An Unbirthday Party

Today I went to an Unbirthday Party. See, the family is too big to get together constantly, so they throw a birthday party for a 1-year old first cousin once removed, then use it as a medium in which to (surreptitiously and guiltily) celebrate all March birthdays. I forget if they do the same in August; they may well. There were hints as to the other birthdays, but being the recipient of one, I got the full weight of it. Many cards were slipped to me in an apologetic fashion. Some boring cards, some genericly funny ones, lots of 5 dollar bills. Probably my worst take-in in years, ah well. Aunt Brenda gave me a nice gift certificate to Borders, though... and I don't know whether I'm glad it's a gift card or not. On one hand, I need to save money, on the other, it might help my resolution to have a little unavoidable joy-spending.

My sister and I were the youngest in the oldest batch of cousins... three or so years below Michael, 5 or so above Trevor, Tori, and the great-grandchildren. The twilight zone. Considered a little young for the adult table, but out of place in the kids table, we become the unofficial and distinctively unpaid babysitters.

So a third of the party were screaming little kids (all blonde... wtf?) and old people. I mostly hung out with them.. the little kids are just a bit too loud for me, and the middle group... the cousins and second cousins and cousins by marriage, well.. they're just so physical lately. The easiest way to maintain a positive relationship of some sort is to act stupid, be physically affectionate, tease... It's so transparent, but maybe it's better than nothing. And maybe they're lazy, but maybe they just know that they don't see us as much as they'd like, so they take what they can get. *shrug* I remember when I was younger and didn't instant-analyze every one of them. Those were the days...