Saturday, July 19, 2003

On Monday, my girls are off to spend a week with my sister in San Francisco. Since they won’t be getting that rustic, romantic summer camp experience this year, we’ve started calling this holiday “Camp Aunt Jill.”

I’ve always liked my sister, too. Of course, we had debates on exactly where the middle of the back seat was or if you could cross that line into the air space as long as you weren’t actually TOUCHING her…the “get out of my room/get off the phone/get out of the bathroom or I’ll torch your stuffed animals” kind of stuff went on, too…but I always liked having her around…still do. A few notable reasons why:

Her sense of humor. I’m a “Three Stooges” kind of guy. She always finds the intelligent observation and funny just happens. I think this is why all her friends are so interesting…like Larry the Jet-Job Fundraiser Golfer, Shane the Barnstorming Pilot, Paul the Never-Finished Interior Specialist, Jill the Model Who Never Modeled, Sharon the Hometown Girl…

Her “carpe diem” sense of time. If there’s an experience to be had or fun to be done, she goes full-throttle. Even at the age of 5 she would fake sleep, make mental note of the end of Santa’s visit and go play with the toys when the coast was clear…only to come back to bed, and let Mom take the required video preservation of the moment a few hours later. Now, if you have to leave one sightseeing trip early and overpay for hard-to-get Broadway show tickets, you just do it…NOW…because we don’t know if we’ll have the chance later. You can sleep later and pay things off over time, but don’t miss the moments. It rarely occurs to me to do things like that.

Her wanderlust. I’m a homebody. She has lived in 4 different major cities (6 if you count the ones in Alabama) and will travel at the drop of a hat. She loves to see it all and, in fact, at this point, she’s done most of it. My passport stamps are all work-related.

She’s a risk-taker. She gets it, that to win big, you gotta enjoy the high-risk, high-reward stuff. I like to hedge my bets and keep the cards close to the vest. For me, you picked a college, you went there, you finished in four years, you got a job. For her, you sent your transcript from the last semester to the new school and dropped out to work with some friends in the early stages of their business, knowing that college would always be there and you can always get another job if things don’t go according to Hoyle.

I could go on…but you get the point. In my opinion, sibling relationships get better with age…and, as the Senior Counselor at Camp Aunt Jill, try putting this kind of stuff in the camp curriculum, wouldja?

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