A Visit from the Sister I've Known Longest

Dana, the sister I've known longest, just left with Karl, who took his final exams at Touru University in Vallejo yesterday, to go to the Mission Garage, where they'll get replaced the window someone broke to get into Karl's car sometime in the past two days.  His car was all packed before his exams so that he could take off the morning after his exams.  I'm going to call in an hour to see if everything went fine with the window because Karl was surprised that they were willing to fix it on the spot when other garages said they'd have to order the window.  We're bracing for disappointment but hoping that this garage can really do what they promised when they promised. 

I shared with Karl the realization that I made in time to share it with Dana:  That I listen carefully to what people say but tend to respond in a questioning way more than an affirming way.  I also shared Manfred's column on the Dutch and said that once I saw it, I realized that I was Dutch.  

Dana said, "Maybe that's competitive.  Because someone's come up with a good insight and you don't want them to get credit for the good insight if you could get points for discrediting it."

I'd say that coming up with such an interpretation shows a competitive nature.

But I thought our discussion overall was warm and stimulating.

We did talk about the 1986-1987 (New Year's Eve to early January) family reunion we had in Chicago, and she listened to parts of the CD and said, "It never occurred to me that Jonathan was looking forward to this."  We talked about how our memories differed from what we hear on the cassette.  She and I both remember her 30-40 minute monologue on the staircase--not recorded on the cassette that Efren converted to a CD.  But the big surprise was that what I remember her saying about me and Suzy's agreeing with is something she remembers Suzy saying about both of us.  Tomorrow I'll tell you what that was, but right now I need to clean up the house to Jonathan Franzen's Farther Away, and then I'll bathe, dress, rush to Chasing Lions Cafe, rush back home, and be ready with Javier for Jeanne and Ken, who are picking us up at 5:00.  I'm treating them to a 5:30 dinner at Old Skool Cafe, and the segment on their cafe that was pre-empted yesterday will be shown on ABC with Diane Sawyers just at the moment we're to be taken to our seats!

Other things for tomorrow:  Video of The How to Cook Video for Missy followed by the album after her death.

Video of Mom and Jonathan on his 16th birthday followed by Suzy's beautiful singing as she prepared to try out for the Lesbian-Gay Chorus.