Sisters, Sisters

Today is my sister's birthday. My bestest sister in the whole wide world.

I've always been close to my sister despite our age difference and geographic difference. Aside from my mom, my sister had the single greatest influence on me growing up. The little fashion sense that I have came from my sister.

When I was younger, my mom would let me visit my sister during the summer, and my mom would give my sister money so my sister and I could do some back-to-school clothes shopping. I remember my sister helping me choose clothes that were really cool. Well, cool for the time, I mean it was the 80's.

Anyway, I remember going shopping for a prom dress for my senior prom. My sister was in Buffalo, and we went to the mall. There used to be a store called Merry-Go-Round, and they had the edgiest, coolest, most avant-garde clothes. Again, it was the 80's, so...

I found this amazing dress. It was red, and not at all fluffy like my junior prom gown. Though it had puffy sleeves at the shoulders. It was a full-length gown, straight skirt, modest slit, faux-wrap with a peplum. Not a Dynasty-style peplum, a small peplum. And it was RED. I loved that dress. My sister loved that dress. I felt great wearing the dress, and I felt like I looked great. We bought that dress. My mom was less than thrilled. To this day, I still don't really understand why she didn't like it. But I did; I loved it. And my sister loved it. I had a bag and shoes dyed to match exactly (that's what we did back then). All these years later, I still remember how I felt wearing that dress.

My mom had some great clothes through the years. We'd look at a picture, and my mom would tell a story about the dress or suit in the photo; she was quite the fashion plate. My mom seldom wore the same dress to an event where she would see people who saw her in that dress. A wedding invitation? Time to look for a new dress. My parents used to go to a lot of dinner dances because my dad belonged to various veteran's organizations. My mom would go dress shopping for many of those functions unless she had a new dress from a family wedding or something that no one had seen. She was always dressed to the nines.

But my sister, oh my sister has the greatest clothes. And shoes. Shoes...

My sister and her family used to come to Buffalo for Easter every year. Easter was a big holiday in my family, especially to my dad. One year, my sister and I went shoe shopping. With my sister's help, I found these great shoes to go with my Easter outfit. Well, wandering through the mall, we sort of completely lost track of time. Hmm...now that I think about it, I don't think it was Easter. Anyhow, my sister and I were late getting home for dinner. We ended up having to take the highway to save precious minutes. My mom was furious with us. You didn't come home late for dinner. Ever. My sister and I still snicker about that.

Lest I leave you with the impression that my sister is just about clothes and shoes, I need to tell you a little about her. She has amazing accessories, too! Sincerely, though, my sister is one of the strongest, most generous, smartest, talented in so many ways, sarcastic, funny, irreverent, most strikingly beautiful people I know. Yeah, it's cliché, but I'm so proud to be her sister and friend.

Please join me in wishing her the happiest of birthdays.