Week Eleven: A funeral and goals this week.

My family is huge. I have aunts, uncles, cousins (of the first, second, third and fourth varieties), grandparents, great-grandparents, great-other-relatives, so forth and so on that I see on a semi-regular basis. We all, with one or two exceptions, live in New England, centralized, naturally, on Cape Cod and Nantucket.

I'm famous for saying 'my cousin once did', my friends stopping me to ask me this cousin's name and my connection to him or her. Example:
Me: "Oh my God, this one time, my cousin and I--"
Samantha: "Which cousin?"
Me: "Hayley. The one that's closest to me in age and lives in Vermont and is my mom's mom's sister's daughter?"
You get the picture.

Anyway, with a family so large, there is always something going on. For example, my Aunt Karen (aunt by association, that is. She's so close to our family she's like my mother's sister) called my mother the other day in tears because my cousin, Ryan, failed at life once again. "Oh, Stacey, it's just awful! Ryan had a friend over when he wasn't supposed to and I kicked him out!" Now, my remedy for this is that you just send the boy to military school, or juvi, and be done with him.

My point is, that there's always some sort of thing going on. This week, it's a funeral.

Now, some of you may remember last month, an aunt of mine died of swine flu, ahem, H1N1. I wasn't close to her, as she ran away from the family a long time ago, but I am close to her daughter. However, this time, it's a little more serious.

Ready? Because I'm only going to say this once.

My mom's dad's brother's wife passed away yesterday from pneumonia, and I remember her so very well because she always came over here from the island to celebrate events with us like birthdays and weddings and Christenings, her daughter, Danielle, and my mom are very close and Joanne, my aunt that just died, loved me and loved to talk to me about my life and really seemed to care, not just in that 'I'm curious' sort of way, but a real way.

Long story short, I will be attending her funeral. It really sucks, especially for my Uncle Danny. They were married forever, your typical old island couple, and they were best friends. She was too young. I assume she was about sixty.

That turned out longer than I had planned... Side note, though, I'm thinking about starting an entirely separate journal for these random thoughts and going-ons in my life. Anyone opposed?

Anyway, goals for this week are!

Goal Number 150: Buy my dad a real Christmas gift.
I have gifts.com to thank for making this goal easier. Seriously, I'll leave a link at the bottom of my post today. You plug in what the occasion is, your budget, the giftee's age, personality and relation to the gifter, and the website magically shows you pictures and gives you links to pages and pages of potential gift items. Some of the gifts are unusual, perfect for those who have everything and claim they don't want anything else. Like my dad.

Goal Number 93: Convince Mom to kick Rob out so I can move into his room.
Long story short: Mom sublets rooms in our house to make a little extra money. She and my father have since before they got divorced. Daddy doesn't do it anymore since he makes enough money to support himself, but Mama still does. However, this renter, Rob, is "a total creeper" as my friends put it. Although, good news! He sent my mom a text the other day saying that his need in the room may change, as he is hoping to move in with his girlfriend next month. HELLO BASICALLY-MY-OWN-STUDIO. Okay. It's a room. But it's twice as big as my bedroom with a kitchenette, a double bed, and a private entrance. Plus, cable hookup. Some decorating/deorderizing will be in order, but it's workable.

PS: Don't feel bad for me about losing my aunt. I've lost a lot of people in my life and been to way too many funerals for someone my age, but death is just a part of life. I've accepted that. I mean, it's tragic and it sucks, but it is what it is.

PPS: I've solved your gift-giving qualms. You can thank me later.