The 2019 Major League Soccer schedule is going to be announced shortly, which means that planning for the 8th Annual Stadium Tour is underway! I’ve talked about the history of the stadium tour before (or read this for an overview of where we’ve been), but I don’t think I’ve ever really talked about my Sis or BIL, who are our companions on our journey.
I have three sisters, but Sis is the youngest. We are 8 1/2 years apart in age, and I always include the half when I talk about our age discrepancy. My birthday is in the summer, which means that my “birthday” in elementary school was always on my half birthday. So, in third grade, my mom went into labor on my “birthday,” and I like to needle Sis by telling her that she ruined my birthday. Of course, Sis didn’t actually ruin my birthday or even my “birthday.” My mom sent me to school with homemade cupcakes and my classmates and I ate them as we did for all birthdays at school. My mom didn’t go into labor until after school, while we were shoe shopping (true story), and Sis was born in the the next day. But, as an older sister and middle child, it’s much more fun to tell the baby of the family she ruined my birthday.
Sis and I have very different personalities (she’s an extrovert, and I’m the definition of a Myers Briggs introvert), but we also have a lot in common. We went to the same undergraduate university (9 years apart); she was a freshman when I returned as a graduate student to get my second Masters degree. We both earned Masters degrees in Student Affairs and work in higher education in increasingly overlapping areas. We started dating our respective soccer-loving husbands during our respective first semesters of college, and got married the summer after finishing our Master’s degrees. Sis and I are both fluent in sarcasm, and both have been told that teasing is our love language – we tease and mock those we love – like reminding her every year that she ruined my birthday.
As I mentioned, Hubby and I started dating during our first semester of college, which means that Sis was only ten when she first met Hubby at Siblings Weekend during my freshmen year. Hubby immediately adopted Sis as his own little sister. Sis was only fifteen when Hubby and I got married, and she always referred to Hubby as her brother, not her brother-in-law. When she and BIL got married, Hubby had been around for more than half of her life.
Sis and BIL started dating their first semester of college as well, but they met their freshmen year of high school. My first time “meeting” BIL was while they were in high school, though I don’t remember what year they were in school – probably juniors or seniors. I was visiting my parents from wherever we were living, and my mom and I were watching Sis’s tennis match, along with a group of her friends. Between singles and doubles, Sis came over to our general area and chatted with her friends, and I noticed BIL watching her and interacting with her. I asked my mom who he was, and my mom said, “Oh, that’s BIL. He loves Sis,” to which I responded, “Yup, I can tell.” And he did. Their story is theirs to tell so I won’t go into too many details, but I share that story because my first impression of my future BIL was that he loved Sis very much.
As Sis and BIL dated, and I got to know him more, I realized how similar he is to my Hubby. It was not hard to see why Sis loved him, and it was easy to see that he adored my Sis and would do anything for her. And because of this, and because teasing is my love language, I decided very early to give BIL a hard time and pretend to not like him. I designated him into the Axis of Evil (in reference to a sketch from Saturday Night Live) when he wouldn’t fulfill my ridiculous request that he drive ten hours to bring my sister to my house so we could go to the newest Harry Potter movie together, and kept him there until his wedding when I let him out (only to put him back in a few months later, though I have no idea why – it was probably Harry Potter-related). I refuse to accept hugs from him, and make faces and throw mock temper tantrums if he tries to sit next to me. It’s all in good fun, and he knows it and plays along.
Even though BIL had been around for a while, Sis and BIL had been married less than a year when we started the Stadium Tours. These annual trips allowed me to get to know him and them better. They are playful and adventurous, love exploring, and are as comfortable and content drinking beers at a dive bar as they are eating a fancy meal at a James Beard Award-winning restaurant. They embrace life and exhibit a willingness to simply go and do and see that make them not only perfect travel partners, but also great friends.
(Side note: If you are a foodie, or part of a culture that embraces food inherent to cultural identity, or have a tendency to get HANGRY, never underestimate the importance of travel partners without dietary restrictions and who will happily eat at a food truck or a fancy restaurant or a hotel concierge lounge or whatever is most convenient.)
Hubby’s and BIL’s mutual love of soccer is really secondary to our travels. It is our reason for a trip, and gives us permission to travel every year, but it’s not the games that shape the strongest memories for me. It’s eating Crown Prime at Jack Stack BBQ in Kansas City, and going to Disneyland for 24 hours, and sitting on the beach in Galveston, Texas, and searching for hours for nacho or ice cream helmets. There were fun soccer games and baseball games too, for sure, and I have great memories of those too, but it’s spending time with Sis and BIL that really make those trips special. They are people I want in my life and want to be around – even if my introverted self needs weeks to recover after spending time with those extroverts.
