Sister, Sister

I have talked about memories I have with my mom. I have talked about memories I have with my dad. I have not yet talked about my sister, who I commonly refer to as my Leetle Seester. And often times when I'm not calling her that, I'm calling her Brat. Don't worry. I'm the one person who can get away with it because I've been lovingly calling her that for so long. Granted there is some truth behind it, but I think she's fully aware of that too.

I'm lucky to tell you that even though there is a five year difference between us, there are many good memories we have shared.

The one that will always come to mind first is of us pretending to be on a camping trip while in the family room. We'd take out our sleeping bags and pillows and lay them out on the floor. Then we'd eat string cheese and pretend it was fish we caught for dinner. I don't think our camping trips consisted of much more except for maybe walking on the couch cushions and pillows on the ground pretending that was the only safe land from the carpet otherwise known as water. But what that has to do with camping is beyond me. So I might be combining two thoughts right there.

We played school. A LOT. Of course since I was the oldest, I was always the teacher. She often wrote me reports on the Aardvark (as it was the first animal listed in the animal encyclopedia set I had). And I usually taught her what I was learning in school at the time. Don't forget that we are five years apart. So when she was in kindergarten, I was teaching her what I was learning in the fourth grade. She is smarter because of me. No really, she is. True story.

I hated that she always wanted to be in my room. Actually, I don't even think it was that she wanted to be IN my room. The problem was that she always wanted to TOUCH and PICK UP everything in my room. There was a constant phrase spoken to her - "You look with your eyes, not with your hands". It wasn't uncommon for me to quickly kick her out of my room... at which point the war of the doors would begin. As luck would have it, her room was directly across from mine. So I could easily shove her out of my room and slam the door very quickly. She would open it, I'd shove her out again, and repeat. Then I'd slam the door and wedge my foot against it so that when she tried to open it only the top would budge. I'm actually really surprised my door never broke because of this. I'm also shocked that her fingers never got trapped between.

When we weren't arguing or bickering, there actually was a lot of happy times. We'd play barbies in her room - with HER barbies, of course. C'mon. I wasn't about to let her play with MINE! haha. But we'd take turn choosing outfits and furniture so that it really was evened out. And we'd continue on.

Lots of summer days were spent outside on our swing set. The tanbark was commonly "hot lava" and we would attempt to get from one side to the next in multiple ways. Another frequent game was pretending to be Mighty Mouse. Of course this really just consisted of us saying over and over "here I come to save the day... Mighty Mouse is on his way!" (We learned not to jokingly say loudly "help, help" after our neighbor heard us and scorned us from the other side of the fence one day. Yep. Lesson learned!)

And let's not forgot the copious amount of crab soccer we played in the hallway.

I even convinced my sister to let me do her hair. I was always about doing really wacky hairstyles but she usually let me. I even did her best friend's hair too when they'd play dress up or just dress up as twins. She always wanted to do my hair but I learned that if I let her do mine first, she wouldn't let me do hers. Yep. I usually did hers first.

We had many a baths together... which was fine until I got too old for it. I think the sign was when I refused to take a bath with her unless I was in my bathing suit. I can't recall if I made her wear hers too or not. She also wasn't allowed to cross the invisible line in the tub. She knew to stay on her side or I'd hurt her. (Sorry Mom, it's true.) Of course if you know my Leetle Seester and you want to hear a funny story, ask her why her veins are so blue in her chest and arms. TeeHee.

I really could go on and on about all the amazing times we had together as kids (or all the not so amazing times we had). But what's truly wonderful is that as adults, we still are friends. First of all, not everyone is fortunate to be able to have a sister. A sister's love can be a powerful thing. I am very fortunate, and very grateful to be able to call her my friend. I am so lucky to be able to say that even now when I'm 33, I am still making memories with her.

Just this past year alone we've shared some amazing times. We've gone to Carmel and San Francisco for the day. We've gone to an A's game together. We went on a trip with our mom to Simi Valley and also took in a Dodgers game while we were there. We went to BFD where my sister surprised me with a-mazing seats. (Try like second row!). And I was the one who encouraged her to go up on stage with 30 Seconds to Mars. I was the one who took out my camera and actually took video of the whole thing (and let me tell you, I almost never take video of anything!) I new it would be important to her though so I wanted to do that for her. We spend the entire day together in the hot, HOT sun and still went home laughing and smiling over the wonderful day we had. In October we took a road trip to Palm Springs where we vacationed - just the two of us. How many people can say they even LIKE their sister enough to do a trip like that. We shared a room and we spent the majority of our time together, every day, for an entire week. At the end of the week we weren't even sick of each other. Pinky promise! And then this Sunday we were fortunate enough to get tickets and see Shen Yun in San Francisco. Again, we spent most of the day together and it was great. What's better? We actually still want to do more things together!

I know there will come a time when I won't have the opportunity to do things like that with her. I know one day she'll be living far away (it's just inevitable). But for now I'm enjoying all the fun we have together. We might not always see eye-to-eye. We might be complete opposites when it comes to some things, but that's okay. I love my Leetle Seester and I'm grateful that I can truly call her my friend. (Have I already mentioned that? Oops.)

Issues

There are two recent events that I need to blog about... that I need to get off my chest. I know people may not agree with me, and that's fine. We are all entitled to our own opinions.

#1. There is a young girl who has been declared brain dead. Her parents are fighting to keep her hooked up to machines. Have I mentioned she's been declared brain dead? With the exception of the cause of death (autopsy is needed), the coroner's office has the death certificate filled out. I understand that death of your child (or anyone) is a hard thing to accept. But why are they putting their family and everyone else through this? I feel bad for the family that they can't come to grips and accept the fact that their little girl is dead. I feel bad they can't accept the fact that they need to let go. I feel bad for the doctors and nurses and anyone else that has to continue to give care to someone who is brain dead. That little girl, if she truly makes it to another place where people will be willing to allow to stay hooked up to the machines... I feel bad for them. They are going to start to see a little girl deteriorate and continue to watch her body die from the inside out. How can this be good for anyone? There comes a time when you need to just stop. Now is that time. Let her go. Let her go in peace.

#2. If you want to practice law, regardless of if it can't be for a law firm (yet) and you've gone through the schooling and you've passed the tests, then by all means practice law. But if you are here as an undocumented immigrant, who was practically raised here, who CHOSE to continue to go to school here, who WANTS to continue to live here in the U.S. then do one thing for me. BECOME A LEGAL CITIZEN!!! You want everything America has to offer and yet you don't want to be formally known as a citizen... that's just wrong. While I'm at it, I disagree with being able to get driver's licenses and everything else. IF you want to be here, become a citizen. Don't stay here and mooch off of everything our system (so stupidly) offers you. Don't try and cheat the system. Do something about it. Prove to me you want to be here, that you want to stay. Become an American citizen. I have nothing against people immigrating here. What I have a problem with is the immigrants who want to stay but don't go about it the right way. What I have a problem with is our government allowing them to come here and not do anything about it. It's irritating to say the least.