Full Circle

Seelos Family Reunion in Idaho, August 1987-ish

I was an awkward kid. I was taller than most and it seemed even my clothes couldn't keep up. My pants were always too short and my shoes too big in order to keep myself from growing out of them too quick. At age 12 I got glasses and I don't think we could have found a bigger pair. But, I could change their color to coordinate with any hideous outfit I was wearing that week!

Anyway, that awkward kid hasn't been seen at our great Seelos Family Reunion since... well, since she was still an awkward pre-teen. Not many recognized the hot mama I've become!!! :) Really, though, I was having conversations with people that I grew up with or spent my summer's with and they wouldn't even realize who they were talking to until good ol' mom walked up and put her arm around me. That's funny shit!

It's funny how events and traditions like this never seem to mean much until you have a family of your own. I loved the reunions as a kid, but as a teenager I was so uncomfortable with myself and where I fit in that going to a family reunion was a kind of salt in the wound when even your own blood-relatives seemingly shunned you as well. Me no likey the snobby! I have come to realize, though, that I may have been just as big a snob as I accused everyone else of being. Hmmmmm...... Nope, it was them! Anyway, now I am taking my own sweet girls to the reunions and I find it incredible that we've come full circle. My grandma took my mom, my mom took me, and now I take Phoenix and Gracie.

This year was an especially important year to be there for my family. My grandma, Edna, the witty and loveable triplet that she is, was the only remaining child living and present at this year's festivities. We honored her and laughed with her and in a way said our goodbyes, for we know that this year is likely to be her last. Thanks to her sister's family, who was in charge of this year's reunion, she can now leave this world and go knocking on heaven's doors crying, "What's the big idea watching your kids humiliate me this year with a clown turned ventriliquist?!? Damn, you Elsie! Why I oughta..."