Friday, March 9, 2007

Maid of Honor

Because the wedding will be nice and small, and because there's no way I could imagine getting married without her up there with me, my sister Abby will be my maid of honor. And I have the distinct pleasure of being HER maid of honor in August when she gets married to her lovely fiance John.

For those of you who know her, I'm sure you'll agree that Abby is one of the most adventurous and interesting people you'd ever want to meet. She and John, for instance, spent a good 6 months touring the world. And not touring the world the way I would probably tour the world, hopping between hotels and museums--she washed elephants in Thailand, got pissed off by Maoists in China, swam in the Dead Sea, and saw John through surgery in an Indian hospital. And each time they posted an update on their blog, my jaw dropped a little further, because how did my little sister end up on the other side of the world washing an elephant???

Abs and I lived together for about a year when I moved out to Santa Fe. I had been there for about 9 months when she found a job working at the Santa Fe Rafting Company as a guide on the Rio Grande. That summer... such memories... Anyway, it was about a month before we coordinated a trip out on the river for some friends, with Abby as the guide. The first trip down the river was great--the water was nice and high, the rapids were fast, and importantly, no one fell out of the raft.

The second trip did not go so well. This time, we took the trip farther north and went through the Taos Box, which is a considerably harder run. My transmission went out about a mile out of Santa Fe, too, and we had to coast the car back into town. It was a bad start. Anyway, we were having a great time--Abby as guide, me and 4 friends, and some dude who was a jerk. And then we entered the Rock Garden. We maneuvered through all of the rocks, and then we started to get hung up... The back of our raft swung around, and Abby, the jerk, one of my friends, and the cooler got flung out of the raft, while four us of were left hanging on the now-perpendicular-to-the-water raft. For two hours.

Finally, I ended up getting dragged into shore by a tow-rope (which was held by a guy who, in normal circumstances, I wouldn't have trusted to hold my purse!), and the boat dislodged itself. It was awesome, and the entire event was captured on videotape, and is set to music from The Matrix. It nearly gave my mother a heart attack when she watched it...

Anyway, the reason I tell this story is because I think there is a turning point in the lives of siblings where they cease to view each other as merely a sister. And I guess it was then that I started admiring her not just as my sister, but as a friend and a competent adult. Abby has spent her entire adult life surprising me. She follows her dreams in a way that very few people have the confidence to do, and that just blows my mind. She's hilarious, kind, and just a totally awesome person. Yes, we have many many differences, but there is no one in this world who I trust more than Abby, and there's no one who I admire more than her. Maid of Honor, indeed.

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