going for the gold

my brother john arrives this evening with his two little girls in tow. they're staying with us until tuesday and then going off on a round-robin tour of the east coast that extends from ocean city to boston. my mother, stepfather and other brother are coming tomorrow for jamie's graduation party. im planning on sending my brother to pry my grandmother out of her bed.

i doubt that my sister sheila will join us, however, because she has sold her house in boston, and now she and her husband have to find another place - within six weeks - for themselves, their two very small children, and their au pair to live. as i remember, they got themselves into this fix the last time they sold a house and ended up buying one that was eerily reminiscent, to me, anyways, of the house we grew up in after we moved out of ocean city.

sheila is much younger than john and i. when she was little, she had a bed with drawers under it. one of the favorite things john and i used to threaten to do to her was to ask her, whenever she misbehaved for us, "do you wanna wake up in a drawer?" i know we were never serious, but i guess because she was little, she thought we were. she still talks about it.

this past year, at the ripe old age of 37, sheila took up ice-skating. this is significant because we were never a sports-minded family - team spirit, playing well with others and joie de vivre weren't things much mentioned when i was growing up. no one ever suggested i should join a team of anything after my ill-fated experiences in girl scouts when i was nine, and my brother's days in little league ended early. sheila had asthma, as well, growing up, and my brother david's needs simply didn't allow my mother much time to encourage any after-school activities.

last night, my sister won a gold medal in a skating competition. not only is this the first gold medal that she's won, and the first skating competition that she's ever entered - it's her first competition EVER.

there'll be no putting her back in that drawer now, im afraid.

and furthermore, the war must end. blessed be.