Extended family

Yesterday we returned from a week in Florida at my sister’s place. In attendance were my sister and brother-in-law, older cousin and his wife and three kids, younger cousin and his wife, sister’s dad (she’s technically my half sister). and step-aunt. Managing fifteen people from the age of eleven to ninety-three is no joke. Much of it involved piling into cars, grocery shopping, loading and unloading the dishwasher, cooking giant meals, wandering aimlessly in public places, playing board games, looking at family photos, and laundry. I can’t even imagine how big families operate on a daily basis - although I suppose you get a system down pretty quickly. 

But it was fun and exhausting and gratifying and reminded me that, despite the vast underperformance of the generation before us, us kids turned out alright - we’re all in solid, healthy relationships, our kids are well-behaved and pleasant to be around, we’re progressive free thinkers, and enjoy each other’s company. We usually only do these big get-togethers once every two years, which means this may have been our last Florida trip - my sister may move up her plans to move to California and could be here sooner than the end of 2027. One of my cousins was floating the idea of moving here, too. It would be wild to live close to relatives again - I haven’t had that scenario since we were all clustered in the northeast in the 80s. But it seems like this could happen sooner than later. 

I hit the ground running today with all the usual post-trip maintenance - laundry, groceries, paying bills, taking out garbage, putting things away, meanwhile sorting breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the kids who are still on winter break for five more days. I also delved into some registration system stuff for my event, being as I have the big contest launch in three weeks, which quickly spiraled into a lengthy online chat help session and then several hours trying to set up and use their scheduling system which I always pay for but haven’t used in a few years. Of course it’s all updated now so the learning curve has been intense, but I’m determined to fill it out completely to see if it’s better than the google sheet I’ve been using. It’ll be several more days of work until it’s done. But it would be nice to have a schedule available for people looking to sign up for contests. I also have to completely re-write several sections of my website. And do a ton of tax work. Playtime is over, I guess!!

For me, I’m going to start the dreaded diet for real next week when I’m back on schedule - but I’ll start eating less holiday-style until Monday anyway. I won’t weigh myself until then. I think I’m finally getting my period as we speak - since it was due a month ago as of tomorrow, I think we can safely say it’s no longer “late” but just “skipped”. I’m annoyed I’m getting it at all, but being as I’ve never skipped before, maybe this is a step in the right direction that things are at least slowing down.