BEST DAY EVER ... AGAIN AND AGAIN

Every time I visit my sister in Maine, we always say the same thing: "This is the best day ever!"  At the time (every time), we sincerely mean it.  I've spent a lot of time with her over the last few years between weddings and birthdays and holidays and medical appointments where someone has to drive, vacations, general family business, and just general mayhem.  I don't like her any more than my brothers, particularly, but she lives close enough to me that I can make a day trip to her house without blinking an eye.  Also, she and I were close growing up -- we shared a bedroom for many years, and, of course, we'd play games, she'd win, I'd cry, then we'd beat each other up.

Yes, very close.

My most recent trek to Maine is so that we can work on wedding stuff.  One of her daughters is getting married, and we need to make a run to the craft store and create some prototypes with her printer.  Plus, it has been over 90 degrees every damn day for about a week, with humidity levels that rival the rain forest, and she has a pool.  Volunteering to drive to her house is an absolute no-brainer.

My sister is expecting me to show up, help her out, then leave.  I, of course have other plans.

I have a collection of pool/water fun stuff from when my kids were young.  It's a small collection, but I pull out the bin every once in a while.  Today is the day.  Before I drive to Maine, I pack up my stuff: a towel, my bathing suit, sunscreen, flip-flops, and ... goggles and pool toys.  Yup, I bring a weighted shark to throw around that we must dive under the water to retrieve.  I bring goggles to go underwater so I can chase her as she attempts to get away from me in her little floating peacefulness, maybe even flipping her over into the water.  I also bring squeeze toys that shoot water.

Before we hit the pool, we must do our required errands.  At the craft store she is quite serious about things we need to accomplish -- necessary wedding-type chores.  I, on the other hand, start searching for other distractions.  My sister kind of ignores me as I wander off and back, and I volunteer to carry everything so that maybe she won't look at the booty I've stashed along with the important stuff.

When we get to the registers, she is shocked to see what I'm buying, you know, in case we have time to be silly.  Best of all, if we're not silly today, we will be silly some other time in the near future.  I buy everything on sale, plus I get to use a coupon.  My sister leaves the store with her wedding items.  I leave the store with: Silly Putty (the genuine stuff), Barrel Full of Monkeys (fake version), encapsulated animals that grow in water (I tear off the outside and toss the packaging so we have no idea what will appear), and ... the family staple ... FART PUTTY.

Unloading the stuff at my sister's house, I run to my car for a moment.  You see, I went to the craft store the other day myself, and I have a surprise gift for my sister that I found on sale: Wedding napkins that say "Best Day Ever" because it is.  It always is.  We run the prototypes, we use the napkins with our lunch, and we swim for two hours (yes, I do terrorize her and dump her into the water).  We don't get to the Silly Putty, Barrel Full of Monkeys, nor the encapsulated animals, but we master that Fart Putty like it's nobody's business.

When the whole family gets together for the wedding and my crazy brothers arrive, it will be the Bestest Best Day Ever.  I hear there's a pool where we're headed, so the shark and pool toys might come along for the ride.  Maybe I should bring the Fart Putty to the wedding.  This is why every time I go to Maine (coincidentally the location of the wedding but much farther north) it really is The Best Day Ever.