After about 17 threatening texts, e-mails, and phone calls about returning to blog about various events in my life (all of them coming from my mother), I am returning to the blogging world. Going out of town the past couple of weekends has really thrown me off but- don't worry- I'm back.
One of those trips was a long, Pandora-filled drive from Charlotte up to Baltimore to see my little brother play in his first D1 lacrosse game. That on its own is probably pretty nerve-wracking, but when the team you're defending your goal against is Johns Hopkins, I think it raises the stakes (just a little). From what other, more-knowledgeable lax fans told me, he played well, especially considering this was probably the first time he's had to play against grown men. Seriously, those players look about 35 years old. They even had more leg hair than most normal males. You watch players like them on TV but until you see them shoot on Jonny who might weigh 160 pounds soaking wet after Thanksgiving dinner, you don't realize how big they are.
We stayed with family friends in Fairfax County, the matriarchs of the families first-year college roommates at Cortland State in New York, making us "the Cortland Crew". As they began popping out children (one each year) and continuing to get together, we formed this really special bond centered around weird behavior, bad vacation decisions, and massive quantities of beer (obviously, the kids did not become a part of the latter part until much later in life). We used to see each other twice a year, once during the summer and once at New Years. Since the children have grown up, it's been a little harder for everyone to be in the same place all at once. It's still cool to have people in your life that you've known since birth. At the same time, when outsiders come in on that bond... it can be scary. Especially when you have a sort of "baptism by fire" that occurs whenever newcomers crash our little parties. One of the honorary members of the Crew, Bill, came on New Years and met us all in about 20 minutes. He fit right in, falling asleep on a deck chair outside at the end of December. He's fit in ever since.
Ryan, my sister's fiance, had his first experience with us this past weekend, and I don't think he was quite ready to jump into the "passing-out-in-a-strange-place" initiation as Bill had been. This was the first time I had met him too, and passing inspection from multiple groups might have been a little stressful for him. The girls went out Saturday to go dress shopping (FYI, we found the dress... or I should say I found the dress) and when we got back around 4 pm, Ryan was sitting in the front room reading.
"Where are the dads?" Kristin asked.
"Drinking in the hot tub" he replied. The rest of us herded into the kitchen to stuff ourselves on appetizers and margaritas, but Kristin stayed behind.
"Why aren't you out there with them?"
"Kristin," he said. "They've been drinking since noon. I can't keep up with them. I'm a pussy!"
So, maybe he has a little prepping to do before he can really join our family. Even at my prime in college, I have never been able to keep up with the dads. He especially needs to prepare before he meets my mom's brothers, who have been known to ask boyfriends intrusive questions about their male body parts, noting the requirements necessary to be a part of our family.
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