Family, ah family

So, this past weekend I took my loverly Fiancee, Sarina, to meet some members of my extended family whilst one of my cousins was getting married in NJ. As if my nuclear family wasn't enough, she had the pleasure of meeting all of my aunts and uncle on my mom's side. Apparently this gave her even clearer picture of where select traits of mine come from.

Apparently my significant weight loss had quite an effect on some of my cousins, so much so they wouldn't have noticed me! That is pretty bad considering my two older cousins haven't seen me in years, so they have a persistent image of their fat little cousin. I'm glad I've gotten past that part of my life.

Of course, because we were in NJ for a wedding, our wedding was the topic of many conversations. My favorite being when my mother told me I have to invite my other cousin(because I'm inviting her sister, whose wedding it was, and father and mother). Although I now agree with her logic, that would be like not inviting my brother, but inviting me and my parents (incidentally that is who attended this past wedding). My first reaction when my mom told me, "You gotta invite her" was, "I don't 'gotta' do anything." Which has now become our second tag of our wedding:

Sarina & Brian

September 5th, 2009

"Plan the fuck out of this thing"

&

"We don't 'gotta' do anything"

Although I think it is important to consider family, I'm not very close with my extended family and Sarina and I are paying for the wedding, so everything is our decision and no one else's. Ultimately, I think these chain-invites (invite one cousin, you have to invite them all) have the opposite effect on me. If I have to invite all my cousins, then I'll invite none of my cousins! Problem solved! Eat that family!