I want more camels...

"Your sister may have all the looks, but personality-wise, you two are about equal."

Yes. This is my brutally honest grandmother speaking. I gave her the link to this blog, so I'm just hoping for the best. I don't think she knows how to navigate her Facebook yet, much less mine, so we'll see if she can navigate her way here. (bites fingernails)

She said this during a long car ride to New Mexico, and with so much thinking time, I of course thought about family things...about how I always thought Kearsen was so gorgeous, and freckles just didn't cut it when people saw the two of us together. Kearsen is shorter, she has beautiful thick dark hair (which she complains about often, but I don't see what's so bad), has a good style, and you wouldn't guess it, but she rarely goes shopping. Her dark skin. She would give me the stink-eye at my mentioning that she looked Venezuelan. I said so because of a South American foreign exchange students my aunt and uncle hosted when I was little. I thought they looked more like sisters than me and her. I have no idea how she does half the things she does. But it is apparent we all adore her to pieces in our family. She'd probably blush or defend herself if she read this, which she probably will, so I should bite my tongue a little harder...

Anyway, like I was saying, I was thinking particularly about the two of us--so different, yet sisters, best friends. Wherever one lacks in persona(or "swag" as my students in Rehoboth would say) the other picks it up. For some reason, I craved Grandma's input on this one. I wanted her to affirm what I always believed--Kearsen and I are two different puzzle pieces, shaped nothing alike, but fit together perfectly with an equal weight.

"Grandma, I once read this story about how two sisters traveled to Morocco with their family. A man offered to marry the older daughter in exchange for 10,000 camels. When the father said no, the man looked at the younger daughter..." The narrator is the younger daughter who obviously has the same complex as me... "and offered 100 camels for her." I turned to her.

"I'm pretty sure the younger daughter is me."

"Listen," Grandma said, "..." and you know the rest.

So, let it be?

Grandma's brutal honesty to be continued...