Friday Shuffle - Family Reunion Edition

I got some email from my sister telling me about a family reunion she went to with my mother, oldest brother and my nephew. This was a big event since my mother has been in a conflict with two of her younger sisters since their mother passed nearly fifteen years ago. I was even rather surprised to hear that my sister told my mother about it and had her come along because my mother can turn events like that into a "Look at me!" situation. She always wants the focus on her and will manipulate things to be sure she gets it.

As it turns out my mom was on her best behavior and things went very well. No exact report on if she made up with the sisters she was on the outs with but if no conflict was reported to me there must have been none. I'm glad about this because my mom is heading into her final years and I never liked the idea of her never speaking to some of her sisters again.

The event was held at one of my aunts' home just south of Memphis. My mom has five sisters and all but one came to the party - there still seems to be some bad blood between her and some of the others (not my mom). Most of their kids and many of their grandkids came as well.

I have a lot of cousins on both sides of my family - fifteen on my mother's side alone - and I'm not close with the vast majority of them. All of the cousins I have regular contact with are from my father's side. When I was a kid I was close to a few of my cousins on Mom's side but it's been so long since I've seen most of them that I wouldn't know them if I passed them on the street. Many of them were still kids when I last saw them at our last big family reunion for my grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary - that was over 25 years ago. The last cousin I saw was Julie - the cousin I was closest to - but that was 15 years ago at my father's funeral and even then I saw her only briefly.

So it was somehow a little strange to read this email and imagine them as adults. I can't imagine Fletcher with gray hair or Julie with grown kids and what really threw me was hearing that my cousin Jodie just became a grandmother. My younger cousin Jodie. Boy, did that make my you're-just-two-weeks-away-from-turning-45 alarm go off.

Bixente the iPod keeps me feeling like a kid. Let's shuffle.

1. Eight Day Hell - And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead
2. The Crane Wife 3 - The Decemberists
3. Cold As Ice - Foreigner
4. Burning Love - Elvis Presley
5. Chelsea Hotel No. 2 - Rufus Wainwright
6. Solid Gold Brass - Sweet
7. Rock 'n Roll Band - Boston
8. In Dreams - Roy Orbison
9. Famous Last Words - My Chemical Romance
10. Out In The Street - Bruce Springsteen

Nothing like shuffling up Sweet and Boston and Foreigner to remind me just how old I really am.

Enjoy your weekend. Catch up with some family if you get the chance.