Our clock radio usually wakes me up to NPR. This morning, they had some guy on talking about his movie autobiography or some such thing.  The interesting part (the only interesting part) of the interview was that the title was something like “20,000 Days on Earth.”  Since today is my beloved big sister’s birthday, I got to thinking, rather than a birthday number (easy to remember), how many days has she been on Earth?  Turns out the number is 17,532 and I am happy to report that she has spent 15,362 of those days with her amazing little brother, me!  Yep, nearly 88%.  I think that qualifies as a great life and a reason to celebrate (just the fact alone that the Internet makes such stats easy to generate is reason to celebrate).

My sister, Kathy, has always been kind and loving. She has looked after her little brother and took care of me, even though I frequently engaged in annoying little brother behavior and still probably unknowingly do.  Speaking of annoying little brother activities, there was this thing I used to do, where I would put spit by my eyes to make it look like I was crying and then blame things on my sister.  Horrible, just horrible, little brother behavior. Yes, off the top of my head, the only drawback was of course the Notre Dame looking football doll that she used to “tackle” me with in my crib.  There I was confined to a small space and unable to avoid the doll with the golden helmet descending upon me.  Terrifying, but I won’t mention that, because it is Kathy’s birthday.  Yep, other than that one instance, my sister has always been there when I needed her.  Supportive and forgiving.  Patient and understanding.  It has been my honor to share the Earth with my amazing sister for the past 15,362 days.  I will forever be thankful that she has shared this crazy journey called life with me.  So, happy birthday to the best big sister a little brother could ever want, football doll attacks and all.