My Sista'

The great thing about this blog is I get to give shout-outs whenever and to whomever I want and a birthday seems like the perfect time to do just that. Today is my younger sister's birthday. For those of you who know my sister, K, you know how lucky I am to call her that. And in honor of her big day I'd like to highlight some of the ways she has made me a better person.

To begin, she has made me a better mother. With her birth, K not only stole the spotlight from me, but she also gave me another area in which to be an overachiever - big sisterhood. Apparently, the day she came home from the hospital I gave her my blanket telling my parents she was the baby now. I then made it my mission to be as overbearing and overprotective as possible to the point that one afternoon when my sister was two and I five I dropped her on her head trying to rescue her from a light bulb my mother had left on the dresser for a moment telling me to "make sure K doesn't touch that". I'm sure I was tons of fun to play with. All of this hyper-responsibility set me up nicely for parenthood though, it wasn't too much of a shock since I had been playing mother for so long (much to my sister's chagrin, I'm sure). I hear voices from my past as when I hear my older daughter tell daughter #2, "Don't touch that! It's sharp!" and I run into the room to see she's holding a crayon.

My sister has also taught me to slow down and enjoy life. A concrete example of this during our childhood was our food consumption. On the occasional Saturday my father would take us to the corner store and let us get a candy bar, I would immediately rip the wrapper off of my Whatchamcallit or Reggie Bar and scarf down the whole thing before we even got out of the store. My sister, on the other hand, would eat hers in annoying little bites and actually have a good portion of hers left when we got home! I would then spend the next half an hour asking her, "Don't you want to take a REALLY big bite?" to which she would calmly reply, "Nope." Of course I also began a non-stop assault of "Can I have a bite?"s to which she would eventually relent and let me have some of hers. Karma really is a bitch as I now spend ridiculous amounts of time explaining to my eldest why she can't have some of her slower-eating sister's ice cream after she has finished hers. And yes, I have walked into the room as my sweet middle child is offering my oldest a bite of whatever it is she is having that her sister inhaled two minutes earlier.

My sibling has also improved my taste in music. While she might not agree with this statement considering the my current song selections include The Backyardigans and a smattering of Rob Thomas when I can wrest away control of the van's radio, I know the difference. This endeavor began way back in the late eighties when she started listening to the atrocious Steve Miller Band and tried to add it to my rotation of New Kids on the Block albums. Not. If I never hear Jungle Love again it'd be just fine. Then came the Grateful Dead which I assert to this day is the soundtrack in hell with it's lack of beat and never ending "jams". But I will admit that my love of The Indigo Girls is entirely her doing and we do a nice rendition of Closer to Fine if I do say so myself. My sister may think the CD's she burns for me are left to die a scratch-covered death in my van, but I do pop them in when I am alone. I felt very hip indeed when I saw the newest iPod commercial featuring Feist and I knew who she was! And, thanks to her, I was way ahead of the Amy Winehouse curve. Just nothing with minor chords, please.

I could go on and on about the ways my sister has changed my life, but just by her existing I am a better person because I have a sister. Having a sister changes you as a woman - for the better. When I found out my second child would be another girl I was elated. My oldest would have a sister! I imagined all the things they would do together - play silly games and share secrets - like my sister and I did. Although I'm annoyed when I have to tell the girls to be quiet and go to sleep for the tenth time in one night, part of me is secretly thrilled that they have such a good time together they just can't fall asleep just like K and I did. I remember actively wanting to spend time with my sister as a kid. I hope my girls have unspoken "sister days" like we did - hanging around together eating Fritos and playing Mike Tyson's Punchout.

My sister is an amazing person and I hope she knows that. I feel so lucky not only to have her as my sister, because I am cooler by association, but because my daughters get to have her as an aunt - everyone needs a cool aunt. Aunt KK who moved to California, plays guitar and finds cool computer games for them to play (TransylmaniaII!). She's a rock star in their eyes and in mine.

K, thanks for being my sister. Happy, happy birthday. Now let's talk about this whole California business. Michael Bolton to that.