Earlier this year, I busted my little sister doing something that I still think (six months later) is really bad. She knew where my spare key was hidden, so she was bringing her boyfriend over to my house while I was at work. She's almost 25, so I think that any day now she might try to treat other people the way that she would like to be treated. To add insult to injury, when I informed her that I knew what she was doing, she threw a fit in response and never apologized. An apology would have helped me to overlook how I was treated and then we could move on with our relationship as sisters.

So I chose to cool off our relationship in order to protect myself from further abuse.

This Christmas, she wanted me to suggest some gift ideas in OCTOBER so that she could go ahead and get her shopping done. She told me she didn't have much money and wanted to spend the money she had at the time to ensure that she would be able to buy gifts for everyone on her list.

We spend the holidays at my parents' house and I hadn't seen her in a while, but it was evident to myself and everyone else (and everyone in my family lacks the tact to keep our mouths shut) that she has been making sweet, sweet love to the tanning bed. Frequently.

I guess that when you are hard up for cash and life is SUCH as travesty as a poor person (who lives with her parents rent free and they pay her bills including tuition and car insurance), there's always money for the tanning bed.

In a generally health-conscious family, a crispy-fried tan person sticks out like a sore thumb. She looks like a cracker that fell out of a casserole onto the bottom of the oven, and was left there for a dozen or so subsequent bakings of other dishes.

Anyhow, it isn't my position to care about what she does as long as it doesn't involve me.

I do think it's ironic, though, that the only person who has broken into my house is my own fucking sister.

I like Christmas, but as you can see, it gets me a little ticked off, so I am glad that it's over until next year.

Related, from Running with Scissors:

In the opening sequence to The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Mary's in a supermarket, hurrying through the aisles. She pauses at the meat case, picks up a steak and checks the price. Then she rolls her eyes, shrugs and tosses it in the cart.

I threw the meat in my cart. And moved on.