these photos were being snapped.
All together now...
Careful not to leave him out, my mom got a few quick shots of me with my cat Sebastian. I would love to be holding him, but this is the closest he would let me get to him for the entirety of the 2 weeks I spent in Florida. He hid from me for the first 3 days I was there. Apparently he has memory problems because he could not remember me - ME, the person who rescued him from the pound, or even worse, the possibility of ending up in a commercial featuring Sarah McLachlan, gave him a home, and raised him from infancy. After all of that I leave him with my parents and come home to a cat that treats me like a burglar.
This concludes Sibling Photo Day 2011.
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