Mi Familia

Me with my cousin Pat.

I realized last night that I’ve never posted much about my family. Here is a little background: I live with my older sister West Hartford and her three pugs Fitzy, Archie, and Doug. My sister, who is 34, was married to her high school sweet heart before getting divorced 2 years ago. My parents are both retired and spend a lot their time volunteering in my home town of Waterbury, CT.

 

As alike as we are, my sister and I are complete opposites. She tells my parents everything where as I am much more guarded. The funny thing about living with my sister is that she is starting to realize why I am so secretive with my parents. They love both of us, but they also tend to freak out over everything. Over the years when I have let my guard down and shared personal information it has always blown up in my face. For example, when I was in college I spent a little over 3 weeks traveling through Europe as part of a summer abroad program. Before I left my parents were generous enough to give me a couple hundred dollars for spending money because I was poor college student. When I returned home I happen to mention that traveling had put some “debt” on my credit card. I made the mistake of using the word debt and that caused an upheaval. Money tends to be a hot button issue with Mom and Dad. I’ll save the epic story of when I left my job at Bath and Body Works for another time. (it was a major turning point in my life) I lovingly call it World War 3. The funny thing about WW3 is that it all started because my sister accidentally blabbed to my parents.

 

My extended family is somewhat small. My father has one sister who lives in California. She’s the aunt who found a smart successful husband and generally married up. Her three kids are grown and all live on the west coast. The last time I saw her was in 2003 at my sisters wedding. My mother has one brother who is married without children in Rhode Island. Her older sister lives locally and has four grown daughters who all have families of their own. Those 4 sisters (my cousins) make up the majority of my family that I see on a somewhat regular basis. Again, I love them but they are all about 15 years older and have children of their own. We’ve never had much in common but luckily we have been able to keep in touch through Facebook.

So that's my family life. Nothing to exciting on the surface. However I'll try and post some of the more interesting stories as time goes on.

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