My sister and her family live in the Dallas area in Texas, and for those of you like me who are geographically challenged, Texas is a long way away from Virginia.  Ever since my sister graduated from law school, she’s been living far, far away from me.  First in Seattle, then San Diego & Laguna Beach, California, and now Southlake.  This entire time I’ve been in Michigan, North Carolina, and Virginia. 

Her kids grew up seeing me once a year or sometimes, if I was lucky, twice.  My kiddies are growing up under similar circumstances.  They got to bond with their Aunt Risa when we went to Chapel Hill a few weeks back to annoy Tori during her orientation.  They know that their Auntie has large horses she kisses and an annoying gaggle of dogs who bark when I call.  They ask about Tori and Nate and want to know when they will get to play with them again.  I was fortunate - I was able to spend a couple of summers during college in California with Tori, and another summer with Nate and Tori. 

It’s not the first time I’ve realized it but living this far away from my sister really sucks.  She’s busy all the time, and so am I, so we usually catch each other on the cell phone as I am between kid issues or work and she is between trail riding or feeding horses and animals.  When we are together, we laugh - a lot.  I used to wet my pants on a regular basis during our visits until I got my bladder fixed.  She’s my child-rearing advice-giver, and she understands and loves my girls in their individual way.  I am slightly bitter that I couldn’t really be involved when her kids were growing up.  Now Nate is 16 and the next time I blink he’ll be going to college.  My sister-in-laws both live and Richmond and are joined at the hip. I’m jealous of that - they’ve been living near each other for decades and still love each other. 

I was slightly hopeful that with Tori going to UNC, MAYBE Risa and Frank would end up on the east coast, and by default, Nate would follow.  I don’t really see that happening for a variety of reasons.  Perhaps one of those big thunderstorms they get in Texas will blow the entire state (or just the DFW part of it) into the East Coast, kind of like a Wizard of Oz tornado complete with a lot of large SUVs, cowboy hats and expensive jewelry. 

Mike and I are stuck planted here in Virginia until he retires.  When your entire paycheck is based on being in Virginia, and moving somewhere else requires you to completely start over, the chances of that happening are slim to none.  So unless Risa ends up out here, we’ll continue our long-distance sisterhood.