Dearest Alex (Sissy/Yaya/Isabel/Clara/Mina/all of the other names that Mom and Dad would call us when we were in the same room together),

You're super duper! I thought I'd keep the family streak going by saying some nice words about you, my beloved sister.

Thank you for dancing with me to "That's Life" by Frank Sinatra. It's still one of my favorite memories from when I was a kid. And also because I used that story a lot in my personal statements for college.

Thanks for still calling me "B." You're the only person who still calls me that, and I really like it.

Thanks for getting in more trouble than me in high school so that I looked better in comparison, because I definitely wasn't a stellar student myself.

Thank you for making those mix CDs for when I got my license and got your old car, the 2000 Ford Explorer, aka "Beast Nasty" or "The Beast" for short. I was listening to "Dark Side of the Moon," "American Beauty," and the many Flaming Lips CDs you burned for me, looking like a total badass pulling up to Jordan High School. I still have them in my car. Well, your other old car. And I still listen to them all the time. While on the topic of CDs, thank you for burning me CDs of music that you liked when you were in high school and I was in elementary school. I have very distinct memories of me singing along to "Teenage Dirtbag" by Wheatus while Dad drove me to school, and probably got mad at your for letting me listen to that not-so-clean song.

Thank you for the all the hand-me-downs. No, seriously. It doubled the amount of toys, clothes, books, everything. Even though a lot of the clothes were dripping with tacky 80s patterns, it still felt cool to say, "Yeah, this shirt? it's my older sister's."

Thanks for taking the cold shower on Thanksgiving. It's basically part of the tradition now, that you're always stuck taking the last shower after washing all the oysters (thanks for that, too). I'll clean oysters this year, too. Maybe. If the dog show's boring.

Thank you for being my older sister. And I'm not just saying that because I have to, because you're my sister. We're thousands of miles apart, and if I didn't want to keep in touch, I wouldn't. I do because I want to. Having such a large age gap between us was hard when I was younger and you were almost moving out of the house, because we didn't have as much in common. But now I'm so grateful to have a sister, even if we do only get to see each other a few times a year. I wish that we could to see each other more often, but I love the time that we do have together. When I was in high school and you were off finishing college and heading to grad school, I'd sometimes feel like I was an only child. Then I'd remember that I did in fact, have a sister, and it was the most comforting feeling in the world, knowing you were out there, even if you weren't close by. And I still feel that way now sometimes, too.

This is getting really sappy really fast, so I'll end on this: thanks for telling everyone about the story of how I fell in a fountain in a mall when I was little. You're the best (most of the time... when you're not telling that story).

Love,

Your darling little sister, B