yup yup

my sister sends me ecards.
not just any ecards, the rockin' coolest ecards ever.
(we have a favorite, it's a graduation ecard that we send each other when we're not graduating. last year was the first time that sending the card actually coincided with either of us graduating (we both did), so just to keep up the non-graduation celebration i sent the ecard to all my friends who were not graduating. good times. wait a month and i'll send it to you. )
she sends me ecards for hindu holidays (not as random as you could wish since i did take a semester or two of hindi), for christmas, for random holidays that people invent so they can have ecards...
i keep them in my inbox for weeks, so that i can play and replay them whenever i need a laugh.

i've watched her selection technique. it is rigorous and time consuming.
first of all, the ecard must be free.
and ridiculously funny.
by that i mean it must be ridiculous. (we're fond of the proposal cards. would anyone honestly marry anyone who proposed with an ecard?)
graphics and animation are a big plus.
i know that music is very important to her. music can make or break an ecard.

when asked, she humbly replied:

"well, basically i just click on the greeting card thing on my hotmail page
and then i look for the cards that are free, followed by the cards that are
weird or scary or funny but not meant to be funny. that sort of thing.
why do you need to know?"

she never misses an opportunity to send an ecard. so, in view of my recent birthday, you can imagine my excitement, the anticipation with which i eagerly checked my email every five minutes. knowing that each click could be THE click which would bring me to my ecard.

but she didn't send me an ecard this year.


she gave me this:


now, i know i don't have to explain to all of you how cool this is, but i'm going to anyway.

note the nice use of color. very soothing.
it has a picture of a manatee on it.
my oldest sister used to have a thing for manatees.
manatees are nice.
manatees are called sea cows.

my name is joanna. i don't have a middle name. in fifth grade i asked my mom what it would be if i did. she instantly said "louise". i think it was the first name that popped in her head, but i've adopted it.
however, american express didn't think that was good enough. they felt i needed a tougher middle initial. and so, a few months ago, i became joanna T.

my sister (the younger one with the mad ecard skillz and not the oldest one with a love for manatees and all things adorable) thought this was a laugh riot. and took to calling me "joanna-t."
so that's the joke.

note that with typical ecard flair it says "i hope all your dreams come true."

truly, she is a wonder.


and that's that.