Kelly

My little sister Kelly was here on Sunday, so I'll take this chance to introduce you to the last human member of my immediate family.

The rare trait Kelly has is that she is fourteen-dimensional, as opposed to being one-dimensional. Many people find one thing they are good at, or one trait by which they want to define themselves, and get lost in it; ignoring so much else. That's fine, but it's always refreshing to see someone who really branches out. Granted, this manic nebulousness sometimes comes at the expense of basic abilities like being on time, letting people know what country you're in, and knowing how to work the lids on coffee cups. But I'm deficient in commonsense myself, so I shouldn't criticize.

Kelly Starlight Hope Henderson was born on January 26th, 1983, the same day of the year as Wayne Gretzky. Perhaps not coincidentally, Kelly's various talents include athleticism. She took correspondence in grade 12 because of the travel and training demands of skiing at F.I.S. level. At the end she was fairly close to making the B.C. Junior Team, which is pretty tough because there are only about a dozen people on it. Nevermind that B.C. is one of the two provinces where almost all of the competition is. She could have made the P.E.I. team easily, for example, if it existed.

Klee recently got back from 8 months on that continent that starts with an "E". You know, the one with old brick buildings, lots of history, common currency, and culture and stuff. You can read about her adventures here, although she left out some of the good parts. Like the guy who was running from criminals and had a credit card scam that allowed him to stay at four star hotels, or the time she went to EuroDisney with The Arcade Fire. I don't know all the countries she went to . . . . definitely Scotland, Spain, Germany, Togo and France, but she spent most of her time in Paris. She had two jobs there, despite not being legally qualified to work in France. She's good like that. She slept in a secondhand bookstore for a few weeks, because it was free, and who wouldn't want to sleep surrounded by old books? She and her friend chased 3 guys who stole her purse in Barcelona, until one of them turned around brandishing a broken bottle. Luckily there was absolutely nothing of value in her purse, so she had the last laugh. No doubt she has many other stories, but you'll have to ask her about them in person. If you want to do that, she's somewhere in the forest around High Prairie, Alberta, we're told.

She spends most of her summers in the forest. All of them since she was 16 in fact. No one is sure what she does out there, possibly treeplanting, but more likely Sasquatch wrestling. Her winters are spent in Montreal, I guess she pretty much lives there by now. She took Liberal Arts for a couple of years and is generally idealistic, as all young twentysomethings are obliged to be in that city.

Kelstar and I fought a lot as children, I guess it was just the sister-brother-sister dynamic, we still do . . . but it's in a friendlier way. That is, less biting and fewer crayons being jammed-up noses. She and I are pretty good. My mom and possibly sister have to talk to her frequently to feel like they are caught-up; that they know where she is. But Kelly and I just have a basic, immovable relationship. We can not talk for half a year, and nothing changes. When were details ever important?

I guess the main thing about her is she is someone who is lucky to be pretty smart, smartly pretty, good natured and in possession of long, curly hair, but she doesn't take it for granted; she uses it to be good to others. Oh yeah, and she "can play the gui-tar like a mother****ing riot!"