It was my sister Jessica’s last weekend in town before heading back to school. I was determined to spend some time with her before that.

If she makes it through this year, she’ll be the first of the siblings to graduate college. I started a software company that led me to drop out. Willie had the, umm, botany incident. Dad dropped out to be a hippie and study macrobiotics, and mom dropped out to be with dad. So we’re really proud of Jessie. We hope that she’ll be as successful as the rest of us, even though she’s going to be so educated.

Friday night, Daniele and Jessica and I had dinner with the Long Island family segment. Kanten for dessert was delicious. My grandmother gave me some told-you-so over the fact that I had a new girlfriend and had found romantic bliss, just like she said I would. Then she moved on to weightier issues, such as why her computer was acting up and where to get a better solitaire game for it.

We took the train back into the city, two sisters and a brother, happily teasing each other, and then Jessica and I went to see Los Amigos Invisibles, a fun band from Venezuela. An ex-girlfriend of mine and her current boyfriend met us there, and we all talked and danced and gave some more healing to what could end up a nice friendship after a fairly awful breakup. Jessica danced her way into the gaze of a chicano named Mario, who chatted her up in spanish and tried to dance too close to her. I readied my fists and big-brother attitude, but my little sister proved herself capable of taking care of herself.

The next day, we went to Fire Island for a party at Jeanhee’s beach house. The catch was that Jeanhee was out of town for the weekend. I had an invitation from her friends to come out to the party, despite that missing link, which was very sweet. I figured Jessica would enjoy it a lot, having never been to Fire Island. (When you’re 1 of 5 kids, you don’t go too many places where you have to pay by the head…) Plus, she’s always talking about how much she enjoys hanging out with gay guys… so on the ferry we went, armed with guacamole makings, a volleyball and a six-pack.

The six-pack was one of many and likely as-yet-undrunk, but the guacamole was a big hit and the volleyball game was a blast. We played gays versus straights. Except there weren’t enough heteros, so our team was only 66% straight. The play was erratic, but the running commentary a riot and the competitive spirit divine.

I went to see Luna that night in Williamsburg. I haven’t been to Williamsburg in at least nine months, maybe more. I was astonished with how much it has changed in that time. I want to go back and explore some more. It was my first time seeing Luna play live and I enjoyed it a lot. James and I went for a bite afterwards. I paid homage to my travels in Thailand and Laos and ate green papaya salad with sticky rice, with my hands. It tasted damn good.

I said a second goodbye to Jessica Sunday night over Korean food at KumGangSan a delightful restaurant with a white piano sitting on a cliff inside the restaurant.

Relationships evolve as the people in them do, and spending time with my sister this summer was an evolutionary leap — a great relationship between adult siblings. Next summer I’ll have to figure out how to relate a college-grad adult sibling…