I Can See California Sunlight In Your Hair...or why my baby sister is an amazing woman.

I can smell the ocean salt in the air
and I can see you, you're standing there washing your car
and I can see California sun in your hair

Its a winding road
I've been walking for a long time
still don't know
where it goes
and its a long way home
I've been searching for a long time
still have hope
I'm gonna find my way home

~"Winding Road," Bonnie Somerville, Garden State soundtrack

Here's a quick refresher course on Lucy's fam.

I have two sisters, Middlesis and Babysis. Middlesis lives in New York City, Babysis lives in California. I am insanely, irrationally jealous of the lives they're leading. Logic enters into this not at all. And I know that. But they're both doing amazing things.

Babysis has been on a 700 mile bike trip for the past few weeks, with the company that she works for, promoting environmentally responsible living and sustainability. (Can you see why I'm jealous? And why she's so incredibly cool???) They biked from San Francisco to San Diego, along one of the most beautiful stretches of road in the world.

There is a photographer that has traveled with them for portions of this amazing (and slightly insane) journey.

If you have access to it, hop over to my MySpace page, where I've posted two pictures that she has sent the family; one of herself and one of the whole crazy posse.

I am so proud of her; I can barely tell you how much I've realized in about the past six months that she's grown into an amazing person. She is about 9-1/2 years younger than me, so when we were growing up, we weren't all that close. Think about it; when you were 17, did you want to spend time running around with a 7-year-old? Not so much. In my friend's memories, she remains about 11 years old, much like my memories of their younger sibs. Sometimes when I think about her, that's what I think about, too, is the pesky kid she was to me in those days.

With the age difference, we're always going to be at vastly different places in life, looking sometimes at one another across a huge chasm of perspectives that don't match up. Which isn't to say that I can't relate to her, but....it can be tough to see things from her point of view from time-to-time.

One of the really silly things she and do I share is a dumb obsession with celebrity gossip. The first chance she gets to spend some time surfing the 'net, she'll catch up on what Perez and The Superficial and Go Fug Yourself are all talking about. We'll spend at least one afternoon sitting someplace in a cafe sipping chai or lattes and happily gossiping about what Paris and Nicole and Lindsey and Brit-Brit are up to.


The reason for this incredible bit of schmoopiness? She'll be home in a week. I can't wait to see her, to get my hands on her and hug her tight, to spend a few hours chatting about everything and nothing. Yes, she was home for my Auntie H's funeral at the beginning of November, but it was really a drive-by visit, and we were all so distracted with what was going on.

Time. The most precious gift we can give one another.