Immunity, hens, and sisters

I have a good immune system. I rarely get sick. Even with all the nasty, stank kids I am around all the time, I manage to wash my hands often, turn my head away from their sneezes, and straight arm them away if they get to close when they are ill. But I have been sick before. In college I had mono. But I guess it wasn't too bad; I managed to continue running track the whole time - even had some of the best times of that indoor season - of course the coach was not too happy to find out I had been running the whole time, but she didn't find out until I was fully recovered and knew she would not sit me out. I had to stay home from school a couple years ago due to major migraines. I think I even left early one of those days, and missed track practice, which many times in the spring, is the highlight of the day -- standing outside in the sun, often having a lot of laughs with coaches and athletes.

But no time when I have been sick have my parents come to visit me with bags full of food.

Sunday the parents went down to Cape to see Kid Sis III. She was sick with some kind of cold a large part of last week. Missed her track meet on Saturday.

A cold. Maybe the flu.

The parents packed up their stuff, my other sister, some good, home cooked food and went down there.

I must admit, that for the better part of the morning, when I thought about it, I was a bit peeved about the whole situation. It always seems that the parents are more into stuff going on with the younger kiddos. Rarely bothers me, since I really don't need any one all in my non-platinum grill, but it's the thought that counts.

Well, all changed when I talked with the non-sick sister as she was sitting in the apartment of sick-sister. I was a bit upset that she wouldn't be back in time to see The Kite Runner movie with me, though maybe it was a sign that another mad man would have attacked us in the lot, or in the stairway on the way to the lot. But then she said that the parents had stopped off at Wal-Mart on the way down and picked up a ton of frozen stewing hens.

Let me tell you about my mother and her hens. Once a year my parents head to the Lake for a week long vacation. They fill the entire back of the car with stewing hens on the way back. She has bought an extra freezer (totaling three refrigerating devices in their house) for the basement because of the stewing hens. I don't know when the last time there has been adequate room for some ice cream or the old school freeze pops in the freezer because of some stewing hens. For whatever reason, they can never find those birds in the surrounding area, and therefore it is a once-a-year mad rush to get as many as possible. They even have to call in about a week in advance to make sure the store in the area has enough for her to fill her yearly binge.

I guess it might be a bit terrible that I was happy to hear that the trip to Cape was not just to see the ailing sister. Perhaps it's that old school sibling rivalry picking back up in me. But it really made me happy that perhaps there was an ulterior motive; that maybe it wasn't all compassion for the youngest sibling - their little baby, the cause of their empty-nesting.

I laughed out loud. I got said sis on the phone and made sure she understood what was really going on. I called other sister to make sure she knew as well. All the well sisters enjoyed a good laugh at the little one's expense. Fortunately, she also found the situation funny.