Whatever It Needs To Be

My sister Alison blogs over here, and as you can see, she's much more diligent about keeping her blog updated that I am. But after experimenting with tumblr, and getting kind of burned out on it (I'm sad to say I have defaulted into becoming a chronic re-tweeter and re-blogger) I decided to come back here, and make another heroic attempt to keep this poor thing going. I mean, hell, I've gotten almost 700 hits and posted less than 10 times, so...here I am. I write for a living, so this format just feels more natural to me, even though this culture is moving more and more toward communicating in 140 characters, or just pure images.

Back to Ali's blog. My sister also puts me to shame as far as her energetic approach to everything she does. She spins wool from fleeces, dyes it and knits mittens and socks for her whole family; makes chocolate pudding from scratch; and silversmiths her own jewelry. She was always a lot better at teaching herself new skills just by reading a book and following the directions. Once, when my Aunt Linda was babysitting, she walked downtown with us and let us pick out a toy from the cheapie store, as long as it was under $5. Alison bought herself, I'm pretty sure, some nice jewelry; I bought a magic set, complete with paper playing cards and a little plastic pea-and-walnut-shell game. When I got it home, I dumped the whole thing out on the table and started trying to make sense of it. She'd already grabbed the instructions and told me, "It says here, 'For best possible results...'" "Maybe I don't want best possible results!" I yelled, which meant I just didn't have the patience to read the instructions, something that is (embarrassingly enough) true to this day. I cook intuitively, which is why my food is often inedible. Sometimes I have to assemble something backwards, take it apart, and then put it back together again. Ali just knows how to do stuff right the first time; she's careful, methodical, and good at following directions. Which is why she can read and speak Japanese, cook really good clam chowder and sew. Me, I 've read a whole bunch of poetry, can size dresses just by looking at them and traveled to strange cities solo, getting to know them by getting lost in them.

Anyway, if you want to see how amazing my sister is, look at her Flickr page, where she posts her projects. It makes me tired just looking at it. If she owned our bungalow, it would be finished already, down to a hand-painted weathervane on the roof!