The night before her sister’s wedding, fifteen year old Madeline Hickman finds herself doing what she has done countless weekend nights– make sure her 24-year-old sister, Barbara, gets to bed without falling down, waking up their parents, or vomiting anywhere that isn’t the toilet.  Only on this night, Madeline realizes she is fed up–not only with her sister, but also with herself. 

And so begins Madeline’s quest to stop managing the many alcoholics in her life and start managing her own problems.  Armed with self-help books and the wisdom of her grandmother Bubbie, she tackles the growing estrangement between herself and her two best friends, Peter and Susan as well as the mounting tension between herself and boyfriend Justin.  Peter and Susan have gone from study partners to sex partners, and Justin wants to follow their example with Maddie.  Maddie and Justin’s make out sessions have turned into a kind of tug-of-war involving Justin’s hand and Maddie’s zipper.  Neither the zipper nor the hand win.  Instead, good old JD does as Justin has taken up the habit of drinking whenever he is pissed off.

However, in typical Maddie fashion, instead of dealing with her own life, she is distracted by her family’s ongoing problems–problems that she has very little control over.  First, the mysterious family squabble between her Jewish Martha Stewart mother and beloved Bubbie and second, her sister’s escalating drinking problem.  To top it off, the entire family is in denial about everything.  Then, tragedy nearly happens, putting an abrupt end to denial and avoidance.

Maddie concludes that sex and alcohol seem to have ruined her life and no matter how many self-help books she devours, she can’t fix everyone’s problems–including her own.
More importantly, she understands that the only person she can truly try to fix, is herself.  

Friendships, loves, and families broken and glued back together make for a realistic portrayal of the ordinary and not so ordinary problems of growing up in MSW.

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My Sister's Wedding
True-to-life tale of growing up and letting go.

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