Backyard BBQ

I finally got a lot of posts transferred over from DeuxChicago, where my sister and I blogged for the last few years. If you've clicked over from DC, thanks for coming by :)

It finally, finally turned into the beautiful Chicago we all live for and I spent a great weekend afternoon at a BBQ, drinking sangria, playing bags and using my friends as my personal photography subjects. They photograph well, what can I say? I really need a dog pronto, that guy was born to be a star.

 

Seastar

Day 5 of the Blog Every Day In May Challenge asks us to publicly profess our love for a friend -- in my case, this could be no one else but my sister. I've referred to her before as my younger-older sister, my best friend for 27 years, my other half.
She is only 18 months behind me but has somehow navigated life at least 19 months ahead of me at all times. When we were five and seven, my mother would send us on "missions" to find things in the grocery store to cure me of my crippling shyness. Ali, barely more than a toddler, would hold my hand and then, when our mom was just out of sight, she'd race to the nearest clerk, belting out "WHERE'STHEKETCHUP?" then march behind them, blazing a trail to the condiment aisle and then shoving the bottle into my hands to deliver to our mom.
When we were 11 and 9, our mom gave us the master bedroom to share. (And if you're wondering, yes, she should be sainted any day now.) In between coordinating dance/gymnastics routines to the Spice Girls that involved careening wildly off our beds into cartwheels and somersaults and exhaustive "floor" routines in our master suite, Ali patiently curled my hair for me and applied nail polish, skills I found impossible to master. While she draws the line at toes, she will do both of these things for me to this day and will forever be infinitely better than I am at either. "Curl AWAY from your face, Toots. No, that's not away. The other way is away from your face."
Yesterday, she came over for dinner, a date we try to maintain once a week. Like sisters will, she gave me advice I didn't even know I needed and certainly didn't want to hear. I remember staring at her, my alien-beautiful sister, my little protector, the knower of all of my secrets, wondering how she ever ended up so poised and so wise. But then it occurred to me that maybe I just take her wisdom and always knowing what to do for granted; that she always has been exactly this poised, this wise, and I've always known it and have never had to question it.
I will happily spend the rest of my life wondering how she does it; so proud to call her my sister and my best friend.

-ll