My Sister Has Moved

My sister The Force of Nature (we will use the term T-Fon [phone] in the spirit of J. Lo., T-Mac, etc., but not L. Ron) has moved. Moved to New York City, no less. I am very proud of her, though my own emotions are mixed. Pro: this is a great move for T-Fon professionally and personally. Pro: being not married and with no kids, why not move to NYC for at least a while? Sounds like a blast. Pro: now we have someone to see in NYC. Con: she's on the other side of the country now. Con (big con): if she stays there, she might become a Yankees fan (that sound you hear is my teeth grinding).

When T-Fon told me that she was thinking of moving to NYC, I wasn't especially surprised. She's always been an adventurous person, much more adventurous than me. When we were kids, we fought all the time, of course. If you have ever read the book Lord of the Flies, then you probably remember two brothers referred to as Samanderic. That's about how our mom would yell at us when we were fighting: WebbedtoeandTFon, stop fighting! (It's much more musical with our real names.) This kind of thing continued through our teen years, in different forms. She was a freshman in high school when I was a senior and, while her locker was about three down from mine, she only acknowledged my presence when she: (1) wanted a ride somewhere; or (2) wanted some money. (Perhaps I'm exaggerating.) But you get to be grown-ups and you realize that your sister is actually pretty cool.

Even as kids, though, it was always clear to me that T-Fon was always, and somewhat paradoxically, both more comfortable with the things that people did where we grew up and more adventurous. I read the encyclopedia, she rode horses on the side of the road. She would get out to see her friends during the summer, me not so much. She played sports "in town," I played golf with my grandfather (which is not to say that was a bad thing, it just was safer, looking back). She wore yellow Chuck Taylors to her eighth grade graduation, I wore a brown knit clip-on. So I guess that it's not a surprise that I found a groove that works for me here in the Central Valley pretty early on, tried a few different things and then came back while T-Fon is headed to the city so nice they named it twice. Just different paths toward finding what works for you.

So I'm quite proud of T-Fon. Not a lot of people go from Hall's Corner to NYC. I'm very glad to know one.