I have an older sister who lives in Georgia, lives by herself, and who: 1. Hasn't spoken to one of our brothers in almost twenty years because he basically called her on her shit once and she hasn't forgiven him since; 2. Hasn't spoken to me in over five years (She claims I moved in with my parents for the sole reason of "taking all of Mom and Dad's money." During her last visit to Sequim in December 2004, I yelled something at her along the lines of, "Jesus Christ what's wrong with you?!" because well, she was acting like a freakin' looneytune, so I vented out loud, and she has since referred to that outburst as verbal abuse.); 3. Flat refuses to use email because she "doesn't believe in it"; 4. Claims to be a lawyer but works only free lance because she claims no firm will hire her (Maybe that email thing has something to do with it?); 5. Hasn't spoken to her only son, his wife, or their two children (her only grandchildren) in over five years because he won't apologize for some ridiculous incident that happened years and years ago involving a Thanksgiving visit, and a guest room that she insists should have been reserved for her and not her daughter's-in-law eighty-year-old grandmother.
Anyway, she's loopy, and the family knows it, and we all wish it was different, but since she has refused all invitations to rejoin the family, we just.....sort of accept it as one of those "it is what it is" situations.
Back in the early 2000's, when my sister and I were still speaking, she sent me the pillow in the picture shown above. We talked on the phone, I thanked her, and we laughed at the sentiment. As the years have passed and my sister has alienated herself more and more from the family, and added more and more fodder to the my-sister's-loopy fire, that pillow has taken on a weirder and weirder meaning.
The one hangup of hers that has always been a head-shaker for all of us is her insistence that if family members want to communicate with her they can either put a stamp on an envelope and mail her a letter, or pick up the phone and call. (I should point out that, for those of us in the family to whom she doesn't speak, the phone option no longer works.) My oldest brother (the only sibling she's still talking to at this point) has brought up time and time again all the family photos that she's missing out on because the rest of us all share them online via email. Her response? Print the photos out, put them in an envelope, put a stamp on the envelope, and mail them to her. It's like she's got this unwavering, fallback allegiance to the almighty USPS. So, because she voluntarily refuses to move forward with the rest of the world, the rest of us are supposed to bend over backwards to accommodate her choice to live in the past. Honestly, I'm surprised my sister hasn't applied for a job with the USPS. Wait, the USPS uses email don't they.....
So jump now to this morning. Here's the chain of events that led to my laughter explosion...
1. I'm watching tv.
2. Commercial comes on for FedEx.
3. My memory immediately brings up the recent stories about the USPS shutting down.
4. LOLOLOLOLOL!
"I laugh because there's nothing you can do about it."
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