Got Family?

Okay, so the truth is, I did not become a ninja battling pirate queen grammarian superhero without some assistance.

Believe it or not, I have a family.

In fact, I have an enormous family... There is actually a "Warren Family Reunion" today, and there will be over 200 people in attendance. It's crazy. It's in Maine, in a town called Buckfield. Trust me, there is no way I could have made that up on my own.

On my father's side alone I have:

7 uncles
2 aunts
25+ cousins (When I got to 25 I lost count in my head and gave up)

And that's not counting my cousin's children (There are over 12 of them now) or my grandparents and my great-aunts and uncles (Still over 10 of them at last count).

It's truly insane to me. (Which is probably why I live in NH, aka, a safe distance away).

That's not to say that I don't love them all... of course I do... But--25 freaking cousins? You have GOT to be kidding. And of course, lucky, lucky, lucky me... I was the oldest girl, surpassed only by my cousin Brent who managed to pop out of the womb a whole 3 days before I did, that rat bastard. Just kidding, we were total BFFs until he moved to Brockton. (Seriously, who does that)?

Of course, the most important ones to me are Varneta and Cheryl, since I spent my formative years running around in the woods with them, reading "Herself the Elf" and "The Black Cauldron" to them, riding bikes with no breaks while one of them sat on the back, and in general fighting, ignoring, laughing, mentally torturing, and playing dress up with them.

The others? I think most of them thought we were the crazy ones.

Huh. They were probably right about that.

But we made it look good.

Well, hell... At least I know that if I suddenly find myself in a gutter somewhere I can always haul my ass up to Maine, and chances are good that SOMEONE there will have to take me in, regardless of how weird or hopeless they find me to be.

Ahh... Family.