Saturday my cousins hosted a surprise birthday party for their dad, my Uncle Roland. It was at the country club (please pronounce it with your jaws clenched, a la Thurston Howell III). In fact, it was so classy that I didn't feel comfortable ordering beer; they only had Heineken, which is much too sophisticated for my tastes.

My mom always worries about Jeff at these family events- we are, after all, a bunch of rampant extroverts. It's also confusing as most of us have names that start with 'K', so it's easy to get them mixed-up. I see Roland's daughters so seldom that it always takes me a couple of seconds to sort out who's who (in my defense, they look very similar).

I had to laugh, at my age I still wound up at the kids' table, with the kousins I sat with at the kids' table years ago, along with ever-popular Boy Kharlie, the six-year-old son of Karole. He got a cheeseburger AND got to play on his Game Boy, but was sociable enough to allow himself to be coaxed onto the dance floor by Kym. Khris got to geek out with Jeff. I was surprised to find I have a lot in common with Karlin, Kathy's high school-aged daughter. Karlin and I are both sarcastic, we both like sushi and calamari and shopping. (Her budget is a lot bigger than mine though.) It's nice to see the new generation sharing the same values that I do.

I finally figured out why I don't feel like I fit in with my kousins. It's not just that, unlike their totally Scottish/English/Irish make-up, I have an infusion of Teutonic genes, so they tend to be on the reed-like side; or that I'm weird, though both of those are true. They all grew up in the same town; I was the kousin who visited every summer from up north. Even now I'm the one who lives the farthest away. When my family did move back to my maternal hometown, they were for the most part grown-up. Mum would like for me to feel closer to my kousins; I would like to also, but I still feel a little awkward at family events.

Some observations:
My family is a bunch of shutterbugs
The women look like their mothers
It looks like I'm in for crow's feet, but at least that means we tend to smile a lot
My cousins and I all miss our little grandmother
This picture was the hit of the slide show:

And I have to tell you that I sat bolt upright in bed that night when I remembered that I was in ninth grade when Karlin's parents got married! That was a long time ago! Coincidentally, it was the second day I had contact lenses.