Celebrating Family’s Eccentricities

After having dinner with my awesome cousin Katie last night, I came to a realization about the world I thought you might be interested in (seeing as you are part of said world…probably). Here it is: No matter how crazy your family is or how much your mother embarrasses you, it is nothing compared to my aunt Maisie.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love Maisie. She’s hilarious, smart, fun… and also insane. I’ve always enjoyed viewing her eccentricities from afar. I heard tales from my mother’s childhood that started out with a fun game of “James Bond” and ended with baseball bats and broken noses. I enjoyed stories of mischievousness in which Maisie would convince friends (and relatives?) to get high before going on a private White House tour. I even went on vacation to London with my aunt and saw more of her than I had bargained for (when out of nowhere she flashed an entire room of people).

However, while swapping stories with my surprisingly sane cousin, I grew in my awe and appreciation of crazy Maisie. This is a woman who has never been afraid of speaking her mind, which explains why after she got a hysterectomy she paraded around the house, declaring, “NO MORE UTERUS!” Not blessed with a knack for paying attention while driving, my aunt gets into so many accidents these days that she has apparently stopped informing the family of the regular occurrences. She is also not shy about her booze, men, and drug filled past, admitting to her children, “This one time I waited ALL NIGHT for a stop sign to turn green!” (Quote of the Day: 12/30/08 )

But despite her beautiful insanity and the daily embarrassment she affords her four daughters, I cannot help but think how much fun she has made their lives. If there’s one thing I can say about my cousins, it’s that they are not boring. I am sure Maisie had a hand in that.

So I guess the point here is that no matter how certifiable you think your family is, there’s always one out there even more so. And it’s the neuroses that you resist that make you who you are.

That’s certainly true for me, at least.

December 30, 2008. Tags: , , , , . Quote of the Day, Random Stories. 2 comments.

Quote of the Day: 12/29/08

Meant in a good way (and about me):

“You’re my little nightmare baby!”

-Mom

Gee thanks, mom. I like to think of myself as a nightmare baby too.

December 29, 2008. Tags: , . Quote of the Day. Leave a comment.

Quote of the Day: 12/28/08

…Or more accurately, quote of a year and a half ago, but it just came into MY life today.

In reference to his Forgetting Sarah Marshall costar, Maria Thayer:

“Her lips taste like barbed wire dipped in cancer.”

- Jack McBrayer

December 28, 2008. Tags: , , , . Quote of the Day. 2 comments.

Interesting Observation #2

My family seems to keep 20 year-old glasses for no reason.

Damn we look good!

December 27, 2008. Tags: , . Interesting Observations. 1 comment.

Homemade Gifts Making a Comeback!

This Christmas, I received many awesome gifts. Though I greatly enjoyed the multiple Neil Patrick Harris made-for-TV movies my sister gave me (“The Wedding Dress” is actually really good…like, for real though…seriously!) two of my favorite presents were homemade wonders.

Best. Poster. EVER.

First of all, for months now I have been searching high and low for a “Balls.” poster that can be found in Riley’s dorm room in season 4 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Yes, I’m a huge Buffy nerd, and yes I have re-watched season 4 many times, making the fact that this poster is no longer sold all the more frustrating.

I guess my brother tried to buy the poster for me as well but like I, he was unsuccessful. However, given the idea by his girlfriend, Noah decided to recreate the poster himself. Not only did he do an awesome job (It looks almost exactly the same) but it was so unexpected and thoughtful, it made my Christmas.

As if this wasn’t enough, after all the Christmas gifts had been distributed my sister rushed me up to her room to show me one present she had not been able to wrap. It turns out she had been looking on the Creative Commons website when she found THIS (for those of you too lazy to click a link, suck it up cause I’m not telling you what it says!).

Click it yet? Okay. I shall continue.

She emailed the famous “Derek,” filled out a form, and a day later received a song all about me! Needless to say, the song is pretty sweet. Does it live up to the awesomeness that is me? Judge for yourself: Blythe is some srs awesome!

