Reason No. 349 why I love my family

This time of the year is high birthday season on my mom's side of the family. From about the end of August through my own birthday on Nov. 30th (ahem...I'll wait until you all mark that down on your calendars) we see each other almost every weekend for this or that relative's birthday.

Frankly, one can only put up with their relatives so much before they lose their last shred of sanity.

Yesterday we celebrated my cousin Jason's son, Calvin's 13th birthday. I was pressed into service at the part-time so I missed the main portion of the festivities (cook-out, present opening, cake with a heaping scoop of "So, when are you finally going to settle down and find a man?"). When my bosses finally realized I had been there almost all day they unlocked the shackles and sent me on my way just in time for me to at least stop by the party and have some cake.

When I walked in there weren't many hangers on left. My cousin's wife, April (who I absolutely love for her no-nonsense approach to life), still had some family there chilling in the living room doing karaoke. Sure. I helped myself to something to drink in the kitchen noting I must have missed on hell of a party as there were three empty bottles fo Cabernet on the kitchen table and a good number of empty beer bottles keeping them company. Of course, the Jack Daniels bottle was still firmly planted next to the coffee maker ( I love my big Irish family).

As I was talking to April, Jason paged her from their garage/workshop. She told him I was there at which point he demanded I come down, bring a lighter and the last bottle of Cab. April walked with me, taking the opportunity to light up a ciggie on the way. She doesn't like to do it in front of the kids. I was a little bummed, I had left mine in the car (bad stress habit I have. It usually takes me about three weeks to finish off a pack now.). We opened the door and all of the guys, Jason, his brother Sean (who I haven't seen in honest to god, like 5 years) and some of their buddies were all sitting around smoking and doing bong hits. That's right. Bong hits.

I heart my family more now than ever.

As kids we were always looking for ways to get out of family functions. Either by playing outside or taking off for the park, my cousins and I could only stand so much of the get togethers in confined spaces. And now, well, now it appears those bastards had been holding out on me the last 10 years or so. Now it all came clear. Now I understood why they were constantly leaving to "go to the store". Bloody brilliant.

We stood around and talked for awhile. I was offered the goods but declined. Instead I bummed a ciggie from April (did I mention I love her?) and listend to my cousins get increasingly goofy and stupid. Because I hadn't been home all day, I bugged out after a good hour of conversation with promises to catch up at the next family function.

Especially now that I knew their secret.