Run Joey Run

Let me talk a little about my sister Michele. Michele is the youngest of the girls (she's five years older than me). This means she was the baby for FIVE WHOLE YEARS until I came along. Not only was I the new baby but I was the ONLY boy in the family. So this meant that all of that focus that was on her for so long shifted away from her.

She was a pretty good sport about it. We had our share of fights in the younger days but I would say for the most part we've had a great relationship.

Some of my funniest moments in history occurred with Michele--mostly because she has this infectious laugh that pops up at the most inopportune times, such as at my Grandmother's funeral. She started laughing (once she starts it never ends) so my mother had to take her head and thrust it down into my mom's lap. Everyone just thought Michele was sobbing.

When she came out to visit me in AZ the first time I graduated from ASU, all of my friends were just amazed. They all said, "She looks just like Ted... in DRAG!" We just tell people we're fraternal twins born five years apart.

One time Michele and I went to the beach with our sisters. She and I wanted to lay out at the beach on our last day. We got some sun but then we were exhausted from the heat. So we got our butts (full of sand) in the car and started making the three hour trek home. We were hot and cranky and tired.

We tried listening to the radio but her radio was messed up. So we would get a station and start singing to 20 seconds of the song and then it was nothing but static. We kept switching stations, hear a song and sing and then hear, "Shhhhhhhh." Which turned into a pretty good joke by the end of the drive. Then my right contact decided to flip over as I was driving. So I was screaming at her to take the wheel because I was blind. She's screaming at me and laughing hysterically (cuz that's what she does) and managed to pull us to the side of the highway while I fixed my contact.

Another great beach moment was when I dragged her to Rehobeth Beach (a gay beach in Delaware) with some of my friends. She, my friend Jeremy and I were sharing a room. We let Jeremy book the room. Big mistake.

We walk into the room and there's one super king sized bed. They were all booked up so the three of us ended up sleeping in it. After we checked into the room, we walked up to the beach and down the boardwalk. Michele said, "Gosh! It stinks like fish here." I said, "Oh, this must be the lesbian side of the beach."

There was also a time when she and three of her girlfriends smoked some weed and went to see Cinderella in the movie theater. As soon as Cinderella started singing in her high voice, it was all over for Michele. There went the laugh. I wasn't there to witness it, but hearing her tell the story is probably funnier than the real story itself.

So I'm blogging about Michele because she has Multiple Sclerosis. She didn't have any symptoms until she came out to AZ in 2000 for a visit. I guess MS can be triggered by intense heat.

She's doing amazingly well with it. She has some bad days but she's on medicine which keeps it mostly in check.

Every year, my sister Lorraine walks 30 miles in two days to help raise money for MS. This is an arduous task but she loves being able to help out. In order to be eligible to walk, Lorraine has to raise $1,500. I figured that since I get almost 3,000 unique visitors (most of them are bots but still...) to my blog each month, each person could donate a buck. If you can't, it's not a big deal. If you can, that's great. Everything is appreciated!

If you'd like to help out, click this link.

Happy Tunesday Motherfuckers!
Michele and I have a lot of songs we love to sing. But our favorite songs are the cheesy ones from the 70s. We had a lot of 45s in our house and they got played a lot. One of the worst songs (besides Seasons in the Sun, Loving You and Convoy--there were so many!) is Run Joey Run by David Geddes. Everything about this song stinks--the angels singing in the background, Julie screaming, "WATCH OUT!" and the entire premise. For your listening pleasure and for Michele, here's Run Joey Run.

Lyrics
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