A Special Kind of Double

A sister can be seen as someone who is both ourselves and very much not ourselves - a special kind of double.  ~Toni Morrison

I love this quote and it totally fits for my sister, Erin, and me.  Erin was here visiting this weekend with one of my nephews, and we had a great time!  My sister is fun.  She's funny.  She's smart.  As my friend CC said, she's just like my mom, but times 10.  Erin is really positive and doesn't complain.  We are similar in lots of ways, and also really different.  Which makes it interesting--in a good way.  We fought a lot as kids, but as grown ups, not much at all.  Sometimes, we'll get under each other's skin, as only a sister can, but it's short lived and sorta funny. 

Erin and I went thriftin' on Saturday, starting in Carnation at the Granny Thrift Store, Re-InCarnation.  This is really a treasure trove; I always find something good there.  All of the proceeds benefit the senior center and lots of seniors make donations, so it's pretty high on vintage goods.  I scored some pretty pink flowered linen napkins (50% off on all linens, yay for me!) and some kids books--neat older ones, and a very cool storybook characters coloring book from the 60s for Caroline.  Erin stuffed a bag with kid clothes at $3 a bag, as much as you can fit.  Carlitos got out of there with a ginormous tin of Lincoln Logs.  Then we headed to town, destination Redmond Valooo Veeelaj.  Erin got a cute work skirt, I got 2 pair of jeans and...the holy grail of shoes.  Shoes I've been looking for for a while. Shoes that I searched for on Zappos, looking at over 1000 pictures of flip flops.  These ain't no ordinary flip flop though, these are THONGS.  Old school thongs!  Black textured footbed, red and yellow stripes around the sides, red fake suede thong.  Awww yeah!  And...NEW!  And...$1.99!  And...my size!  Whose basement these have been in for the last 30 years, I don't know, but I am thankful. 

After our shopping adventures, we took Carlitos out for "Chinese" food (a.k.a. Thai--we're sneaky and he cain't read well enough to know the difference).  We ate yummy "Lo Mein" (phad see ew), fresh rolls, garlic beef and green curry with tofu.  Erin and I love Thai food, and after Carlitos' initial reluctance, ("This Lo Mein tastes different"),  he did too. 

It was a lovely weekend with my sister, my special kind of double.  No one knows you as long as your siblings do; think about that.  I'm grateful to have the sister I have.  Thanks for the visit, Airbo!