The Life of Bon: A letter to a sister

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

A letter to a sister




Hello folks.

Today you are going to get a special treat.  My little sis and b.f.f. in the whole world is oceans away serving a mission in Argentina.  Sometimes I start to miss her so much I can't hardly stand it.  Can't stand it, I tell you!  Sometimes I look at old pictures on facebook to ease my missing her.  Sometimes I write blog posts about her like this one and this one.  And sometimes, just sometimes, I write her an email.  Then my Mary fix is filled for a little while.  Then I start to miss her again and it builds up until I finally write her again.  Or stalk her more on facebook.  It's quite the process, I tell you.

 After I wrote Mary a letter yesterday I thought, "Hey, some of those peeps who read my blog might like to read this."  It's an entirely different writing style than what I normally do.  My letters to Mary are completely what rolls off my head.  As opposed to my blog posts, there was no editing, no read throughs, no organizing, no cutting. (Confession:  I usually read through and edit a blog post at least three times before I hit the "Publish" button.  Perfection at it's finest.)  This letter is, in a sense, Bonnie unedited.

So enjoy.
Hi MARY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HOW'S YOUR MISSION?!?!?! IS IT FUN?!? IS IT HARD? IS IT AWESOME AND MISERABLE ALL AT THE SAME TIME!?!?!? I KNOW MINE WAS ALL OF THOSE THINGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How do you feel about the all caps? I guess I am experimenting with it. I FEEL LIKE IT GIVES A LOT MORE POWER TO MY WORDS. Tell my oh wise one, what do you think of THE CAPS?

But seriously. How's the mish? Mom didn't send us your letter last week so I have no idea what's going on in your neck of the woods. Also I didn't get an individual email from you. That was rude of you, if I do say so myself. I guess I didn't write either, so it was deserved, but still. I would think you would turn the other cheek since you are a missionary and all and still write to me.

Too much?

Sorry. I'm in a weird mood.

I am currently having serious serious regrets about my decision to teach 12th grade English next year. This regret comes because I have not done anything to prepare for it. I was supposed to read all of these books this summer to prepare for it and I haven't read one of them. I'm trying to read 1984, but freak that book is dense and so slow. I get bored and keep starting other books. Then I finish the other books. Then I read three pages of 1984 and get bored again and start another book again. I guess that is a sign I shouldn't teach it? I am just feeling like next year is going to be so busy because the blogging has picked up and I don't know how in the world I am going to keep on top of blogging as well as teaching three different classes. Maybe I'll have to be a little bit more "relaxed" of a teacher if you get my drift. Do you get my drift? Do you?  It means lazy, Mary, try to keep up.

Ummm... yah. That was weird too.  And rude.  Sorry.  It's 12:21 am over here in my neck of the woods. That's why I love summer because I get to stay up late. I also love the expression "neck of the woods" if you haven't noticed yet. It's pretty much one of my favorites. Almost as awesome as "happy as a lark in a meadow", but let's face it nothing beats that saying. 

Apparently this week has been kind of slow because I can't think of much to tell you. Greg and I are almost all done with the painting so that's awesome. We did three out of the four buildings and then some other guy is going to do the last building.  We were way done with that job. We made enough money to pay off the rest of our student loans and to pay for tuition in the fall and then it was just time to peace out. I would now like to do more reading, water parking, and blogging. Those are my summer priorities. In that order. Actually, that's a lie. Water parking goes first.

So I haven't told you this because I kind of wanted it to be a surprise, but I guess I'll just tell you because I can't keep it in any longer. I'VE BEEN TAKING TENNIS LESSONS! I really want to get good so I can beat you when you get home. Or at least play a competitive match with you. Or at least not send the tennis ball flying out of the tennis court. I'm definitely not good, but I've gotten better. AKA It's not a clean miss everytime I swing my racket.  Tennis is actually fun if you try. And if you are not incredibly intimidated by your entire family who is good and you are the only one who is somehow not good. The fam damily is going up to the cabin this weekend so I'm hoping to impress the crowd with my new tennis skills. I've been playing with mom and Greg and Mandy.  Greg's the funnest to play with because he's really good and a challenge and I never win but I feel like I get better when I play him. Mom and I are about equally matched so that's fun, too. I always get her with the shots where she has to run far. Cheap? No. Strategy. Sometimes I play Mandy and that's way fun too mostly because she sends the ball flying out into the street sometimes.  I'm not joking.  She hit it right into the street and this car had to hit their brakes and everything.  It was hilarious and I'm laughing just thinking about it but I understand you might not think it's funny because it's never as funny when someone tells you a hilarious story of something they saw. 

For Greg's birthday we went to the cabin with his parents and his brother and wife. It was awesome. They all loved the cabin.  It was fun to show them everything and amaze them with my horror tales of calking the entire cabin. Do you remember how bad that sucked? Do you remember how bad building the cabin sucked? I think for about four years of my life just hearing the word "cabin" made me go into a fit of anxious shivers. We went fishing at the cabin. Greg's really gotten into it this year. It was kind of sad because we went fishing three times and the first two times Greg and I were the only people who caught anything. Greg caught six fish and I caught five. And no one else caught a thing! Then they started to get mad everytime they'd see Greg and I start to reel something in. It was awesome. Luckily Brett and Kylee both caught fish later. Oh, did I tell you Brett took the MCAT this summer? He's still waiting for his scores.

