Happy Bird-day

Today was my favorite sister's birthday. It is nice only having one sister, because then I don't get in trouble for picking a favorite. I think that even if I had another sister Birdy would still be my favorite one. When we were growing up we got in trouble far more often for laughing too loud and being annoying than we ever did for fighting. We used to sit up all night and talk when we shared a room. When Sera was really young she would never let my parents get her a candy at the store unless I got one too, even if I wasn't there. She was the kind of sister that cried when you were hurt, just because she didn't like that you were hurting.

Birdy and I had many adventures together. She was a total tomboy and I was totally not. But she would let me suck her into my games anyway. There was one time when we found that out back there was a patch of "flowers" growing. I was always the dramatic romantic type. This little patch became our meadow, and we would run out into it bare foot and sit among the flowers. We ran out one day, to be out in nature (my idea), with our shoes off. Our little meadow had turned from small yellow flowers into stickers. Dad spent a lot of time picking slivers out of our feet that night. But Bird never complained. She still let me drag her into my stupid dream world. She was great.

When I came home from my first time away from college, I learned that my sister was easily my best friend. We had to be home by midnight. On the night before fast Sunday we would usually get in at about 11:30 or 11:45. We would knock on my parents door to let them know we had made it home safely, and then we would dart to the kitchen. Only 15 minutes to eat everything we could find before eating was off limits. We knew that this really probably didn't help our appetites the next day, but it was a favorite tradition, so we kept it up.

Now we are both married and we don't really live anywhere near each other. We don't get to see each other as much as I would like, but we still keep in touch. To this day no one can make me laugh like my sister. For whatever reason she has a skill that can make a normal conversation into something hysterical where we are both rolling on the ground saying, "ouch, stop, it hurts" as we laugh ourselves silly. We are totally nothing a like, and yet we are completely a like all at the same time. I miss my Bird and hope that she is having a wonderful day, and is being properly celebrated. 

Happy Bird-day, Birdy!