Blood pressure

My sister has gotten herself into a mess. Sometimes, as we were growing up, it felt like she could fall into a 100 thorny rose bushes and come out without a scratch but then at other times she would  trip on an invisible crack in the sidewalk and barely recover. This time she did not fair well. She ended up in a dark and lonely place. Her mind, heart and spirit are broken. I haven’t seen her since Christmas 2 years ago. I miss her.

She sent me a letter today. She started with an inside joke only I would get, an old joke from an episode of Laverne and Shirley from when we were kids. Then she offers me words of encouragement and advice. It isn’t bad advice, but I’d never admit that to my little sister. She ended with information about how things are going for her. Its hilarious and I am going to share it here:

“Well, I am working on getting into the boot camp that starts in June. But wait till you hear this... I have to take a physical for it. This nurse went to take my blood pressure and it was really high (I knew it would be because I just came from my shrink and was a wreck). She put the cuff on (of course, she is like 5'5 not even 100 lbs) and the thing flew off and hit her in the face because of my fat lunch lady arms. The doc couldn't stop laughing after he saw that she was ok and didn’t have a flesh wound. I’m like ready to die. Needless to say they are going to call me back when they have the bigger cuff for fat ladies... “