T-Giving & Mario Kart Love

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I got herded over to my cousins on my father's side in Staten Island. Pay toll is now $10 - what is the world coming to?

So I met some of my usual cousins (or cousins-stealers, as my cousin on my mother's side like to not-so-affectionately call them whenever she finds out we have to go to their place instead of hers. I think she'd fight for custody if she could.) and then I found some of my more long-lost cousins.

The first thing two of them said when they climbed up the steps to the attic and saw me and my baby girl cousin was "Oh, hey, um ... I assume ... you're ... girlfriends of someone ...?"

I stared at them. "Are you kidding."

Long-lost cousin #1 looked scared. "Uh ..."

"There are only like two girls in this family, you know, and you can't even remember us?" Seriously, the testosterone of my father's side is overwhelming.

His eyes darted over to baby cousin and his expression was astonished. "Mimi?" That's our pet name for her. "You look like you're in college!" Yeah. Baby girl cousin is no longer such a baby. A freshman in high school, she's wearing make up and has an unhealthy fascination with learning more about drinking games and what drinks she should drink. ("None, BABY COUSIN!") I want to gather her up in my arms and squeeze her back into a toddler.

Then long-lost cousin hesitated over me again. "Uh ..."

His brother jumped in then and was like, "She's the sister of him!" Points to my brother who's in the corner playing a computer game furiously with my other cousins.

I point at the brother, my long-lost cousin #2. "I like him better."

"Highlights" of the Night:

- Trying to stop my baby cousin from guzzling the bottle of wine. Showed her how cool I was by immediately turning into a tomato after taking half a measly cup of wine. Long-lost cousins now think I'm a party girl and an alcoholic. Dude, if I was, I wouldn't be such a lightweight!

- Having three tables for separate hotpots. 'Cause that's how our family breaks it down for Thanksgiving. Even a kiddie table latches onto a new element of excitement with a huge pot of boiling water in the center of the table. ("Call me an alcoholic one more time and I'll shove this pot in your face." - me across the table to long-lost cousin #2. His response: "I always knew you were violent." Damn it. Now everyone knows.)

- Trying to convince baby girl cousin that alcohol is not cool for underaged people. Except she seemed to hold her alcohol better than I did. ("Aw, it's okay. Not that red anymore!" - her to my tomato face.) Damn it.

- Long-lost cousin #2 seemed to found a sadistic kindred spirit in me and attempted to strangle me/lead me around on a leash with my own scarf. And I'm the drunk one??

- Tried to talk to long-lost cousin #1 about medical school stuff since he's a medical student at John Hopkins except we got distracted by cooler stuff - i.e. why his finger is bandaged like a sausage ("So this friend had a dog and warned me not to pet it, but it was so cute and tiny and I was so wasted and I thought 'How nasty can the dog be? ...'")

So in other words, Thanksgiving break came and went too quickly. I went to bed yesterday at 4 in the morning, but I turned in my two papers. Mission accomplished.

Yay, good mail! I got a Sephora delivery today and the journal that published my short story also sent me my two issue copies which are supposed to be my payment of sorts. Dad teased me about holding out for cash, yah right. The copies were nicer than I expected - honestly, I pictured a thin magazine pamphlet, but these were cute glossy black books.

This is a cute song my friend sent me, the "Mario Kart Love Song" by blinktwice4y:

lyrics:

V1:
You be my princess
I'll be your toad
I'll follow behind you
on rainbow road
Protect you from red shells
wherever we go
I promise.

V2:
Noone will touch us
if we pick up a star
If you spin out
you can ride in my car
When we slide together
we generate sparks
in our wheels and our hearts

Chorus:
The finish line
is just around the bend
I'll pause this game
so our love will never end
Let's go again

V3:
The blue shell is coming
so I'll go ahead
If you hang behind
it'll hit me instead
but never look back
cause I'm down but not dead
I'll catch up to you

Bridge:
Don't worry about
Bowser or DK
Eat this glowing mushroom
and they'll all fade away

Chorusx2

to the mushroom cup
and the flower cup
and the star cup
and the reverse cup

walalalalala
walalalalalawaluigiiiiii

Creative and hilarious - I wish someone would take a blue shell for me too.

And now! Back to cramming furiously for my finals. :( Sorry about the randomness of this post - my brain is just sluggish now.