Whatever to your opinion, cause I loved it! So the point I’m trying to make is that homemade stuff (no matter if you make it or someone more musically talented) is awesome.

Also, Quote of the day 12/27/08:

In reference to absolutely nothing:

“I was going to eat your hand, but then I realized I was full.”

-Maeve (my sister)

December 27, 2008. Tags: , , , , . Quote of the Day, Random Stories. Leave a comment.

Quote of the day: 12/26/08

After I did something particularly awesome:

“It’s like I got one sister and life said ‘DO OVER!’ and got it right!”

-Noah (my brother)

December 27, 2008. Tags: . Quote of the Day. 1 comment.

Quote of the Christmas

On John Cougar Mellencamp:

“Oh! John Mellencougar!”

-Mom

…I wish his name was Mellencougar. Oh, who am I kidding? I wish MY name was Mellencougar. Stage name, perhaps?

December 25, 2008. Tags: , , . Quote of the Day. Leave a comment.

Interesting Observation #1

My brother has had three anti-malaria pills sitting next to the break pedal of his car for a year now. I’m pretty sure he was supposed to take those…

December 23, 2008. Tags: . Interesting Observations. Leave a comment.

It’s Official: Life Has Meaning

Sometimes life proves to you unequivocally that things happen for a reason. Such was the case two nights ago, when my  brother and I were decorating the tree.

In my family, the age-old tradition of decorating of our tree deteriorated about five years ago when we forgot to buy one and instead used this scary three-foot silver plastic tree that had been discarded into our basement of doom years before. When the next year proved a dangerously similar situation, I finally convinced my mom to buy a fake tree (3 days before Christmas) as a simplification. Since I went to college and seem to be the only one that cares at all about tree decoration, the yearly trek to the basement in search of tree, lights, and ornaments turned into a chore my mother performed with much resignation. This year, it was apparently a task she could not bear to complete.

I arrived home after an exhausting semester to find a blank tree, naked without decorations. After a substantial amount of time (3 hours) I couldn’t take it any longer and forced my brother to string lights and place ornaments with me. However, after doing a beautiful job with the lights, tragedy struck: five out of the seven strands didn’t work. This is when annoyance and laziness set in. Instead of decorating the tree nicely, we clumped the lights together, jammed the angel in the center, and put a hat  on the top. Surprisingly, the family backed our decision and the tree only got crazier, because, as i justified, “Jesus wouldn’t care.”

NOT my bra...

None of this, however, is pertinent besides the fact that it led to a discovery of epic proportions. While rifling through a box of decorations (looking for the ugliest ones) I came across a knit stocking I did not recall (Pictured next to my head and the upside down bra). Curiously, it was not empty. I searched inside and was rewarded with a series of gag gifts my mother had accrued in a yankee swap ten years before. Along with fart juice, penis lipstick, and a can topper that looked like a boob was included a sticky rubber penis.

As my astonishment quickly faded into amusement, I did what any normal person would do: shouted “think fast!” at my brother and chucked the penis at his head. After noting how grossed out my sister was, my brother and I began playing a game of catch with the penis (to make her more uncomfortable, cause we’re good people). Luckily Noah sucks at throwing and ended up pelting the wall with the tricky dick. Then, brilliance occurred. The penis stuck. There we were, surrounded by all things Christmas… and a sticky dick and balls on the wall.

I grabbed a camera and struggled to turn it on and capture the moment before the bond between wall and penis broke. I snapped a photo, the dick dropped, and fate, yes fate, stepped in. The camera was on record mode.

This was when I knew there was something more out there. No WAY could the genius I captured be the result of coincidence. There is a design much bigger than you and I. A design only apparent through three second videos of sticky penises falling off walls.

But just telling you (longwindedly) won’t do it, I know. I, instead, leave it to you to watch and decide for yourself. You will soon be a believer.

BAM! There it is, folks. You’re welcome.

more about “It’s Official: Life Has Meaning“, posted with vodpod

December 20, 2008. Tags: , , , , , , . Homemade Stuff, Random Stories. Leave a comment.