ode to my sister

The time I recently spent with my sister is definitely up there in my favorite times. We went to some fun places, enjoyed some great food, etc., but what I really enjoyed was just time with my sister, who has increasingly become more and more of a really good friend.

Growing up there were 6 years between us, which is a large age difference when you're 1 and 7, 10 and 16, or 16 and 22. But now that we're both adults that age difference is irrelevant and, interestingly enough, we are actually very much alike and like a lot of similar things (while obviously still being quite different). Heather is an amazing artist and I'm a missionary in Spain.

I found SUPER cheap tickets to the States while I toyed with the idea of going to visit my siblings, to go on a little vacation JUST to see the family - no work, no fundraising, no commitments,... and my motivation was the fact that I haven't seen much of either sibling, but less of my sister. (Last summer I saw them at a wedding for 2 days - :-( - that was it... and it had been a year since I'd seen my sister, so a longer visit just for them was long overdue.) So, I went to Philly to see my brother and the first weekend there (a day after I arrived) my sister just happened to have to be in NYC (which is just an hour or two away) for a photo shoot. She invited me to come up and stay at her swanky hotel, so I did. It was great! It poured rain half the time I was there, but we went to some fun restaurants, just caught up with each other, found out we both were reading the Twilight books, got a pedicure (since it was pouring rain outside and it's a good sister thing to do), she bought me a bday present, we wandered around the streets of NY between the meat-packing district and Greenwich Village, we walked along the Hudson river, etc., It was just the weekend, but fun.

Then a few days later (after spending a couple days with my brother in Philly), I took off for Columbus, Ohio, to spend more time with Heather. She took off a couple days of work to hang out, so we went to workout together (which was GREAT! - to workout, but to workout with my sister! who i never see), go for long walks through a cool and huge park in Columbus, drive around fun hidden parts of Columbus, walk around the fun college town part of Columbus, drink tea, eat AMAZING veggie burgers,... It was SOOO refreshing! Lavender tea, just sitting on the couch and talking about life, our lives..., laughing, walking through the Black Hand Gorge with heather and brandon, her boyfriend, and talking about imaginary creatures who would live in the enchanted forest we were in, making animal noises to scare the canoers down below (although my noises were fairly pathetic as my sister would confirm), swimming,... It was great!

And it was fun to get to know her boyfriend better and to see how in love they are, that he thinks the world of her and is so sweet to her. And he is definitely a quality guy. :-)

So now that I'm back in Madrid, I SOOO wish we lived closer. That I could go to the gym with her everyday and we could laugh at each other and with each other. That we could just hang out, play scrabble, watch thunderstorms, wander through the forest, etc., I miss my sister and am SO thankful for time with her!