This is Annaka Solee, and she is the newest addition to my brother-in-law’s family. Her little 6lb, 9oz and 19.5 inch-long body was born December 24, at 4:50 in the morning. She is reportedly both healthy and alert, tiny and curious. She’s also one of the most beautiful babies I’ve ever seen. My brother (in [...]

Rather than use this, The Christmas Wrap-Up (get it? WRAP. Heh.) Post to recount this past weekend’s cookie-laden festivities, which weren’t entirely too fascinating, unless of course you are as easily amused as I, or unless you count my grandmother publicly announcing that my grandfather was “a horny bastard back in the day” (THAT was [...]

He still calls her “kiddo,” and calls to tell her when he’s making “the turn” when he’s playing a round of golf. She still laughs and playfully teases him like they’ve only been together six months. They kiss and embrace and tell each other they love each other constantly.

When my dad* met my mom he [...]

“It doesn’t matter who my father was; it matters who I remember he was.” -Anne Sexton
I remember the way he had to hunch himself over to hug me. Until the day he didn’t have to anymore. I was twelve. I remember that, too: suddenly, unexpectedly, being tall enough to reach him. Tall enough to see [...]

“Tell me who admires and loves you, and I will tell you who you are.” -Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve
After that, it was daily conversation. Sometimes multiple times daily, but mostly once a day, for about five or six hours, and usually long into the night, or rather, long into Chris’ morning hours.
We were, truly, “friends [...]

“The bottom line is that (a) people are never perfect, but love can be, (b) that is the one and only way that the mediocre and vile can be transformed, and (c) doing that makes it that. We waste time looking for the perfect lover, instead of creating the perfect love.” -Tom Robbins, Still Life [...]

With the dawn of the great pumpkin-laden month that is October comes (at least for us Washingtonian folk) pumpkins! yes; the replacing of green leaves for yellow, red and golden-hued ones; the replacing of fresh, ripe, strawberries for myriad flavors of apples and squash; the return of my obsession with hot, soy-infused chai tea.
Beyond serving [...]

There is a dream I have when I feel like sleeping. I awake with dust on my hands, remnants of a night spent traipsing through endless aisles of moments and emotions long filed and left for dead. A room stone-cold, frozen with potential.
I run my fingers along shelves I stacked with boxes full of stories [...]

They asked me to sign their marriage certificate, and I balked momentarily, not for any reason beyond the fact that I had no idea I as the maid-of-honor was to be granted such an added privelege. Being her big sister was enough for me, and I found myself nearly crying when I scrawled “Ladish” next [...]

8.28.06
Today my babycarrot sister marries the man who loves her loudly and endlessly, and wonderfully. The man who consistently makes her laugh until she cries.
Today I get to officially call Brother Will, “brother,” with the ceremony and legal documentation to “prove” it.
Today I get to see my little sister so happy that there is no [...]