Sisterhood is Happiness

I wholeheartedly agree with Deborah Tannen’s recent article in the New York Times describing how having a sister can make you happier. I love being a sister, and I love my sisters so much I feel a physical pain in my chest just thinking about them. I have been a sister longer than any other role I’ve cherished in my life – except for being a daughter (which I also love). For example, I have learned from my sisters:

· The difference bewteen “LOL” (laughing out loud), “ROFL” (rolling on floor laughing) and “BWL” (bursting with laughter) – because my sisters make me do all 3 of these.

· The secret to loose waves is owning a professional grade 1.5inch barrel curling iron – and wrapping hair around it starting 2 inches from your scalp and stopping 2 inches before the ends.

· The perfect pair of jeans can LIFT your butt. According to my sisters, I do not own any such jeans.

But most importantly, I have learned that life is long, and sisterhood, being the inescapable relationship that it is, can be frustratingly suffocating and exhiratingly freeing - often all at the same time. So thank you Jenny and Alice for being my first loves. And for saving me from saggy jeans.

(Photos: Alice, Jenny and Jane (with perms) circa 1985; Alice, Jenny and Jane in Ottawa circa 1988; Jane, Alice and Jenny at Alice's wedding, 2008)

My baby sister is getting married

We're down in California for my baby sister's wedding this week. (This is where I'm totally psyched to have an awesome team at home - especially since after scouring the land for months and months, we finally have some live prospects for a Julep on the Eastside! Thanks Kate and Tracy!).

I love that my sister has found someone who wants to go to the airport as early as she does - especially since she comes from a family where flight times are taken as merely suggestive.

My sister Alice is nine years younger than I am, so I've spent my whole life equippping her with all the tools she needs to be a happy, responsible adult, including mandatory essays on E.M. Forster's Howard's End at age 9. All my life, I've worried about her, pushed her, nagged her, basically did everything my parents did to me that I found as profoundly irritating as it was ineffective.

But I love her such a "big, gi-normous much", as my daughter would say. Being a sister to Alice and my other (already married) sister Jenn has been one of my life's greatest joys. I really love being a sister.

And yes, I used to love making my sisters act out the "Sisters" song from White Christmas. ("Sisters, sisters, there were never such devoted sisters . . .").

I once read an article about a pair of sisters who were 98 and 100 respectively, and the 98 year old was still waiting for her older sister to stop bossing her around. I'm just barely perceptive enough to know that this is NOT an appropriate wedding present, but I might try to dig it up for my sisters nonetheless. . .