An older sister joins my family

Life is not fair. That is a very real statement and I cant think of how many times I have brought it out of my bags of useless things to say after I have seen a tragedy. Life is just not fair. How is it fair also that the guy who regularly begs for money on the corner of my freeway offramp wears Nike Air Jordans? I want a pair of those, but I think they cost around two hundred bucks. That is out of my league for play shoes, and I think I do alright. Life just is not fair. No one ever said it was and good thing because we would all throw tomatoes at him if he did. Sometimes bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people. Karma, some say but I dont know if it exists. Seems that things happen one way or another, and how we deal with them is really what in turn becomes our perception of our life and its circumstances.
For example, your car does not start tomorrow morning. You have the kids in the car, work is forty minutes away, and you have thirty five minutes to get there after dropping off the kids. The battery is dead. What will you say I wonder? Maybe something like this perhaps; "Not NOW! Please not NOW!. C'mon start you f-ing, SOB, piece of....." So I ask you if not now, then when?
When exactly would have been the perfect time for the car to not start. Or for your tire to blow out. When would be the best time to have your two year old throw up on your new suit and somehow their own head and hair just as you are heading out the door. When? What if you could plan it, when would you fit that disaster in? Maybe on a saturday morning when you are on your way to meet your friends for golf? Hmmm, that would suck too. Maybe on your way to a date at eight pm in the evening after you have had a great day at work? That would suck alot too.
There are no good times for problems to hit, only good ways of dealing with them. These things happen to everyone, me, you and that really hot lady driving the BMW 745 over there. Yeah even her. Shit happens, and when it does, when life throws a minor disaster at us, its time to put the game face on, tell everyone around you that you have it under control and start dealing with the situation.
So that being said, what happens when my dog forgets about the 'deal' she and I have about NOT jumping up on my black car? I get mad. Of course, its natural. I even kinda explode a bit, seeing the three long scratches going down the drivers side door from her right front paw. The neighbors might hear a brief bellow, the dog of course cowers the kids are used to it and know they had nothing to do with it so they are safe. But I pull it together as quick as I can, realize that the car was not going to be perfect forever, a scratch was absolutely inevitable and start thinking of a way to fix it. Later not now. And then ways to keep myself from killing my dog. After all of that, I move on. It has now been three days, the scratches are still there, but I know how to remove them with a little work, and I will. As soon as I get to it that is. They are really small ya' know. Priorties have already changed.
So life is not always fair, but every once in a while something happens that changes your life in a good way, and you had nothing to do with it. Nothing you ever did, or ever will do could possibly explain something so good happening to you. For me it happened last night.
My dad had contacted me about a week ago and asked if he and I could meet for dinner sometime and talk. Hmmm, sure I said, but since he has never asked to meet me for anything I knew something was up. After a bit of calender checking I realized I could not accomodate him so soon, but quickly asked if everything was alright. Oh Sure he said, its all fine. Hmm, ok.
Last night I met him and his wife along with their great granddaughter to give me the birthday presents that were a couple of months late. No worries the wishes were right no time, just the presents were late. So we met and were enjoying drinks, good conversation as usual, and apetizers, when my dad says; " I have something I need to tell you" I looked up from my minestroni at his wife sitting across from me, and she raises her eyebrows just enough to make her words which came next really echo. "You might want another drink" She said. Uh oh.
I can tell you that I am good at one thing and that is taking bad news. No one takes his or her lumps better than me. When I have screwed up, I walk right up and take it right in the kisser, whatever it takes to let the other person, who presumably was right, that I screwed up. My mistake, My bad, I will take this one, and I am sorry. If I am going to get broken up with, which sadly seems to happen waaaaaay too often, I sit there like a man and take it. No blubbering, no tears....well most of the time. So right now I put on my game face, wondering what could merit this drama, when he says "You have a sister"
I am a thirty eight year old man, who has been an only child his whole life. I have always wanted a brother or sister to play with, to share emotions with, to conspire against my parents with, but at every Thanksgiving it was always just the three of us. Everytime we moved, which was about every two years I was the lone kid moving to a new school trying to fit in, and trying to keep from setting the school record for most wedgies by a new kid in one year. This was my life. Settle down, play with myself at home, and then move in a couple of years. All the way up to highschool I was in one school for freshman and sophmore years and another for Junior and senior. All I ever wanted was a sibling to share the quiet with, to help blend with anything but to be alone all the time.
So now it seems I have one. I have yet to meet her or even talk to her, although I want to very much. I already love her and we have not even spoken. I cant wait. I cant wait to hear her voice say, Hi this is your sister. My god I am a baby brother after thirty eight years! I am so excited I cant sit still. All I talked about at work today was her, all I talked about with my friends last night was her, and I could not even keep my mouth shut at the gym today talking with gym-friends. I kept telling the story. I am another persons brother.
If I take life and put down everything on paper, good and bad, and compare it to all of the people I know. Not to the rest of the world who would gladly suck their pet goldfish through a straw to change places with me, but rather the people I associate with. If I laid everything out, my financial debts, income, net worth, health, physical appearance, level of sucess, which is of course very relative, I would not look so great. I am a good solid "Good" in all of those categories, but not "Excellent" in any one of them. Yet when people talk to me, they think my life is the best one they have ever heard of. I think my life is the best one I could ever imagine. Would I like more money, yes I would, but would that help me enjoy my kids tomorrow more as I throw the frisbee? Or would it keep me from throwing the frisbee? My kids love me to death, the hug me so hard they choke me. What the hell else is there? This is life, and I love it. I absolutly expect problems. I know there will be a financial problem in my future, near or far I know for a fact it will happen. Dont know how much it will cost me, so god dammit I had better put some away right now to prepare for it. When it happens what will my level of stress be like I wonder? Will I say with my hands covering my face and pulling my hair "Oh God what am I going to do, why now?" Nope, I will grab my checkbook and write a check, unhappily for sure, but will after a little stomach ache, move on and go grab the frisbee again. What if it is my long term health, well that is tougher. The bigger the potential disaster the harder it is to prepare, so if that happens to me, I expect you to help. Yes you read that right.
Dryers breaks, kids get sick, people get laid off. Companies close and steal money. Shit will happen, but think about it first, realize that shit will happen and get ready for it if even its just emotionally.
So comparing my life to others is easy. I have some more things I would like to accomplish and yes there are some TV shows I like but most are self improvement goals. The paper comparison does not tell the whole story at all. Not even a little bit. I am genuinely happy with my lot in life because everyday I do something to try to improve it. Sometimes I succeed and sometimes I dont. I have good days and bad ones but I am doing well.
So how does someones life get even better when every single night I go to bed thanking god for today, thanking god for my kids, my health, and just another day on this planet? How is it even fair that something great should happen to me? I feel a bit guilty that my last real desire in life has been met, I have a bigger family. I have a sister.
I cant wait to meet her. I love her already