My Big Sister is My Forever Friend

"Our roots say we're sister.
Our hearts say we're friends!"
Taken: June 2005

"I don't believe an accident of birth makes people sisters and brothers. It makes them siblings, gives them mutuality of parentage. 

Sisterhood and brotherhood is a condition 

that people have to work at..." 
~ Maya Angelou

I had a great call with my sister the other night. It was totally amazing and long overdue.

When the phone rang I thought it was my girlfriend Andrea and started to chat accordingly. It wasn’t until she questioned the dialogue that I realized it was my big sister calling. I was ecstatic!

Though she and I have plenty in common, fact of the matter is we were born a generation apart. When I was young, that constantly presented challenges because we shared a bedroom. It was her record player, they were her records, and I was nothing but a big fat boil on her ass...

We may have been born almost a decade apart but certain challenges have kept us tightly woven together. I remember the day I arrived home from school to discover she'd been asked to move out. I was nine years old. My father was furious at my mother, and I was lost. For almost a year I was kept in the dark but she eventually sought me out. When I told my mother we'd met, I was instructed "never to speak to her again." Still a very painful memory.

I'm not pleased to admit that I too rebelled against the regimen. Just so happened my Dad wasn't going to let history repeat itself. After all these years, I honestly feel that her misfortune's a credit to my good fortune. She truly paved my way.

The biggest thing I am grateful for? That her timeline in life was different than mine. As a result, we raised our families together. Because she never drove (and I had Fridays off) for the better part of a decade we spent Friday's together. I look back at that now and willingly admit that I couldn't have survived the 90's without her!

As sisters, when all is said and done, there are very few things we are truly competitive about. All night, head to head, Trivial Pursuit jumps to the front. But nowadays SongPop seems to be tripping the radar. Truth? Just so we're clear, I know she lets me win the odd one so I'll keep playing. Just so we're really clear, I am totally fine with that approach.

I love you Andrea... I can't wait to spend an entire week on the beach with you. Just so you know, it's not going to be like Jamaica was last year. The packing weight of Trivial Pursuit totally trumps the shoes and extra crap I take on this trip. 

Two words. BRING IT!