Happy Birthday Little Sister

June 19th, many moons ago the littlest "Suite" was born. I think she turned 28 today, maybe 29? Either way, she's not to far from the dirty-30s.

Cicely and her husband Dave at our
Wedding Reception August 2006 - she was "due" in October

Seeing as we were about six years apart in school and the like, I missed out on her "growing up" through adolescence. I remember coming home from college, hearing she had a boyfriend, and thinking, "How is that possible, aren't you like-8 years old?" 

Years later, when I started working for SkyWest Airlines and moved to St. George, she was attending college at Dixie. We started writing music (her on the guitar, me the drums); and started a garage band called "Oblio" (after the main character in Nilsson's "The Point").  Funny thing, we actually got out of the basement and played a few shows. We weren't very good; but at the same time we were awesome. We played the main stage one year at the St. George Arts Fest. I often joke it took me longer to set up my drum kit than to play our entire set.

I think people loved us because we were two happy girls - and besides Meg & Dia, we were the only other 'female' outfit. (Riot Grrrl had not really made it's way from Olympia Washington to Southern Utah en masse -- go figure. Though I did my best to spread the magic, one Sleater-Kinney album at a time.)

To describe our chemistry: I was very portly - she was very tiny. We looked like Jack Sprat and his heifer wife. I didn't believe in wearing bras at the time. Like I said, I had just started a job working for "the man" and was very conflicted in my early twenties (it's the Generation X influence). Many people felt this way about shopping at the GAP and listening to the radio. 

We wrote music about young love and the angst associated with boyfriends who are horrible for you. (It's really pathetic just how much fodder I had to work from.) 

We had bass players akin to drummers of Spinal Tap -- a total revolving door.

I wrote a crowd pleaser entitled "Fat Girls"... 

We were heavily influenced by the White Stripes and Junie B. Jones. (We'd read the series books in bed at night and laugh so hard our eyes would water and we'd have problems breathing). 

We played shows and went to open-mic nights at the Blues Barbershop. We hung out with the "Electric Theater" crowd and dreamt of having a clothing line: "STAR by Suite: Clothes for Girls that don't Suck.")

We did a lot together. 

Prior to this musical-mania, I would come home from too-long-of-a-day at the office and watch Royal Tenenbaums to cheer me up. Looking back, it's not a super peppy show...

But Cic (pronounced "Sis" if you were wondering) was one of my lifelines. It was during that time that we forged a friendship; not just of sisterhood, but of the kind of deep connection that makes you know you'll be bonded forever. 

Nowadays, we try to find time to talk on the phone -- she's got three kids, a husband who just started residency (fancy doctor!), and a life in Cleveland. We don't speak as much as we should-- as much as we would both like to I think. But life happens, doesn't it? 

Thankfully, we'll always have the music because as Jack Black so aptly put it: "One great rock show can change the world." I like to think we did.

Happy Birthday Little Sister.