Alexandra: I agree with your soapbox completely. Love is love, and as long as it's healthy and doesn't cross into obsession, who are we as a society to term certain kinds "right" or "wrong"? I hadn't thought too much before about polyamorous relationships beyond what little I knew about Mormonism, but I appreciate the way you made me think!
Carlyn: Interesting challenge . . . I look forward to seeing what it yields.
Casey: I also completely agree with your soapbox. I especially like your point about all sins being equal. My biggest argument with the religious side of the issue is that the Biblical mention against homosexuality is right in the middle of a whole bunch of religious "rules" that no one really follows anymore. It's the "choosing which verses actually help my side and ignoring all the rest" mentality that really gets me.
Christina: Punishment, punishment . . . I feel like your punishment should tack onto Carlyn's challenge. Like, a certain amount of time that you spend in public doing something you wouldn't normally do has to consist of giving away free poems to passerby or something along those lines. Girls? What say you?
And now for the lying. I have not yet begun to lie to you. I will begin to do so now.
I am one of four siblings. I have two brothers* and one sister. My older sister is the oldest of the four of us, and something of an enigma. Her name is Katherine, but we've always called her Kate. I'd post a picture for you, but very few pictures of my sister actually exist. She's horrifically camera-shy and won't let anyone take a photograph of her.
She was also born on Leap Day, February 29, 1980, to be precise, which makes her either 31 or seven and three-quarters, depending on how you do the math. She says that being born on such an interesting day is the only thing that makes up for the fact that she was born in February, which she hates as much as I do.**
You may have noticed that there's a bit of an age gap between Kate and Matthew. Not a huge one, but about four and a half years, which makes her eight years older than I am and a full eleven older than Jeffrey. She graduated from high school before we moved to the place where my parents live now, which meant that she barely got to know any of our friends in that town. To them, it was like she didn't even exist! I'm sure they must have thought that more than once.
Nowadays, Kate lives in Kansas with her husband Ken and their three children. Kate and Ken got married straight out of high school, and their oldest, Jeremy, was born a year and a half later, in 2000. He's turning eleven this year, and I'm not at all ready for it. Their middle child, Jessica, was eight in April, and their youngest, Jillian, will be three in August. They've grown up so quickly! Jeremy is a kid after my own heart, fully immersed in the theatre and auditioning for everything he can. He's playing Wally in a production of Our Town in about a month, and he couldn't be more excited. Jessica is not at all interested in the theatre, however. She's been enrolled in gymnastics for the past few years, and she loves it. She plans on competing in the Olympics someday, if she doesn't become the world's youngest tornado chaser first! Jillian's still too young for her interests to have started emerging just yet, but she's apparently become a huge fan of Jessie from Toy Story.
I say they live in Kansas, which is currently true, but won't be in about two months. Ken's been transferred, and so the family is moving to New Hampshire in July, unfortunately, right around the time our cousin is getting married***, so they won't be able to attend. We'll miss them, of course, but that's how it goes sometimes. It's a shame, really, because they missed our other cousin's wedding three years ago because of Jillian's birth. But we know they'll be wishing everyone well.
As for what Kate does, she's a high school English teacher, and she also runs the drama program at her high school. She also just found a teaching job in New Hampshire, so she's very excited about that. She's sad to leave her students, of course, but she knows this is a new opportunity.
Even though I rarely get to see Kate, I would say I'm still pretty close to my sister. I know her very well, and I seem to know her big news almost before it happens! We keep in touch on Facebook (she has a Facebook, by the way), and while it's not an ideal situation, we do the best we can. We'll always be sisters, after all, no matter what else might happen.
It's strange. Everyone always seems surprised to learn about my sister, usually because they've never met her. But I talk about her all the time, and most people who meet me and become friends with me hear about her pretty quickly.**** Which is why I thought it was high time I introduced her to you!
Alexandra, I'll see you tomorrow.
* Actually, that's true. Matthew is older; Jeffrey is younger.
** Another truth. I loath February.
*** That’s true, too. My cousin is getting married in July. I’ll be in Seattle for a week, and I can’t wait!
**** Perhaps the truest statement in this post.
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