Sistahs...

My big sister came to visit me recently...

Before you conjure up visions of all 5'3 1/2" of me walking through the mall with a 7'2" sibling, I should let you know that we are exactly the same height...
and without giving away too many secrets about myself...
I will say, that although I'm sure she could hold her own against the likes of, let's say, someone like Jennifer Aniston if Jen "threw down' with her...
She wouldn't stand a chance against me, based on the laws of physics...
(which is my nice was of saying, I'm the 'BIG' sister, if you're not counting age to measure)

It's funny how at 45 I am still the baby sister...
I've realized that when it comes to sisterhood, my age has absolutely NO RELEVANCE...
As far as being a sister goes, I only know how to be a 'little' one...

It's totally my mother's fault...
I BEGGED her to have another baby...
She would always just chuckle and say things like "I don't think so"...

But she KNEW SO... because once, when I was around 10, I was enjoying perusing through her dresser drawers looking at all of her scarfs, costume jewelry and evening gloves
(which incidentally, ALL moms were REQUIRED to own back-in-the-day)
when I came across a funny looking package that housed a bunch of small pills arranged in a circle....
I didn't learn exactly what they were until quite a few years later, and when I did, I instantly understood why Mom would chuckle while saying she didn't think so...

It doesn't really matter though...
Because Big or Little, Oldest or Youngest...
We're still just SISTERS

We have the best time just being sisterly...
While she was here we shopped, ate, and went to the movies with some of my friends...
We laughed a lot...
We cried a little (because we miss our Mom)...
Then we laughed some more...

But mostly we just embraced our roles in each others lives...

Big Sister & Little Sister...

And Now, Playing the Part of...

I have this one weird thing.

To be perfectly honest, I actually have several weird things, the least of which is a rogue hair that sprouts in a place which I am certain it is not meant to grow...

Back to my 'thing'...

Here's the thing.

Oh dear...

I seem to be on one of those things where you are suddenly aware of a word that you are overusing and the thing is problem is, that the more you think about the thing use of the word, the worse the thing it gets...

Anywhooooo...

Let me start over...

Whether I am reading a book, watching a movie/tv show/play, I tend to designate who "I am" in the thi.. book/movie/tv show/play.

Way back when the earth was new, and I was seven...
I decided that my 'Brady Role" was that of Marcia.
Actually I was also Laurie in the Partridge Family...
and Mary Ann on Gilligans Island...

I'm not a self absorbed designator..
I often assign characters to my friends and family as well...

Each one of my closest friends secretly had a role in the Divine Secrets of the YaYa Sisterhood (and they didn't even know it!)

Recently, I've personally made an important scientific discovery!

Not really... but I've always wanted to say that...
I have actually found that as with other 'things' that are part of who I am,
this 'thing' seems in all likelihood to be genetic...

I made this hypothesis based on a recent trip to the movies with my sister, Tricky Vicki (or T.V.)...
We went to see Mamma Mia! with a couple of my friends , which incidentally is FAB! If you haven't seen it yet... Go!!

So here's where my keen sense of observation kicked in leading to the revelation that this is not just a 'weird thing' but indeed a 'genetic thing'...

Halfway through the movie, there is a scene where Donna (played by Meryl Streep) is joined on stage by her BFF's Tanya (Christine Baranski) and Rosie (Julie Walters) to sing...
as I am watching this big scene, T.V. leans over and taps my arm and says "You're in the middle" and she points to the left "That's me" and she points to the right "That's Linda"
(Linda is our other sister)

I cracked up because, not only did I realize at that very moment, that I am not quite as weird as I thought I was, because obviously this 'thing' runs in our family...
but even more hilarious is that her designations were exactly the same as mine!!

So now I don't feel quite so strange about my designation habit...

But NOW...

about that hair.....

"Genuine" Mistake...

My sister is the friendly sort…
She is the type of girl who usually goes out of her way to meet new people.

She’s also tricky…

Sometimes I call her Tricky Vicki…

Her name happens to be Vicki, thus the cool, rhyming nickname…

There actually aren’t any ‘cool’ words you can rhyme with my name… so PLEASE don’t even try to give me a cool rhyming nickname…
I’ve tried and none meet my approval…
i.e. Wacky Jackie (Clown name!)
Khaki Jackie (Reporting for duty! Sir-yes-sir!)

Back to my T.V. (Tricky Vicki) story…

As I mentioned before, she likes to extend the branch of friendliness… or is that the hand of friendship? Branch… Hand…. Whatever it may be…. DARN-IT!! She’s extending it…

One Sunday, at church, she happened to be seated beside a lady whom she had never seen before…

Mind you, their church was not huge, so a new face tended to be noticed.
She took an opportunity to smile and say hello at the beginning of the service, but didn’t have the opportunity to formally introduce herself after the service had ended…

On the way home, she was chatting with my brother in law, Chuck, about the ‘visitor’ and how she didn’t get the chance to actually meet her properly before the woman left…

Here’s where the TRICKY part comes in!

She told him that even though she didn’t get to do things properly that week, she did however; find out the name of the stranger…

I TOLD you she was tricky! She didn’t get her nickname for nothing!

“It’s Janine,” she told Chuck (who doesn’t have a nickname, due to the fact that his name rhymes with several words that could get your mouth washed out with soap!)

Chuck was curious to know how T.V. had accomplished this ‘covert op’ without actually meeting the lady…
“It was stamped on her bible, and when she wasn’t looking, I stole a glance at it”

I told you she was good!

“It’s Janine Lee-Ather”

Chuck was truly impressed… for at least 10 seconds…
or until he realized that there was a good chance that the woman’s bible had been sitting upside down on the pew and that maybe….

Just maybe… it wasn’t the woman’s name that T.V. had recovered.

Usually, names are stamped on the front, bottom, right hand corner…
But if it was flipped over to reveal the back cover instead, what is normally stamped in the same spot on the back…

Is something that at a quick glance may have looked like Janine Lee-Ather, but more likely than not, was...

You guessed it…

Genuine Leather…

I told you before that it’s genetic!!

Now that you've heard a few of my funny family secrets... Give me one of yours!
Just deposit your funniest slip-up in the comments section...
Maybe that will prove to me, that there's a possibility, that it's not just OUR DNA...