I love the passing of time

My younger sister just emailed saying that she was going to opt out of the whole tattoo thing. Her reasoning was that she didn’t want to be 70 years old & have a tattoo.

And, I could honor that (and will), except that it sounds too much like something her husband would say. Like he talked her out of it because *he* didn’t think it was a good thing to have a wife with a tattoo. But, then again, she’s always been kind of conservative, so maybe it’s a joint thing.

Actually, though, her reasoning would work for me, too, if it was a trampy kind of tattoo. But, I actually think that *this* tattoo would be a cool thing to have when I was 70 (but only if everyone does it). I’d love for the nurse, who’s turning me over in my bed at the nursing home, to ask me about it, so that I could tell the story of my family. I think that I’d like to talk to an old woman with stories like that.

Wonder if I could convince my younger sister to jump in & do it, too.

At bedtime, I read Annie the first book from the Care Bears Friendship Club (of which she is a new member ). It’s called ‘Cheer Up!’ & it’s all about Cheer Bear.

At the end of the book, there are some questions that address the ideas in the book. One of them was “Do you know someone you could help feel better?”. She said “Daddy” & told me about how his back was hurting today (he did something to it yesterday at the gym & it hurts *really* bad).

The next question is, “What could you do to make that person smile?”

She looked at me with that “You’re joking me” expression in her eyes, like I couldn’t be serious asking her that question, then laughed and said “No, he always smiles”

I love her. I love their relationship. How great that she thinks of him as always smiling.

Just gonna copy/paste my post about this from another message board, in order to get it here on the blog…
I was raised in a big family. 7 sisters, 2 brothers. I am #9 of the 10. Many of my nieces & nephews are adults - some are only a few years younger than I am.

Last Saturday night, in honor of my oldest sister being in town (she’s the only one currently in another state (along with a couple of nieces who are in army & navy), we had a family get together at another sister’s house (she lives in the house we all grew up in). At that party, the sister who had a phone consult with a medium, shared her story about that whole thing - bringing back even more memories of mom & dad for all of us.

Apparently, sometime after I left the party, the remaining sisters & adult nieces (and maybe a brother) had a few too many cocktails & decided that, this coming Friday, before oldest sister goes back to Colorado, we should all have a pajama party at the old house, again. And, this time, we should hire a tattoo artist to give us all matching tattoos (that will be designed by an artistic teen niece and will include a shamrock with the letter ‘F’ (for Farrell - our family name) written on it in my dad’s handwriting).

I have no tattoos. And, I’ve never really wanted one. I am both intrigued by the idea, though, and a bit scared of the potential pain.

One really big issue that I have with it is that two of the sisters are currently not speaking to each other. One of those two is at her condo in Florida for a month or so, so she won’t be at the party -and- I really don’t want her to feel even more ostracized than the present sister is making her feel. So, I may just skip it as a show of, well, not solidarity with her, because I can really see both of their points of view, but as a sign of ‘I will not be a party to anything that separates us’, KWIM?

but I just wanted to get it down while it was still fresh in my head…

Talking to Shelby & Annie while they were in the tub. Had just read post on the family board about the tattoos (that’s what I’ll explain in a bit). I said to them, “So, do you think I should get a tattoo”.

Shelby: A permanent one?
Me: Right, a permanent one (I’d already told them a little bit about this tattoo party)
Shelby: Yeah, if you want. You get to decide.
Me: Right, I get to decide.
Shelby: I think I know a little bit why it’s hard for you to decide. Remember how you told me that your dad had a permanent tattoo? Well, I think that you want to get one because you liked him and you want to remember him. But, I think that you are afraid that it will hurt.
Me: You are one very smart kid

I also explained that I wanted to do it because it would be cool for us all to have the same thing, connecting us together. And, also that I wasn’t sure if I wanted a picture permanently on my body. But, how clever of him to remember that about my dad (it was ages ago that I told him) and to see that having one myself would be a way of honoring him.