Still really sorry about being very come and go this week. I'm probably losing my very small amount of readers as I don't post daily. I blame my busy yet boring life and lack of internet at my house. Hopefully that will happen soon. As for now, I'm at the wife's apartment after having spent the entire day with her. Quite an adventure.
Convincing someone to go to a family reunion is just a horrible thing to do. I knew that it would be a trainwreck. I knew that we would both be very relieved to leave. I could not have been more wrong on my part. This is the M Family Reunion.
First off, I got guilt tripped into going by my mother who kept saying that my cousin's were really sad that they were not going to be able to meet me again. These are the people that after one time of meeting me offered to let me stay in their house if I came out to Cali for auditions. They are the new family that kinda disappeared for quite some time. But anyway. Call number two finally made me cave in and find someone to work for me. Now it was time to find someone to go with me to make this trip as short as possible. The Wife. Perfect. She has to be back for her classes on Monday morning. That means no staying the night. What I did not realize was how many people would assume that she was my girlfriend. Including my dad's wonderful cousin who kept talking to me about her and how we knew each other. It was quite embarrassing for me. I just wanted to tell the whole truth but just stuck to the truth of the questions that were posed to me.
Cousin (Third maybe). 21 years old. Computer something or other. California. Quite nice and overly anxious to meet the entire family. He did not come last time. He was like an eager high schooler. We did spend about thirty minutes throwing a football into a tree to get two golfballs on a string (its a game my family plays) which had been thrown awry. The golfballs were stuck there and it took most of the family to remove them. We had Team A which I was a part of. Our plan consisted of
1. deciding not to attempt to climb the tree.
2. finding a football to throw at the tree.
3. repeatedly throwing a football at a tree while branches break and I miss because I'm not good at throwing a football.
4. throwing a softball.
5. throwing a large rubber ball.
6. tying a string to the football to throw it up there in hopes of god knows what.
Meanwhile...Team B starts taking apart the game structure which is made from PVC piping. Its a complicated game to explain in words. But they started building a large PVC prodder tall enough to reach the 20 feet in the air. We were well on our way with step 6 by this time. Throwing a ball for well over half an hour and attracting the entire family reunion to watch our efforts. The large PVC poker goes up in the air. Gently tugging at the branch and then finally lifting and dropping the balls onto the ground. They were good. I just really wish that my problem solving had been a little different and I had figured this out twenty to thirty minutes before. Dammit.
So Wife and I finally escape after driving all morning and being the second people there. We gorged ourselves with food. Then we went for a smoking walk where my cousin implied that we were going to go make out in the woods. Woohoo for high school. Chatted with people that I did not know and for once I felt popular at a family reunion. It was the best one yet. I had a great time. I blame the Wife.
Took her to my house and hometown. Showed her all the pictures from my childhood. Gasp. Gave her the full tour of my grandparents farm. It was all so wonderful.
Then on the way home, we stopped outside of Melbourne (the Ghost Town). I finally had gotten up enough courage to investigate and thoroughly document this rickety old house. The photos should be fantastic. I actually climbed up the non-existent staircase to see what the upstairs looked like. It was beautiful. With someone there to get help if needed, I was free to roam around on the inside from the outside and really get a good look at this house. It was after I took twenty pictures that I figured out that it was not a digital camera and I probably did not need to get a close up picture of cow shit. But alas, we had a great day and now I'm exhausted.
Thanks to Wife