We all scream

Sister #4 and I have built our relationship almost exclusively around ice cream. Braum's ice cream, to be specific. It started my first year out of undergrad when I was miserable and she was 16. We went to Braum's every Friday afternoon, and whoever was having a better week bought a cone for the other, and we mostly sat and recovered, but sometimes we talked. And somehow that year she changed from my baby sister to my friend.

Since that year we've used Braum's dates to kick off any sort of change in our lives. The night before I moved to Mexico we went to Braum's and both cried. She was really the only thing I cared much about leaving. The night before she moved away to college she went to Braum's alone but bought me a sundae and texted me to come eat it in the car with her where we could talk.

So last night when she wanted Braum's, even though I'd already had ice cream that day, I didn't have to think of my answer. In a few weeks she'll be packing up to work at a camp all summer, and today I am moving to Chicago for a couple months. Sure, these aren't huge transitions, but life will be different until August, and any change, whether big or small, needs ice cream. So we bought sundaes, and we took them home and sat on the floor and watched American Idol and talked. We talked about the summer and what we hoped would happen, but we also talked about ice cream, about all the memories we have of eating it together. Sure, maybe we'll be diabetic one day, but I'd say it's worth it.