A Year of Blogging: April 10, 2011

Today is 'Golfer's Day'. It is a day to celebrate golf, and the golfers. I don't follow golf, I actually find it kind of dull. But I know today was the last day of The 2011 Masters. That's really appropriate! To all my golfer friends, I hope you had a wonderful day! It was a beautiful day here to be out on the links, and I hope it was for you too! Today is also 'National Siblings Day'. I am fortunate to have one sister, and we are good friends. I blame this on my mom, who always told us 'this is the only sister you have'. She also told us boyfriends would come and go, but your sister is forever. Our relationship has gone through stages. I was super excited to have a baby sister. I asked Mommy and Daddy when she could play dolls with me. I tried to be a big sister, and to help my parents with her. When Drew and Joylane moved in next door, we had instant playmates. Drew was six months older than me, and Joylane was six months older than Laura. It worked out perfectly! Drew and I would create a game, drag our sisters into it, and then get bored and run off. I remember playing hospital one time. Drew and I were the doctors, and our sisters were the patients. We weren't very good doctors, and they died. So we told them to go to the morgue (which was under the bed). They both went obediently, and then Drew and I decided to go outside and play. Laura and Joylane stayed under the beds until my mom went looking for them. When I was in school, she was a pest. She tagged along behind me, wanting to do what I did. I think she was envious of the things I got to do. I was the trailblazer, and she desperately wanted to come along. I tried to trade her for a brother. I was tired of having a sister. She was annoying. I was certain a brother would be better. Mom assured me there were no brothers coming from the stork, so I tried to swap her with the little brother of one of my friends. It didn't work, and I got in trouble. I remember the day womanhood found me. My mother had told my grandparents, my dad, and to my absolute horror- my sister. We had been told the facts of life previously. I had actually told a friend, who hit this milestone before I did. She came to school terrified, and her mom had just handed her some products and told her to use them. She thought there was something terribly wrong with her, so I filled her in (and the other girls in my 5th grade class, whose mom's hadn't yet had the talk). When it was my turn, my sister came in and sat on my bed. I was brushing my hair, and I saw her face in the mirror. She was watching me, with this weird look on her face. Then she said 'What's it feel like?' and I yelled "MooooooooooooooooMMMMMMMMMMM!' When we were preteens and in our early teens, we fought. Physically. I don't know what boys that age fight like, but I can tell you what girls fight like. It was dirty and very aggressive. Looking back on that time, I don't know how my parents put up with us. My mother especially, since she was the one who had to deal with it more. This was the time we heard 'You only have one sister' probably at least once a week. We honestly hated each other, and couldn't envision a time that we would like each other. When I turned 16, our relationship took a drastic change. I think it was because I had wheels, and my mother expected me to run errands with my sister. It also gave my sister a little freedom. We became really close my last two years of high school. For my graduation present, Laura bought me an airplane ticket home for Thanksgiving. She wanted me home for Thanksgiving, and she used money she had saved working to buy it. She was 15 at the time. I've often wondered how many 15 year olds buy their sister a plane ticket. It was a gift that still makes me cry. We racked up huge phone bills while we were both in college. We talked almost every day. If we were in college now, we'd just email and facebook and text each other. So we'd have huge texting bills! We were Maid of Honor in each other's weddings. There was no question- we had known for years she would be mine and I would be hers. And if I were to remarry, she'd still be my Maid of Honor. Well, now she'd have to be my Matron of Honor since she's married. I am fortunate. I have a wonderful relationship with my sister. She gets me, in ways that others don't. And I get her. Sometimes, when we are talking, we find ourselves trying to explain what we mean. If she's doing it, I say 'it's ok, I understand'. And I do. I know what she means. She knows what I mean. No matter how far apart we live, when we are together, it only takes a glance. Maybe someone is carrying on and being obnoxious, or completely outrageous. Our look says 'OMG! Can you believe them?' We can be in a busy shopping mall, and both see the same thing that amuses us. Then our look is one of 'Did you SEE that?' Of course, this look even comes in at inappropriate times, such as at our grandmother's funeral. I made the mistake of looking at Laura when the minister started singing, and we both cracked up laughing. The bond I share with her is unlike anything else.