Bethanyology

I was tempted to call this post "My Sister, Ned," because we call her Ned in our family.  Emily even calls herself Ned on occasion.  She's not gay, nor manly at all.  In fact, she's very feminine.  Ned is creative, and in keeping with her creativity she encouraged creative nicknames.  We went from Emily to Em to M&M to Nem to Nen to Ned with a few in between.  I like to claim that I was the first to call her Ned one night when we were all saying goodnight to each other.  We had recently watched The Three Amigos and I just couldn't keep myself from quoting the talking horse who says "G'nite, Ned!" to one of the amigos.  The name stuck fast.

Emily was always the one Mom got after to clean her room more than anyone else, and the one who seemed to get into Mom's stuff more than anyone else.  I've wondered at times if Emily had more of Mom's stuff stowed away in her room than Mom did in her own room.  Emily would go to her room when ordered to clean it, begin with one small drawer, then spend hours looking through the drawer and thinking about creative ways to use the things in it or actually using them creatively or putting them "away" in creative ways.  I remember Mom sighing with a mixture of admiration and exasperation as she described this process to one of her friends.  It couldn't be helped, and I'm sure Mom wondered if it should be helped.

Emily has always done well in school.  In fact, being a middle child in a family of high achievers, she might be called an over-achiever.  She works really hard and is probably a little too hard on herself when she doesn't perform as well as she planned to.  I love reading her papers, which she sends to the whole family to edit (we all do that–one of the reasons we do well in school is that we have a large family of friendly critics).  Emily started college as a science person–I think she was a Neuroscience major or some such neatness.  Although she performed extremely well in her science classes we all knew she'd be happier in a more flowing discipline.  And now she's a Studio Art major.

Emily's art is optimistic and thoughtful.  We keep trying to get her to sell it, if only to set up a gallery online, but she's too busy with school right now.  She's not one of those grumpy, moody, irritable artists, but is totally anti-diva and down-to-earth.  She likes to paint meaningful subjects.  She's not really into surrealism because it tends to be so dark. 

I like Emily's faith.  It's very simple and straightforward.  It's an "I've thought about it and prayed about it, and this is just how it is" faith without the "you have to agree with me" stuck on the end.  She just always knows things will work out because they will. 

Ned is fun to be around.  When she was in high school, she and Abby came up with a creole of sorts that they called "Englinese."  It was a combo of English, English baby-talk, French, Spanish, Hebrew, and whatever other ideas they thought of off-hand.  My dad dubbed it "stupid-talk" and it drove him crazy, but somehow they found a way to be endearing through the irritation.  If you can get her to talk stupid-talk in front of you, you know that you've made it into the inner circle of her trust.  Now she speaks German, too, so be ready to be bewildered.

Emily is affectionate.  She's not one to hold hands on a first date, or even let a boy put his arm around her shoulders, but when all us sisters are home we'll be sitting on the couch and Emily will throw herself on top of the heap and cuddle in.  Sometimes when we're home on a Sunday afternoon, one of us will be in bed taking a nap and Emily will snuggle into the space between you and the wall and nestle into a nap herself. 

Oh, and Emily is a musician, too.  She plays the flute and the cello.  Now, don't you wish she were your sister, too?

There's my late-night musing on my third little sister.  She's awesome–smart and funny and eloquent and humble and happy.  Goodnight, Ned! 

Tags: amigos, emily, Family, goodnight, science, talk, wondered