An Unexpected Interlude

Life is full of surprises. Sometimes the surprises that happen to someone else can be just as major as the surprises that happen directly to you.

My little sister is engaged.

I make it a point to avoid talk about anything strictly personal on this blog, but after toying around with the possibility of writing about the wonderful Mega Man X Official Complete Works book I recently purchased or my first night of playing Dungeons & Dragons in over a month, I realized that this is simply too big not to mention.

However, I promise I'll try to keep it geeky.

My sister and I have always been very close, and I have had the distinct pleasure of introducing her to more hobbies and fandoms than I can begin to count.

This is the little sister who would commandeer my computer to play The Sims or take over my television to play Super Mario RPG. This is the little sister who willingly sat down with me to watch all of Star Wars, Back to the Future, Indiana Jones, and even a few James Bond flicks after having revealed that, somehow, she had never watched a single one of them all the way through. This is the little sister who used to sit down and play Magic: The Gathering with me. At least, I think that was her; maybe I'm thinking of my friend Larry.

She's the hip youngster who used to sit in on meetings of my video game club when she came to visit me at college. We occasionally watch anime together. She occasionally borrows my comic books. She occasionally quotes a line or two from Monkey Island at me. She occasionally requests that I throw together a one-shot D&D quest for her when she's in town. I assure you she knows the lyrics to most of the "Weird Al" songs I have on my computer.

Yet, amazingly, she fits right in with a crowd of non-geeks. She's into all sorts of "normal" activities for a girl her age. Like football.

Every once in a while she'll catch me doing something like humming a song from Donkey Kong Country in public. She'll ask me, "Are you humming Donkey Kong Country?" I'll say, "Uh...yes." She'll shake her head and respond with, "Dork."

Yes, I'm a dork.

But who's the one who recognized I was humming Donkey Kong Country?

See? I think she turned out just fine.

...And now she's engaged. This fact is still sinking in. It's exciting! It's weird. It's a very good thing. It's definitely going to affect my and my family's plans for the future in ways we probably haven't thought of yet. Bottom line is that I'm happy for her and her boyfr--erm, fiancé.

That might take some getting used to. But it's something I'm happy to get used to.

Congratulations, little sis. You just say the word, and I'll hop on your wedding cake. For old time's sake.