32 may be old, but...

Blog trivia...who knows what today is?

If you guessed "Big Sis's 32nd birthday", then YOU WIN!!!

You have all heard me gush about my pretend family at enormous length, so my feelings should be pretty clear by now. That, however, is not really gonna stop me:-P. I can't help it...she is just very gushable:-).

The big change this year, obviously, is that I now work with Big Sis, which has gone really well so far. I haven't worked a lot with her directly (kind of intentionally). Remarkably, she and Papa Bear have not killed each other yet, and haven't really even had any (OK, more than two;-)) blowups with each other. I have yet to be called upon to mediate, but I am pretty sure that is now in my job description if need be;-)

As seems fitting on her birthday, I am going to tell you a sort of flattering story about her. Well, really it is kind of about her and Smoking Hot Roommate both, and when I saw Big Sis at her absolute best. In the late summer of 2006, right before I started blogging, the things that caused me to say "I have seen it" in this post happened (and yes, I am making you read it if you want to follow along).

That was when I really saw Big Sis take control of things. More than her father, and more than me or anyone else involved, she spotted the warning signs very early on and took charge of making sure that SHR did what she needed to. For me, it was the first time that I ever saw shades of the relationship that they had when they were younger...with Big Sis being much more of an authority figure as opposed to just a best friend.

She was the one who made her get out of the house when she said she wasn't feeling well. She was the one who wouldn't accept "No, I just feel a little sick." She was the one who scheduled her doctor's appointments when she wouldn't do it herself. She was the one who almost physically put her on a plane and brought her to the place she needed to go to. And the one who made her do all of the things that her doctors told her that she had to do afterwards when she really didn't want to.

And then, she went right back to being best friend when she didn't have to be Mom anymore:-)

I know that is sort of a cryptic description of what happened, but a lot of the details are just not really blog-appropriate. I'll happily go into some more detail through email or chat, since some of you know a little more already. The basic point of the story is that Big Sis totally rocks:-)

I would love to be more like. I wish I had her confidence, and her intelligence and her wit. I wish I had her beauty and her sense of self. And maybe her car:-P.

Mostly, I am just glad that I have her. She makes the best pretend older sister you could ever hope for!

Happy Birthday Love;-) May you get everything you wish for!