Tuesday... has a family, I guess

Reason I didn't post last week? I was in a haze of odd sleep schedules and no longer knew what day it was. Not really any other excuse there. You can punish me if you like.

Continuing, to say that I do not care about my family's history, genealogy, etc. is perhaps the world's grossest understatement. I do not know anyone outside of my pretty immediate family's names. I know my grandparents, my one aunt's, and her two sons. I know my father, mother, brother. It ends there. I have a great grandmother who, to my knowledge, is alive. But she could be dead, I wouldn't know. I have numerous great aunts and uncles and I can't remember any of their names. I think there is a John? That could be a lie. I don't know one of my grandmother's maiden names (Benoit maybe?) and the other I only know because it's hilarious (Hoare). I know my cousin's surname, but I probably wouldn't be able to spell it if one of them didn't post on Facebook six times a day.

So any family stories I have are... pieced together from vague memories or just first hand accounts. I seem to recall that I have a great aunt (Miriam? M-something, I think) who is quite notoriously unattractive. I remember a story being told about two men, one related to us, another not, who were talking about the most hideous woman they both knew, and by the end, they realized they were talking about the same woman. I have no idea who she is or what she looks like, so I cannot confirm or deny that. There is the classic story of my uncle Chris. My father, a right troublemaker, had so many parent-teacher conferences with Chris (his teacher... science, maybe? could've been math) that he ended up getting to know my dad's sister very well. Can never go wrong with a bit of a Hot for Teacher story, particularly if it ends in marriage. I know their son, my cousin Tom, does things just to scare his mother, like travelling to Calcutta.

I think my mother's side of the family is full of less pleasant characters. I know my great-grandmother walks all over my grandma. I know I've got a bunch of cousins once removed and great aunts my mother doesn't like. I seem to recall a story about a man with a missing arm. There was someone who was old and sick and curmudgeon who may or may not have been killed by his wife. I don't know how I am related to any of these people, their names, where they lived, who showed up for my mum's wedding and who was barely even in her life, let alone mine. I don't hold any real value to the fact that I share a mutual great-grandparent with somebody, so I suppose I never asked as a kid about anyone in my family. It just never mattered to me. I'd rather know about the lives of the people who cared to share it with me, be they my closer relatives or my friends.