Um. I know in your next email you're going to ask me when school starts. You're not allowed to ask that. I'm not allowing myself to think about school until after August 20. So I've still got a month. I guess that would explain why I haven't read any of the books I'm supposed to be teaching? Shoot.

Mary I need to tell you about something that has recently changed my life.  It is Tillamook's peanut butter and chocolate ice cream.  It's expensive crap- like $6 a carton- but oh my gosh that stuff is good.  I get a new carton about once a week and I swear I've died and gone to heaven when I eat it.  Just a little something for you to look forward to when you get back in the states.  That and clean bathrooms.  You're going to love first world living again, I promise!

I let Ben drive my car today. We needed to back it out of mom's driveaway so I told hiim he could do it but not to tell anybody. I guess I wanted to be the cool aunt, you know?  Ben's 13, that's old enough to learn how to drive a car, don't you think? I mean, heck, I'm teaching my kids to drive a car when they're eight just in case there's an emergency. I think if you're old enough to be baptized, you're old enough to know how to drive a car.  Just in case. Anyway all he did was basically hold on to the brake and then ease off on the brake. It was kind of cute how scared he was. I was like, "K put it in reverse now" and he just looked at me with this terrified face and said real quietly and with his voice quaking, "You do it." So I did the reversing and the steering and he just eased off on the gas. Next week I'll have to take him on another drive. I made him promise not to tell anyone. But seriously. There's a lot worse things in this world than driving with your aunt, don't you think?

Well Mar Mar it's now 12:39 and I am going to attempt to read more of 1984 before I inevitably fall asleep from pure boredom. Love you so so so so so so much and I'm so proud of how hard you are working out there. Keep up the good work and know you are missed at home. I'm keeping my eyes peeled for hottie boombalotties for you to marry when you get home.  I'll find you a keeper, I promise.  You're almost to your year mark. HOLLER!

LOVE YOU!

How you do you all keep in touch with your siblings?  Do you live close and see them frequently?  Write emails and texts?  Talk on the phone?  The possibilities for communication in this day and age are endless, I tell you, endless!

10 comments:

  1. I have so much respect for you being a teacher. It is so tough! My blog post today is about how I wanted to be a teacher when I was little but realized I had no patience therefore I would make a crappy teacher... Patience is kinda a necessity, or you can have no patience and be a mean teacher, there's always that option.
    Also such a sweet letter to your sister. I am an only child and wish I had a brother or sister to have a special bond with :(

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  2. Such a sweet, sweet letter to your sister. I can tell you are completely uninhibited with her. Love it! My siblings and I tend to text each other and have brief phone conversations. They're all quite a bit older than me but it's interesting to get to know them as adults/real people instead of just my siblings. I hope that made sense. And urgh...1984 is definitely brutal. I remember reading it and bleck. Soooo sloooowww.... best of luck in teaching those big kids this year!

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  3. Your letter to your sister cracked me up. Mostly because I think if I emailed/wrote letters to my sisters they'd be similar. I have 3 sisters and we are all super close and talk/text most days. My youngest sister is living in Ohio (and the rest of us are obviously in Australia), so we text often via whatsapp (an iphone app), call on viber (another app) and have our own 'sisterhood' facebook group where we can send each other messages that no-one else can see. We make it work :)

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  4. Love the letter to your sister, it reads in the same tone of voice that mine would have to my sister.

    My sister use to live with my hubby and me and we're the type that would text across the room at each other and then just stare at the other one until she got it and then we'd giggle. Now that she's living with my mom again we don't talk as much but that's a different story.

    ~Cassie~
    www.southeastbymidwest.com

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  5. This is so sweet. You can tell what a fun, close relationship you have with her. Hopefully things are going well for her in Argentina!

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  6. I loved this, it made me realize how much I love my sisters. I was never much of a letter writer so my sisters and I communicate via phone when we can't hang out in person.

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  7. Anonymous2:02 PM

    When you get super bored of reading, read it in a british accent, it makes it so funny it's almost impossible to fall asleep.

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  8. I love this! One of my brothers lives in California (just a hop and skip across the pond, then) and our emails are pretty similar... at least, mine is - he tends to send back witty one-liners or 'child, you are crazy, I can't believe we're related' sort of emails, but I like to think that's an expression of sibling love :-)

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  9. Umm that was the best letter I have ever read. I wish I was your sister {in a non creepy way} so that you would send me a letter like that. It doesn't need editing and organizing. It made perfect sense to me!

    I'm a teacher too, and unfortunately, had to reenter my room for the first time today. Reality is setting in...

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  10. I've been reading your blog for like two days now and I love it! This post really got me (even though it's from months ago!)because I also miss my sister a lot! I live in Iowa and my sister in North Carolina. We don't talke as much as we should but we text quite a bit and call each other and usually talk for a good while. It's hard being away from siblings!

    Check out my blog if you have a minute :)

    Megan
    http://youjustdo54.blogspot.com/

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