As long as I can remember, I've felt I would end up living someplace else one day.  By Junior High I thought perhaps Montana or some place in the country.  Along the way I've fallen in love with other places.  Just after high school, I began having coffee dates with Grandma Josie (then Spencer) and listening to the stories of her life.  How she met her husband, going to the old dances, married at 19, living in international countries during times of political unrest, her and her little daughter having to keep the car packed at all times in case they had to make a quick escape to the base where her husband worked.  It fed the dream in me all the more to marry, pack up and follow him on adventures wherever.  I think this played a part even in me pursuing writing.  I definitely have felt a strong conviction to write and to train at it, and that has been what held me to it, but also the flexibility it offered seemed to fit so nicely with this dream.  There's undoubtedly some bits I've added here and there, and I may not even know which until another ten, twenty or thirty years down the road.  But, the fact that it has never gone away, faded or drifted leads me to think a great deal more is coming and this desire is long-rooted to make me willing. 

All that said, this week I've been thinking... it's been tough enough to live away from one sister, it is going to be really tough if one day I live away from both.  I feel for all you ladies who do.  And I assume there's a great deal of comfort when you at least have your best friend there with you, it helps make it an adventure and not just a loss.  And I'm sure when I meet him, I'll be willing to go wherever he's called. (My parents are both suffering from minor anxiety attacks right now.  We've had this conversation before, and it's not their favorite.  Dad has given me state borders.  Mom's pushing for a 98028 zip code.)

Don't ask. :(

Kim has been my sweet big sister. She treated me and cared for me. She's nine years older and therefore it wasn't until I was in high school that we really began to get truly close. After a few incredible years of friendship, she moved across the country and we've been adjusting ever since. Kristin has been my ever-near partner in crime since I was walking, well, a few years after and to put it more accurately I was her ever-near partner in crime. NOBODY knows me the way Kristin does. And I don't mean that to say no one knows me as well, I mean no one knows me in the ways she does. I really believe she still sees the four-year-old me when she looks at me today, and she usually laughs at me - not something I say, or do, just looks at me, and laughs at me, once a day. It really helps build my confidence. :p I'm glad she moved out.  Only because I was getting really tired of waking up to her staring at me, laughing.  I'd often fall asleep while studying, and she'd come in and either just start laughing, or tapping me on the forehead.  She finds my face when I sleep entirely entertaining and always has.  We shared a room until she was 12 or 13 I believe. We ended up going through college together. And now we work together.  It's a huge comfort to have someone who knows when to laugh at me, when to roll their eyes at me, and when to just ignore me. And especially, when to play games with me, because I think I will always be this kid... especially when I'm around my family.  And Kristin will always be the one either in the boat with me, or pulling it around the house... or shoving it down the stairs and shouting, "Better hold on!"  I'm curious how normal either of us might have turned out without the other.  But I gave up on normal long ago.  This is far more fun.  Besides, who reads 'normal'?