Like Sands Through The Hourglass, These Are The Gays Of Our Lives

Half of my family is in town to attend my cousin's wedding next week and, while things are crazy and cramped, they've also been all kindsa fun. But then, that's just par for the course with these people. My mom doesn't usually come out East to see me, and the few times she has there have been big snow storms out this way. Not surprisingly, another one is coming this week and she, of course, blames me. Still, I'm very happy she's here. The women in my family are...outspoken, about EVERYTHING. Crazy Aunt says whatever springs to mind, no matter how offensive it might be. My aunt C, mother of the groom, censors herself a bit and is probably the quietest of the womenfolk. My mom thinks before she speaks, but usually says whatever the hell she wants anyway. And my Aunt D, twin sister of Aunt C, well, let's just say she and I have this in common - we'd never make it in politics since it requires some semblance of tact. Any one of these women being in town is a handful to deal with. All of them at the same time is just chaos. Add to that, my cousin from D.C. and my sister's daughter (14 in a month and coming into her own tactless existence), and it's even more chaotic. The irony is that my cousin chose to have the actual wedding reception back home so that our whole family didn't have to fly out and yet half of them have made the journey for the small affair in Boston. Weddings are an interesting time for my clan, and especially destination weddings that keep us all enveloped in togetherness for way too long. Everybody gets all up in everybody else's business and anyone with a significant other gets the third degree about when they're going to prance down an aisle. My D.C. cousin always gets asked about freezing her eggs, to quote Crazy Aunt, "how's that whole thing going, mija?", something she always swears she's going to do because there are no decent men anymore. My sister and her partner, not in town for the festivities, get asked about when they're going to get hitched. And Aunt D's oldest son always gets guilt about having eloped instead of having a big wedding, something that happened over a decade ago. Being that everyone has come into this neck of the wood, instead of us all going home or to some other destination, the aunts are being immersed in our worlds and everyday lives. Myself, my best friend and four of the cousins live on this side of the country. One cousin is married and lives in Boston, DMC, the groom-to-be, splits time between New York and Boston, one cousin is in D.C., my gay cousin is also in N.Y. The marrieds and soon-to-be marrieds get occasional questions about having kids. The rest of us get questions about everything under the sun. The interrogations are almost enough to convince me marriage is the way to go. However, the ladies in my family have put the rest of us on the backburner this trip because they're enthralled by my cousin's gay love triangle. I feel bad for him, taking all that heat and having all the attention, but at the same time I don't since he brought it on himself. Everyone thinks they have the best advice for him and he just doesn't want to hear any of it. But, if nothing else, it gave us this quote from Crazy Aunt:

"Mijo...I love you. But I didn't know it was all Gays Of Our Lives on this side of the country."

It should be noted that as a child my grandma forced us to watch "Days Of Our Lives" everyday after school. I still recall random crap from that show and I'm ashamed to admit it. But that quote from Crazy Aunt makes all that childhood torment worth it!