"Don't let your life pass you by, weep not for the memories ..."

Today my younger sister Kay is 43 years old. To use a favorite phrase of Emilie's ... "What the hell?" If Kay is forty-freekin-three, when am I going to grow up?!? I always thought that by the time we were THIS old, we'd feel "grown". Not so. I'm beginning to suspect that's one of my problems ... in my head, I'm still about 19 years old. And my body has gone on without me.

Anyhoo, Happy Birthday Grubby. I love you. Don't you wish we could go back to about 1963 and start all over again? If I could go back and do things smarter, these things would be different:

1. I wouldn't fight with you so much. What was gained by all those hours of arguing? Nuttin, honey.

2. I wouldn't laugh when you chopped your Skipper's hair off to her chin, and then she looked like crap.

3. I wouldn't roll my eyes when you draped that damn gum wrapper chain around your orange room.

4. I wouldn't be so jealous when you bought your first car.

5. I would "play cars" with you MORE than we did the first time around. Lord, I loved that. I'm thinking we might be the only little girls in the WORLD that used "One Life To Live" as the plot-line to playing cars. Heh.

And these are some of the things I'd re-live in exactly the same way:

1. I'd still hate taking a bath with you in 1967.

2. I'd still think you were weird for saving your baby teeth in that little box.

3. I'd still resent you for going off to school every morning in Villa Rica, when I was having so many emotional problems and couldn't get myself out the door.

4. I'd still think you were a brat for poking your fingernails in the styrofoam head of the Christmas angel to make her a face.

5. I'd still be forever grateful that I always had somebody to play with, to talk to, to BE with ... forever grateful that I had a sister.

When we were little girls, we had no clue what life had in store for us. No idea that we'd both be married by the age of 20; that we'd both have a baby boy, and then a baby girl; that we'd live parallel lives until your divorce. We had no clue that you'd lose your mind and marry that 2nd strange man. ;-)

If we had a peek, back then, at the lives we'd be living in 2003, it's possible we'd be unwilling to leave 1963. Remember 1963? It wasn't all good, oh hell no. But we had a Mama at home, cooking our dinners every night and taking care of our every need. We had a Daddy who loved us, no doubt. We were safe, and we knew it. We were lucky girls.

But reality means that we can't pick a year and stay there (although God knows I've tried with my clothing and make-up style). Time moves on, and we have no choice but to move along with the SOB. Here we are ... two middle-aged sisters - one married, one single, whose children are grown (or almost grown, ahem Beth!). We've gone to our Father's funeral. We've dealt with health problems and husband problems and weight problems and children problems and money problems. And through all of it, we've been there for each other. We've lived through it all together. Thank God.

Happy 43rd, Kaydee. Sister. Friend.

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Thought For Today:
"Don't let aging get you down ... it's too hard to get back up."