A YEAR AGO when Margaret, Marion, Paige and I were just setting sail on murky blog waters with the mission to spread the word on sisterhood, we were nervous. Who would read our ramblings? Could we really write about sisters and sisterhood for an indefinite time? But we came together with you, our sweet readers (in our own sort of sisterhood) and have officially been breathing life into The Sister Project for one year! In celebration of this milestone, and as a toast to more blog-birthdays to come, here are a few favorite posts (mine and yours) from the last year to read again or discover anew:

What if fairy-tale heroines lived unhappily ever after?

Cooking lessons with my brother, T: veggie fritters and lemon bars.

Nuns!

This year’s winner for “least desirable baby sibling.”

Great handwriting + feminism = brilliant.

And a few of my personal favorites from elsewhere on The Sister Project:

A Geisha Sisterhood.

Marion goes bra shopping.

Flipping for potato salad!

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FIGURATIVELY SPEAKING, THAT IS. I’m one week deep in graduate school, and I already have manuscripts up to my knees! While I’m getting my fiction bearings down here in North Carolina, why don’t you have a look at some of my past fiction writings that have been featured on TSP. Like “On the Care and Feeding of Animals” a story about young sisters, which I posted back in January, and “About the Weather Though,” a piece on a fictional community’s struggle to deal with the war in Iraq. Or if memoir’s more your thing, read “Picking at Scabs,” my look back on the trials of adolescence. I’ll have more prose to share soon, but in the meantime…enjoy!

(Photo of the Icelandic horses at Robert Woods Farm)

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MOSEY ON OVER TO Dear Thyroid for a look at my first letter in a series that I’m writing called “Dear Anastasia’s Thyroid” (cryptic, I know). You may remember my previous two attempts to tell my rebellious butterfly gland to calm down, and now I’ll be sending it a bi-monthly letter to keep it in check. All the medical drama will be unfolding on Dear Thyroid from now on. Thanks to the lovely Thyroidess, Katie Schwartz, for giving me this opportunity!

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AS WE ROUND THE SIX-MONTH bend here on TSP, I’ve been reflecting on all the fantastic people that I met along the way, starting (of course) with all you lovely readers. Additionally, there have been many talented minds that lent a hand to Claiming Sisterhood during its infancy. Do you remember…

• When Blognosh featured my essay ‘Picking at Scabs’ on their site?

• Or how about all those sisters who sent us priceless photo documentation of matching childhood outfits?

• Remember when The Belly Project boosted my self-esteem by unconditionally loving my imperfect bare belly?

• Or when dozens of Flickr users let me yoink their beautiful images of nuns?

• And when Dear Thyroid not only posted my thyroid letter, but various heartfelt comments on TSP?

• How about when Katie Squier lent her words and photos (including the one above) for a mini gallery show?

• Remember when T didn’t disown me for posting a photo of him in long underwear? Or for repeating his phone conversations to hundreds of people? Or for just generally making fun of him?

All I can say is: Thank You. Thank You. Thank You. (And p.s., this is Post Number 100 on my personal blog; not a bad start.)

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YOU MAY REMEMBER MY CELEBRATORY MFA acceptance dance (with a little help from Ely Kim) when I heard back from the first programs–more acceptances and a fat financial-aid offer later–I’ve decided to attend University of North Carolina, Greensboro in the fall! If you’d like a taste of some of my fiction writings (you’re probably chock-full of my blog writings at this point), here’s On the Care and Feeding of Animals, a story I posted earlier this year. Or how about this new piece of short fiction, called About the Weather, Though. Enjoy, friends!

(photo from Flickr user christine)

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S ISTER PAIGE BROUGHT this viral craze of “25 Random Things About Me” to TSP, when she made her own list last week. And I’m sure you’ve seen the meme on Facebook via numerous “tag you’re it” notes. Partly inspired by a great blog about the daily lives of five sisters, who each wrote 100 things about themselves in separate posts (start here with Lauren‘s and work your way through all 500 facts), and partly inspired by Paige’s great list (in which she admits to her arborist past), I’ve decided to do my own. Don’t worry, I’m not going to require that you make one, too. But perhaps it will get you thinking…

25 Random Things About Me (Anastasia Caroli Salem Smith)

1.    I have a birthmark on my right hip in the shape of Afghanistan.
2.    Once my brother told me that he bit off my pinkie finger at birth and that the one I had was a fake, and I believed him.
3.    Sometimes I feel like I’m in an abusive long-term relationship with the entire country of France.
4.    I am named after the midwife who delivered me.
5.    My favorite toy as a child was a little box of rocks that I pretended was a family.
6.    I like to binge on television shows and then never watch them again.
7.    I wish I was better at sewing.
8.    In middle school I had to make a speech in front of the whole school as president of the student council and I got my period through my jeans during it. That might be my most embarrassing moment.
9.    Another embarrassing moment happened when I walked straight into the lake at summer camp during a silent candlelit ceremony.
10.    When I’m bored, I draw the cursive alphabet in my head.
11.     In awkward situations I like to picture myself from aerial view. Sometimes it makes me feel less awkward.
12.    I am in awe of the fact that I took AP calculus in high school, and that I actually did pretty well.
13.    Another game I liked to play as a child was stuffing my whole head into the tiny rooms of my dollhouse.
14.    After the first snow of winter, my brother and I used to run around our house once barefoot. In hindsight, I can’t believe our parents watched us do that.
15.    We once witnessed some of our parents’ friends walking across burning coals, so maybe that’s what inspired us.
16.    I used to buy bridal magazines with my allowance money.
17.    Most of the things that I used to be obsessed with as a child–brides, 1950s domesticity, Bill Clinton, teen pregnancy–I now think are absolutely crazy.
18.    I wrote a letter to Bill Clinton in second grade and started it, “Dear Bill,” like we were real chummy or something.
19.    When I lived in Montpellier, France, I had to walk through a scary wooded area to get back to my house late at night. And I would make myself sing Buttercup out loud to keep my mind from wandering to all the drug addicts and wild boars that were probably hiding in the trees.
20.    I also like to sing a song every year that I learned in preschool called Spring is Coming! when I see the first signs of spring.
21.    I am not a talented singer.
22.    Paradise exists on the shores of the Mediterranean, I am sure of it.
23.    I once saw someone smoke crack on Metro line 2, between la Chapelle and Stalingrad.
24.    I wish I could have been exposed to more diverse cultures and identities while I was growing up.
25.    I hope that I get to be a mother someday.

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IT’S THE 2-MONTH BLOGAVERSARY of Claiming Sisterhood, and I got a big anniversary gift. My essay Homecoming was featured today on Blog Nosh. Not a bad way to celebrate. Huzzah.

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