Asleep in Minnesota II

I have been doing a lot of thinking on a reply and getting even with your mom, a.k.a. Shelley. As far as my my disturbing sleep patterns go, she omitted one story which also involves her.

Ah, the joys of sharing a bed with your younger sister. She may not have peed, but she was certainly memorable in her own way. I woke up one night to a pounding on the bed. It was Shelley, industriously pounding an indentation in the mattress with her fist. When I asked her what she was doing, she said she had to throw up. Fair warning; I shot up out of the bed and she proceeded to make good her word.

When your mom and pop were here, we were recalling the times Shelley had embarrassed me while Kenny and I were dating. One winter evening Kenny had come into town to take me out on a date. Shortly after he arrived his mother called; there was a blizzard warning and she asked him to stay in town at my place. Shelley, in an uncharacteristically helpful mood, said she would get the bed ready. What she really was doing was having fun setting the room up with props. When we were ready to retire for the night, I showed Kenny to his room. The door was closed and as I opened it I saw a distinctive flashing amber light - which Shelley later admitted she had liberated from a road construction site - and a huge stuffed Big Bird sitting on the bed next to a pillow. Kenny laughed and I was embarrassed. I was worried he thought I came from a strange family, but Kenny had figured out that I just had a strange sister.

The rest of my stories involve your mom the Trekkie. It must have been in the early 1970s. Star Trek had already run its course as a weekly nighttime series and was rerunning during the mid-afternoon. Shelley would rush home from school to audiotape the programs. Heaven forbid her siblings would come home and open the door! We would be scolded, to put it nicely, for making noises and interfering with her taping. She had a brainstorm and solved the problem by locking the doors, but then we would ring the doorbell.

Another frequent interference with her taping was the telephone. Kenny - then my boyfriend - used to call me every afternoon. Suddenly, he quit calling me and of course I was concerned, thinking he was breaking up with me or mad at me for some reason. When we did finally connect, I asked him why he hadn't called me for a week and he informed me that Shelley had told him none too politely to quit calling at that time in the afternoon. After all, Star Trek was on! Of course I got really upset with her but it didn't stop her. After she'd recorded the show, she would type manuscripts of the programs.

I told Mom and Dad about the story Shelley submitted to thingsihate.org about me. Mom asked me to print a copy of it for her; I can't imagine why unless she is showing it to her friends. She just reminded me of something I had forgotten:

Mom had ordered new carpeting for the living room and wanted it to be put down before Shelley's high school graduation day. As it turned out, it was installed on the same day as graduation. Shelley's main worry was that it wouldn't be done before Star Trek was on. What a thing to be concerned about on her graduation day! I'm surprised your mom doesn't go to the Trekkie conventions. Ha!!! Ha!!!