Sisters

You know how when a relationship ends, there are certain roles played out? For example, sometimes the girl becomes very proactive about getting her life together while the dude goes out and sleeps around and eats too much. OR vice versa. Sometimes the boy suddenly has everything going right for him--he is working out, eating right, girls are falling off his biceps, while the girl sits at home with a pint of ice cream watching too many Rom Coms on repeat slowly growing fat and zitty. Ugh. 

All of this to say that I am very close to my sister. Very close. Freakishly close. She is my best friend. And being so many miles from her for so long feels sort of like a slow motion break up. In this scenario--she is the one with the rippling biceps and the shit together. I will call her up and her voice message will be something like "sorry! I am busy training for a marathon while running my dog so that I can go to my professional job and still have time to go out with my friend afterwards! You will have to call me later!" So I will just go buy a pint of ice-cream and watch a never ending cycle of gilmore girls while the young neighbors talk too loudly and the rats in the attic scritch-scratch slow holes into my bedroom. What? More sitting? Yes please!! 

Now, if anybody knows us, then you know we love two things: one another, and CHRISTMAS....oh and popcorn. OK, three things. (well a lot of other things and people too...but Christmas is pretty high up there on the list). Somehow, amidst the job that I may or may not hate, the heat being broken, the rats in the attic, the moving, the husband, the living still and always happening, Christmas has seeped between the days to sneak up on me like a sly and jolly ninja. I feel like a traitor. True, I was not the child that ended up with all our extra family Christmas decorations, but does that excuse the fact that I haven't even put up any Christmas lights? Not a single Santa Clause? That I do not possess a reindeer decoration or a nativity scene? Let us not even start talking about presents. Sigh. How is it that Christmas feels like a chore? Do I only love holidays when I am around my family? If yes, does that mean I am not worthy of Christmas cheer? Or is it simply that the holidays are always better when family is near? 

So there you have it. Not having my sister around makes me about as sad as breaking up does. So sad, in fact, that I haven't yet found a reason to decorate for Christmas. I hope they still let me come home after reading this. 

Chelsea and Me: Spring 1898 (not actually chelsea OR me)



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