Family Friends

My cousin Lindsay's bridal shower was yesterday. I usually hate those sorts of things, because they're overly "girly" and generic. Maybe it's because I knew a lot of the people there (since they were my relatives), or because we weren't forced to play a lot of games, it was actually not unpleasant. What gets me though is that my cousin is old enough to be getting married! I remember when she was born, and I hated her because she took my place as the baby of the family. But as she got older, she got cooler, and we would play dress-up together. We're nearly six years apart, so there was a period of time where we weren't that close, but every time Jesse and I see her and her fiance Dave, we say to each other, "We need to hang out with them more." What's really cool is the idea that we can be friends with our family - that we're not spending time with them because we're related. And, I'm not saying this because she reads the blog, either (*wink). (By the way, I totally stole that picture of Lindsay and Dave from Lindsay's MySpace page.)

Lindsay's my first cousin - she's the daughter of my mom's younger brother. Of my first cousins, I'd say she and I are closest, in part because my sister and older cousins Matt and Derek (the sons of my mom's older brother) were sitting at the grown-ups table by the time Lindsay came around, and I was still young enough to be at the kids table. I remember clearly playing dress-up with Lindsay up until I was about 12 or 13, in part because I was around, but mostly because I always wanted a younger brother or sister, and she was as close as I was going to get to that.

Over the years, we sort of grew apart, like siblings can do, because I'm nearly six years older than her. When I was 18 and she was 13, it was huge. Now, though... it's nothing. In fact, I have friends younger than Lindsay, and her fiance Dave is my age. It's funny how growing up is a great equalizer, and can make age differences disappear.

Lindsay and I are a lot alike - in fact, we both are marketing directors for companies in the new construction industry (her for a flooring company, me for an architecture/ planning firm). We're both very outgoing, and social butterflies. We look related, too... when we were growing up, we looked more alike than my sister and I.

As a party game at the bridal shower, all of the guests were given a list of movie couples, and we had to identify the movie they were from. As Lindsay, her sister Jeana, and my aunt Anita were putting the list together, they took bets on who they thought would win: me, my sister, or my mom... The cool thing about that, to me, is that I'm friendly enough with my cousins that they know the type of person I am, what I like, and that we know those things about each other that we can make personal jokes and comments about each other. I wonder, how many people are friendly with their extended families like that?

As Jesse and I plan for our own family, I'm glad that we're close with his brothers and my sister, but even more so, I'm glad I'm friendly with my extended family, too. I hope that my children look forward to family events (like I do) to catch up with their family friends. I hope that my cousins also are starting to think about or trying to have babies, so my children will have cousins their age (like I do). And I hope that they walk away from family events thinking that they need to hang out with their cousins more.