Being the uncool sister

   "Don't you even care?" "Couldn't you just try?" Oh, and my personal favorite: "Stop it! You're embarassing me!"

   These are some of my younger sister's absolute favorite things to say to me. The first one referring to my appearance on most days, the second-- her pleading with me to not be so weird, and the third is her harshly whispered command that I not speak to her or about her or near her whenever she is in public or with her friends. Or with my friends, for that matter...yeah, pretty much in general. (My answers are usually "Umm... nope" , "Probably not" and "Oh goody!")

   It's not like I try to be embarassing. At least, it doesn't start out that way... I'm just sitting there, mostly minding my own business, and someone will ask me an innocent enough question like"What music do you like to listen to?" or "Where did you get that shirt?" or even  "What movies do you like to watch?". If I answer  "country music, 80's rock and the Backstreet Boys" , "the thrift store" or "science fiction and disaster... pretty much anything where where aliens come and people die"  I get an immediate eyeroll from her general direction and she starts trying to explain away or apologize for my general uncoolness.

   It's a wonder how she does it, really. Deal with such an uncool sister, that is. She is only 12 but she (and her seventh grader friends) are already so much smarter, more fashionable, more mature, and generally more awesome than I am, ever have been, and can ever hope to be. Unless she wants something from me. In that case I'm generally promoted to "acceptable" which means I only have to stand 10 feet away from her in public.

   I love my sister dearly and we do have some fun times together, it's just when I'm, you know, embarassing, that she can't let people know she's related to me. :D