I could call any relative I know of at 3am and get a bed for the night. But I would never do so. Because we are Yankees, and that's how we roll.

Yeah, that sounds about right.

Also, Facebook told me I needed to reconnect with my HUSBAND. Who sleeps in the same bed as me. We're married (which Facebook knows); we don't do the majority of our communication through Facebook!

If you're not doing it in Facebook, it doesn't count as a real relationship.

... what, no?

I could call any relative I know of at 3am and get a bed for the night. But I would never do so. Because we are Yankees, and that's how we roll.

So true. Except add that I get in trouble if I don't have a good excuse for staying in the hotel and not their home.

Much of the family is on Facebook and are friends, but I still have Facebook on the list of things I clearly don't have time for.

Looks like they might launch at 11:19. If not around then, they won't be able to launch today after that.

My dad has brothers and sisters in the double digits, and I have full confidence that if I called any one of them at 3AM and needed a bed for the night, it would be no problem.

When I was living in the States ten or so years ago, my second cousins in Boston had me to stay for the weekend and showed me around the city, even though I'd never met them before. It's what I most love about big Irish families. (Hmm. I wonder if my Australian-Irish cousins would be up for a visit from UK family.)

Facebook told me I needed to reconnect with my HUSBAND.

It told me I don't talk to my father enough. Facebook: a better Irish mother than my actual Irish mother.

As I have said more than once to my therapist, I may have problems, but at least I have a functional family on which not to blame them.

They might launch in five minutes. But the clouds might move over by then.

I have enough extended family that I can stand to lose one or two. I don't think blood's a good reason to tolerate someone being an asshole. We range far and wide. I regret it jams me up with her son, because I refuse to discuss it with him, and I avoid family events she attends, but it's not like I get out much anyway. The best was my mother randomly bumping into her in NY and cutting her down with a stare and curt dismissive words. I love my mother. She's hard core.

J.s are constantly not doing the not-speaking thing, and they do it to me too. Good times. I mean, it makes some things easier, as Grandma is a Palin fan, but I wish it could have been different.

I love my mother. She's hard core.

I think that I would be simultaneously enthralled and terrified by your mother. She raises awesome kids, regardless :)