I have something few people do and even fewer people understand; I have my sister. She and I go nearly everywhere together, we get curious looks from strangers who think we are twins and even stranger looks from people who wonder why we are always together.

Shannon is two years and four months younger than I am, but you wouldn't know it. She is a graduate student, certified to teach spanish and has all the patience in the world for my daughter that I, as an experienced mother, should have. Shannon went to every prenatal appointment with me, she was there when Sierra was born and has been with Sierra nearly every day since. The longest Shannon and I were apart is the 110 days she was studying in Spain. We talk at least once a day on the phone if our schedules don't meet up and when they do, we are nearly inseperable.

But it wasn't always so. Until I moved out of the house, we hated eachother. We shared a converted attic as a bedroom and we were always in eachothers way (a lot of times on purpose I'm sure). Shannon was the brain, the sweet little girl that every mom wanted. I was the brat, and did everything in my power to piss mom off. You can ask Shannon sometime about stories of Horrible Mandi, she has lots to tell. What she doesn't know is that I was intensely jealous of her. For being as dorky as she seemed to me, with all her colored rabbits feet necklaces and dumb braid hairstyle - she always had friends to go see and people to sleep over. I pretended I was cool, had to keep up that older sister veneer, but there was rarely an extra person to giggle with on my half of the room.

When I was 17 I moved out of our parents house with my two month old baby in tow. Gaining distance from Shannon I realized how much I missed her. She began spending every weekend in my apartment and so began our sisterhood. There isn't a pop song, movie or television show for the past seven years that we couldn't tell you some crazy story about. Car rides with us are more like a three-hour comedy routine with frequent bathroom breaks. We go to movies, concerts and party events together - not really caring if we meet anybody else while there, because we already brought our best friend. She knows the details of things that I cannot tell the world and helps me laugh at the things I can. Shannon is the keeper of my insanity and the key to my sanity, without her - I'd be lost.