Live Earth & Sweet Revenge

I talked to my best friend this evening about our upcoming trip to NYC for the Live Earth concert on 7.7.07. I'm really excited about this trip for more reasons than I may be able to put into words.

1. I'll have a chance to see John Mayer in concert. As much as I love his song "Daughters", I feel it will be doubly significant if I hear him sing it at a concert about our Mother Earth.
2. I'll have a long weekend with my best friend who's the sister I've always wanted as opposed to the ones I got. It's not that I don't love my sisters (and I'm looking forward to Sisters' Weekend 2007), it's just that my best friend loves & understands me in a way my blood sisters never have and may never will.
3. I'll be just 10 minutes away from the home I came home to after I was born after spending a month in foster care because my mother nearly died after my birth...and I'll be able to show my best friend all the locations where I first had direction on my purpose in life. God Bless New Jersey!!!
4. It's my chance to participate in the 21st century version of Live Aid, since I missed my chance in '85 to share that experience with my blood sisters.

When Live Aid happened in the summer of 1985, I was in Kenya with my mother at an international UN women's conference while my sisters were left in FL. When my parents and I returned home, I found out my sisters had taken the family station wagon (an ugly maroon knock off of the Brady wagon) and driven to Phili to attend the North America Live Aid concert...and they got away with it! I was so jealous that they'd been able to take part in such a significant event without my parents ever knowing that they'd defied their rules!!! I only felt more upset when my sisters proceeded to make my life a living hell when I defied my parents rules in the future when the things I did paled in comparison to the chances they'd taken.

Yeah yeah, I slipped my 20 year old boyfriend into the house while my parents were out of town when I was 15, but nothing happened! And none of them believed me when I told them that, and they didn't have to call our parents and let them know what I'd done...especially since I never told what they did in taking the car all the way to Phili while my parents were out of the country! So I've decided to take the opportunity to make things right by attending the live earth concert this summer with my best friend (my sister by choice). And I've finally rectified my sisters deception of my parents.

I recently called my mother and asked her, "Did you know that they took the car to Phili for the Live Aid concert while we were in Kenya in '85?"

"No, I did not know that," my mother calmly replied. "When did this happen?" she asked in a confused tone. I then told her the whole story, including how I'd always been upset that they got away with that and still gave me a hard time about the things I did while growing up. "They thought I was the wild one! I may have taken the K car out for a couple of joy rides at night around town, but I never drove cross country while you guys were out of the country!" "Well I'm going to have to call them and ask them about that," my mother said in a very motherly tone. "They've been calling and confessing to a lot of things lately, but none of them has confessed to that!"

And my work here is done :-)