You know, it was that whole discussion about family and siblings with progeny and spouses, spouses with families, busy holiday schedules. Reb has it worse�the first of her family Christmas celebrations will be this weekend. There are more to come. But of course these sessions always end with someone making an oath to never have children, thus guaranteeing that we�ll never be the �selfish� ones that everyone else has to plan around.

But she got me�she�s got the answer. Oh, yeah. She�s a middle child, too.

It�s reassuring to hear that sibling issues are haunting others at this moment, too. The other night I dreamt it was the older sister�s wedding day. Again. In the dream version, I was just as harried and humorless as the actual event, except instead of waiting for my dress to arrive moments before pictures began, I�d forgotten my shoes.

The dream dresses were short, and all I had were snow boots. Maybe that�s the worst nightmare of all for a shoe fiend. They weren�t even my reasonably clean new hiking boots, but a sad version of the lace-up black leather boots I loved in college (a mortifying admission, in itself). I was horrified, but with 10 minutes until the wedding was to begin, nobody was willing to drive out to my house and pick up the shoes.

I did what any middle child would do�I pulled my younger sister over to my side of the argument, and she convinced her husband to go get them. We went along, but in a move that has my name all over it, we ended up going to a movie. We watched the first 15 minutes, I felt guilty, and we drove back to the church. Glares galore as we walked in the door.

Everyone knew it was my fault.

I was ostracized.

Maybe that�s one way to not have siblings.

So I�m going to do it. I�ll call her. We�ll work out the baby shower issues before I turn it into a great debacle.

Oh, woe is me. Such a hard life being the favorite child.

Off to happy hour. Cheers.