Heads or Tails

Imagine working with your sister. Okay, now imagine working with your sister when you're the oldest sister. Suz and I have worked together for years. In fact, whenever I make a career move, I usually test the waters first and if they are 85 and calm, then she usually follows. I tease her and say that I drag her along with me like my little teddy bear.

We have the most fun working together that you can have, considering that you're still working. Each year we have to take continuing ed classes that we always plan a little girls weekend around. We work with the same attorneys, so we can share the same laughs and complaints and so forth. She calls me for help. I call her for help.

We have to renew our license each year in January, although we have until March 31st before it expires. We get these cards that we have to carry with us when we're working to show that we're a bona fide certified court reporter. (Cindy, you probably remember us joking about those cards when we were at the hospital with my dad) January wasn't a very good month for me and Jeff's family. His brother Mike died January 24th, and he was really sick the whole month before he died. I was really preoccupied.

Well. . . Wednesday, Suz calls me practically in tears because she got a certified letter explaining that her license was suspended for failure to renew her license. Now, with me being the oldest sister and just generally being a bossy butt, I'm usually the one who keeps up with that stuff. I was so surprised that I had let that one get past me. That's not me. At all. I was so sure I had paid mine. I kept looking and looking for a receipt, looking at my bank statement, looking at my credit card statement. Nothing. It was true. I had forgotten. Neither of us could find anything the Board had sent us as reminders. I guess they notify you once and that's it. After that, tough. After Suz's hysterics had passed, she jokingly informed me that she wasn't going to let me be responsible for her license again. HA! HA! I know better though. Next January I'll be reminding her once again. Or maybe not. It cost both of us an extra $75 to renew it.

Whenever there is a decision to be made workwise, we settle it the diplomatic way. We try not to whine or pinch or pull hair too much. We flip for it. Usually it's a decision such as who's gonna cover a translator deposition, who's gonna cover one for a particularly longwinded attorney, who's doing the accident reconstructionist who uses words that are no less than 30 letters long , or who's gonna be downtown on Friday afternoon. Occasionally, though, it's for something good. Like who's gonna get to cover the one with multiple attorneys, which gives us the chance to make more money.

This is serious stuff people. I mean, I get butterflies when we flip. This is our life. For months on end, I lost the coin toss almost every time. Lately, my luck has turned around and I've been winning more than losing. We had to flip last night to see who got to cover the job at 10 versus who had to cover the job at 1 and 3 o'clock downtown. I won the toss and get to cover the 10 o'clock.

Being the very defensive older sister though, I don't like to see my baby sister (even though I'm 43 and she's 35) lose. It makes me sad. For a minute, I usually want to give in and let her win. Fortunately, it only lasts a minute.

Till tomorrow,