"What is Jiminy Cricket anyway, a frog?"

I was in a nostalgic mood today, so I decided to go through some boxes of old stuff that I hadn't looked at in a while. In doing so, I stumbled across a treasure trove of notes that Donna, my younger sister, had left for me when we were both still living at our parents' house. I have no idea why I decided to keep these, much less take them with me when I moved to California, but I'm really glad I did, because every last one of these scribbles is absolutely priceless.

Some interesting facts about my sister that I discovered:

1. She apparently hated her wardrobe, as a majority of the notes were a request to borrow something out of my closet. The item in particular that Donna went after most was a balled-up gray fleece from the Gap (the appeal of which I still don't understand). It's ironic when you consider the fact that nowadays, my wardrobe consists almost entirely of clothes that she doesn't want anymore.

2. Even as a kid, she was able to sniff out a bad character. I had a friend that Donna really did not care for and one of the notes she had written said, "T <= ew! called."

A few years later, T invited me to come visit her while she was living abroad, then told me to stay somewhere else after I'd booked the ticket, then was completely rude to me when we did get around to hanging out. Needless to say, we are no longer friends, and my sister enjoyed a good round of "I told you so" upon hearing my story.

3. Donna's handwriting has not changed since she was in middle school.

4. She was a master at stick-figure drawings.

5. She gave me the nickname Reeny.

Here's a sample of 14-year-old Donna:

Hey doreen, reeny, doritos...

I know this is dumb, and you're going to be like... uhh! Butttt... could I borrow your gray-gap-fleece-pull-over again? =) ? Pleeease! Do it for my teeth! The 4 precious teeth I am going to loose tomorrow. They will thank you for making them warm! =) Oh and hey, I was just thinking... if you don't wear it that much maybe I could trade you my ck (pink shirt) and the a&f blue v-neck 4 it. talk to you more about it later.

-Donna =) tanks!

I know it seems like I'm making fun of her, but I'm not. I find these notes hilarious and adorable. It's nice to be reminded once in a while of the time when I still had my whole life ahead of me.

In case you're wondering, I did eventually make that trade with my sister, and it was then that the saga of notes ended. Donna was ecstatic at having finally acquired the gray fleece and wore it almost every day. The sad part about this story is that a few months later, another fleece-obsessed young lady saw the sweatshirt in the girls' locker room and swiped it. Donna was crestfallen and I felt bad for her... but at least she stopped asking me to let her borrow it.