Two sisters

When my dad got married to my stepmom, oh, very nearly 20 years ago, I got an additional two sisters. These two sisters were very close in age to me, one almost two years older and the other just three months younger. At the time, and let's face it throughout most of my childhood, this seemed to me to mean competition. I think growing up in such a large family ignited an extreme sense of selfishness in me, the need to protect all things that were "mine" from food to clothes and friends. Mostly the clothes and friends part. :) But as we grew up I came to realize how truly wonderful these girls are. I certainly don't consider them "step" sisters--they're fully my sisters and they have turned out to be some of the dearest people to me in the world. First we have K, an adventurous soul who has always followed the good parts in life. After high school she decided she wanted to be a scuba instructor, though at some point she realized that wasn't really what she wanted to do so she went to Hawaii to hang out with the Hawaiian part of her family for a while. She also decided to go teach English in Japan and even after having a horrible experience with the exchange program (more the crazy expats in Japan) she still made the most of the situation and continued touring around the country, eating all of the unintelligible-sounding foods she could, and buying presents for her sisters back home (I happen to love my kimono and paper crane earrings). The main regularities in her years were spending summers as a river guide in Idaho, Montana and who knows what other states she floated through, then going back to Hawaii. She usually stops by at Jessi's house a few times a year and spent some time being Jessi and Matt's housewife. There was a month-long stint in India, a trip whose details I never fully heard and she seemed to say wasn't terribly eventful, then she talks about listening to the Dalai Lama speak and you know there's more to it than she's letting on. Let's also not forget her trip to the Canary Islands, where she had signed on to help some dude cruise his yacht around. She's never met this dude and has certainly no connection to him, and he had a self-professed weakness for younger gals. Jessi and I worried about her and tried, in the least bossy sister tones we could, to gently talk her out of it. But she joyfully continued on in her sailing quest, laughing that she could one day be known as the aunt who was lost at sea. After this dude annoyed the crap out of her for long enough, she spent a few days in the Canary Islands and came home (probably to Jessi's). She's taken pottery, karate, ballet, African dancing, and who knows what other classes. She's just finished a four-year degree learning how to drive big ships, during which time she worked out frequently, became an even healthier eater and cut sugar out of her diet (my daily breakfast of oatmeal with raisins and cinnamon--NO SUGAR--was inspired by this lovely lady), was a member of the rowing team and basically an all-around tough-ass girl that a dude would be stupid to mess with. I admire her greatly and am inspired by our old dancing in the rain days, which she has entirely carried on into her adult world. I'm motivated by her courageousness and strength and try to bring a bit of that into my own life. We haven't seen each other for nearly three years, but she's my sister. She's always there. Then there's Jessi, the wonderful mother of two. Jessi, in typical fashion of our family, met her husband and was engaged within, what was it, four weeks? Three weeks? I think they were married within three months of meeting each other. We wore running shoes in her wedding party and she wore striped toe socks with her own running shoes. And their marriage is still solid gold, 11 years later (I think that's right!). Jessi and Matt bought the three Spokane sisters tickets to the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival and we all marveled at how old Lionel Hampton actually is, watching the poor, frail old man plink on the xylophone. She made us delicious cinnamon rolls. A few years went by and Matt got a temporary position working/studying in Norway, so I went to visit. We took the train to Sweden and Jessi and Matt stayed in their first hostels ever! They were some of the best traveling partners I've ever had, with lots of wandering, food experimenting and a general attitude of "Let's give it a try". After revisiting a lot of the sites they'd already seen, Jessi and I spent the day going to a million boat museums, seeing the Viking Ship museum, the Thor Heyerdahl museum, and I can't even remember how many other ones. We were absolutely exhausted by the time we got back to their apartment, so we crashed on the couch and watched Alias. Jessi introduced me to Daniel Powter and James Blunt while I was there. It was such a great trip. The next time we got together was for a sisters trip to Chicago (and Matt came of course!). Jessi was prego with Logan at the time and we drove from Ohio to Chi-town to see the Egyptian exhibition on at the Field Museum (great exhibition) and then we went to see the Pirate Queen musical, during which I think we all nearly fell asleep. Jessi is one of the most chilled out people I know, and has become even more so since becoming a mom. She's a great mom, one of the greatest ones I've seen and her kids are quite adorable (though sometimes I think Logan should be nicer to his mom). ;) She cooks and bakes (emphasis on bakes) and has taken up running and triathlons, takes erotic dancing classes (or pole dancing?) and eats an ice cream cone a day. :) She takes in her stray sisters and their boyfriends when they come through town and she becomes sister/mom, taking care of all her family members. She hosts a big family Thanksgiving dinner and my heart aches a bit when TG rolls around and I can't be in the kitchen with her. She's also a great organizer and makes sure everything in her house has a home and sort of blows me away with all of the mom and wife stuff she gets done. I mean, she's my sister, I grew up with her and now she's a wife and a mom with two kids and she's totally a grown up. Except she's not, she's still my sister that I've known forever. We went to church dances together, did cross country and track together and had our first boyfriends together and all of those sister things so that when you look at a person you see their past, their present and their future. This wonderful lady also makes sure that her sister in Australia gets some sister loving. She organized a sister tie-dye day where the other three sisters got together and made a bunch of tie-dye, and she and K sent me my sister tank top and skirt along with Godiva chocolates and an Isabel Allende book (about food and sex that was amusing to begin with but the fact that her mom was one of her "erotic food dinner" friends was a bit weird and I had to stop reading). Jessi also introduced me to America's Test Kitchen and sent me their baking book which has come in handy on so many occasions. Most recently she sent me a thermapen, which gets good use with the BBQ. Then there's the pumpkin carving kit, pumpkin seeds, and the digital video camera so that we could finally do a two-way video Skype. It's been difficult being so far away from home and my family and Jessi has helped been there for me, to give me some ups when I've felt really down. She's helped me remember that I have a family who loves me. Did I mention the picnic she put together when I came back from South America? It was a picnic for me and Marcus, so the family could come and meet my lovely man and say goodbye for a few years. She organized all the food and board games and even rented out a gazebo for the occasion. She is so good to me. My sisters. They are an extremely important part of my life. They give me the proper reaction and cheers when I tell them I'm eating healthy food ("Look, I eat bell peppers and avocados now!"), and they don't give much credence to any of the self-pity that I indulge in too much. They're straight-forward and they tell you like it is. They also have an amazing capacity to love and I so appreciate having them in my life. A few paragraphs are not nearly enough to crack the greatness that they are--but it's a little something to give you an idea. Thank you to my sisters for being the amazing people that you are.