SISTERS

I just got back home from a 'sisters reunion' in Port Angeles, WA.  It was great fun.  The last time the three of us got together was in Cordova the summer I turned 50 so it hasn't been that long.  That year they threw me a surprise birthday party which was truly a surprise.  I knew we were having a luncheon and I knew several people were coming but it wasn't until minutes before the door bell rang that I saw the napkins that had something about 50 on them that I put it all together.  I know, not the sharpest crayon in the box.  But I had expressly vetoed any birthday party ideas when we talked about it months before so I naively assumed they listened.  In hindsight, I see the error of my ways.

Anne & Barb

One thing we all have in common is our incessant need to correct grammar, pronunciation and spelling.  We all had ample opportunity to do so at our reunion.  Okay, mostly they corrected me but I did get a few teaching moments in.  We all do some kind of puzzle on a daily basis, all different.  We all live in a similar type of landscape, two in Alaska and one in the PNW.  We all are avid readers.  We are all good cooks.  We all enjoy gardening.  We are all believers.

We all walk for exercise as well so we went on walks every day.  We had facials, we went to the movies, we shopped, we ate out and we laughed....usually over nothing.   I guess it was time for me to go because the night before I left we all three almost lost our meal laughing at the dinner table while my brother-in-law and his mother looked at us like we had grown an extra head.  I think it's something embedded in our collective DNA, a familial disorder that allows siblings to find the same thing hysterically funny while no one else finds it even remotely amusing.

They particularly do love laughing AT me.  My mannerisms, my choice of words, my fondness of whistling, my "vigorous" nature as they see it.  (Reluctantly, I must confess that part might be true, my husband has called me a bull in a china shop more than once.)   But they provided their share of humor as well.  We really didn't grow up together since they are 8 and 10 years older than me but we seem to find a lot of common ground these days.

It would have made my mom really happy to see us last week.  She always thought "sisterhood" she bestowed upon us was one of her greatest gifts.  So thanks Mom, we may not always have appreciated it but we do now!