Happy belated, Baby Einstein

OK, so I’m a week late. But one week ago today – Feb. 10, my baby sister turned 17. SEVENTEEN. I could give you all these reasons why I didn’t write this last week – I’ve been busy, there was cake and ice cream to be eaten, I had to shop for a car so I can drive in the snow because we may never see the sun again – but that would be ridiculous.

So. I’m writing to tell you a little bit about my little sister, Sami. You may know her by other names, my dad calls her Cheesebob, Cheese Head and Shankopotamus.

This is my littlest sister (I have two, if you are reading this and don’t know me, which I doubt).

She’s a junior in high school and she’s pretty awesome. She’s gonna be an anthropologist or archaeologist or zoologist or some kind of -ologist that makes millions of dollars and has homes in places like Greece and Italy, which is totally fine with me because I’ve always wanted to visit there and what better reason to go than to visit family – not to mention the free place to stay…

There are nine years of age difference between Sami and I. As she’s gotten older, I think she and I have gotten a lot closer – especially now that she’s in high school. I work as a youth leader with the youth group she’s a member of, and we’ve taken trips to Florida and Jamaica together and shared a room together at the beach this past summer.

She makes me laugh, like when she translates Spanish on COPS when she watches it at my house and ESPECIALLY when she does a dead-on impression of the guy in the “Can I have yo numba” skit from MadTV. Seriously. Ask her to do it sometime.

I call her Baby Einstein because she always has an interesting fact to share – and has for as long as I can remember – whether its from a book, the Travel Channel or something she learned in school. This is the kid who as a toddler carried around a Latin dictionary.

She will always be a kid to me, whether she likes it or not. I don’t feel all that old so there’s no way she can be getting older. I am, however, excited to see what she ends up doing as far as college and a career.

So. Even though I’m a week late, and I went out to dinner and had cake and ice cream with her and watched her open her presents – and found a mysterious Barbie car we have yet to figure out where it came from – I’m gonna tell her happy birthday again. And a couple other things.

Hey, Sam, you like Mike and Ikes?

Also, Gutangen.

Happy birthday, Baby Einstein.