Reunited: How Does it Feel??

I'm pre-blogging this because I know for fact that Monday I will be unavailable to write this blog.  So right now it's Thursday as I write this, but it will be Monday (or much later) when you read this.  Tomorrow night my cousin, Max, is coming to visit.  I'm uncontrollably excited.



***EDIT:  My grandpa is my cousin max's great grandpa's brother.  So where it says "Grandma" and "Grandma's Sister" it should say "Grandpa" and "Grandpa's Brother."  Sorry for lying.***

The last time we were in a room together, he was 13 and I was 16.  It was in Philadelphia (or technically the suburbs, from where he hails) and my parents and I had traveled there for his Bar Mitzvah.  While Max became a man in the traditional sense of the phrase - this is not a story about him losing his virginity - I began learning that distance and time sometimes do not matter.  At all.

As the youngest child in my nuclear family by 12 years, I tend to not match ages with much of my family.  All of my mom's sister's kids are more than 15 years older than me.  Technically Max isn't my direct cousin...he's my second cousin's son or whatever, but Max, Ryan and I are the closest in ages to each other...and to me, family is family.

See?  I'm a generation older than Max.

So anyway, Max is coming to visit.  Actually, by the time this goes live, he'll be at the airport ready to go back to Philly.

I am hoping that by the time this goes live, we'll have had enough fun to last another 12 years without seeing each other - but I very much so hope that doesn't happen.  Thing is, when it comes to family, and true friends, distance/time makes NO difference in your relationship.  It doesn't make the heart grow fonder, but it also doesn't subtract anything from what you have together.

When I moved to Florida for a job I also moved away from a lot of people.  Actually, everyone I'd ever met up until that point... except for KC who lived in Florida at the time.  Obviously there are people I've lost touch with and may never speak to again, but the family I've chosen remains unchanged, unchallenged by the distance/time between us and unwavering.

Much like my high school reunion, I'm expecting to spend much of this reunion with an adult bev in my hand...

...possibly singing some Peaches and Herb.

End.

**Editors note: my biggest take-away from my trip to Philly at 16 years old is that my parents took me shopping on some road that had store after store along it... and I got a pair of knee high, zip up, soft faux leather, 3 inch platform boots.  I wore the SHIT out of those until mid-college.  This picture below is me wearing them for a "halloween" costume in 2004 (I think).**

Middle, in case you didn't know, is me.