Family Double Dates

A few years ago, my best friend taught me how to make plans a month or so out, so that I always have something on the calendar to look forward to. The get togethers this weekend have been on the calendar for over a month, and we have been looking forward to catching up with family and friends.

Last night, my Aunt Corrine and Uncle Art took us out for a lovely double-date kind of evening.

Aunt Corrine is my grandma’s youngest sister, the last of 12.  Rightfully so, my grandma has a strong fondness for this sister and maintains a close relationship with her.  Them and their other sister are the last three siblings left of their generation, and with every visit they take care to recite family heritage.  Who begat who.  Who married, or divorced who.   With 12 brothers and sisters, and each with 4 or 5 kids of their own, its easy to forget when all the names are similar.  Several “Edwards” mixed in with and “Edgar”.  And don’t forget a couple of “Frances” in there, one for each gender.  Aunt Lee gave me a blank family tree map to record all that begatting, it’s surely going to take several drafts!

There are some family members that are easy to get along with, and some that take effort to prepare to be around and time to recover from.  Fortunately, Aunt Corrine has always been very easy to get along with.  In some ways, this can be a hazardous trap.  She is well known as the family gossip and isn’t that one family member you tell your secrets to.  She’s nice to everyone, and makes it easy to fall into conversation with her.  She asks insightful questions prompting thoughtful answers.  Perhaps it was her 40 years as a high school guidance counselor.  At any rate, its easy to say too much to her.

I was prepared for this and was careful.  Sometimes the kindest thing to say is nothing at all, and to keep my big mouth shut.  Redirecting questions to “why are so many casinos shut down”?  Surely, a long-winded easy answer for a long-time Vegas resident.

My mind has moved on to our next calendared get together.  A highly anticipated reunion with an old high school girlfriend.  In school, we hung out often as we were both in marching band and shared common friends.  Since high school, I’ve only seen her at our 10 and 20 year reunions.  Our 30th was cancelled due to Covid, so our get together is just in time!

If it weren’t for our new lifestyle, I’d still be just keeping tabs on Facebook and watching events unfold.  Now, we are part of the events and reconnecting face-to-face.  I don’t, for a single moment, forget how lucky we are and how fortunate we are to be so privelaged to live this type of life – if only for a few years.