The sincerest form of flattery

Imitiation is the sincerest form of flattery, or so I've heard. In "da streetz" -- ahem -- we call it style-biting and is considered one of the most sincere forms of wackness. That said, I suppose I should fess up and admit that I, Raven C. Lebrookski, am guilty of style-bitery in the first degree, because there's pretty much no one on this planet whose style I've bitten harder than my older sister, Pickles.

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Sure, it might not seem like we have some much in common now, but I was pretty much the typical, annoying and tagalong little sister who wanted to do everything that her big sister did. Some of the stuff we did stuck with me, like an appreciation for the cinematic works of world-renowned martial artists such as: Michael Dudikoff, Jeff Speakman and Cynthia Rothrock. Some things didn't catch on so well, e.g. the whole collecting weaponry thing...

Being Pickles' little sis hasn't always been easy, but it's something that just keeps getting better and better over time. To this day, my high school German teacher (who was briefly a colleague of mine when I returned to my alma mater as the Adjunct German II teacher...) will still slip up and call me by my sister's name (my sister also being a former student of hers). However, had I not totally copied Pickles by chosing German as my foreign language elective in high school...well, I never would have met most of the people reading this right now.

Granted, she has her unique interests and proclivities, but she's also one of the toughest people that I know (and not just because she's got the fire power to back her up). Other siblings and family members included, she's the only other person I know who fully grasps the situation with my mom, because we were there in the trenches together. At times it was literally just the two of us.

However, as usual, she's proven to be a lot stronger than I -- I left because I couldn't deal. Neither could she, but she's still there toughing it out, and considering the circumstances, is doing a great job.

When people ask me how I manage to somehow keep it together, despite a somewhat shitty turn of events, I can't help but be thankful that I've had such a good role model.

Holy crap, Pickles -- you're 30! Happy Belated Birthday

I love you too, too much...

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